Mixologist (Alchemist Archetype)
(art by eleth-art on DeviantArt)
There are plenty that believe that alcohol makes everything better, though admittedly most are referring to beverages, but the substance as plenty of medical and chemical uses as well.
Today’s archetype… is only a little bit about the latter. I present the mixologist!
Now, in the real world, mixology is less a study and more a skill about understanding what flavor profiles work together specifically for making mixed drinks that taste good and only make you sick after several of them instead of on the first sip.
So, applying this to the alchemist class, the mixologist is a master of adding alcohol to their various concoctions in a way that doesn’t ruin them (the concoction or the alcohol) to enhance their effects at the cost of getting you drunk, with all the debuffs involved, if you fail the fortitude saves. And yes, this archetype did come from the Inner Sea Taverns book, how did you guess?
Now, this archetype does have some conceptual overlap with the fermenter archetype, and certainly the mixologist would no doubt be quite happy to also make use of the tinctures that fermenters are also associated with, but I do think they are quite different in their application. Fermenters being more focused on the creation of alcohol, while mixologists focus on applying the finished product.
It also behooves me to inform you that certain abilities of this archetype reference the expanded drunkenness rules from Inner Sea Tavern, so you may have to modify this archetype a bit if you’re only using it and not those rules.
Now, let’s take a look, shall we?
At the core of the archetype is their knack for adding alcohol to the brewing of their potions and extracts. While the former requires more ingredients to stabilize them, the end result is stronger potions and extracts that are also quite potent in their alcohol content too, making it easy to get absolutely shitfaced if one has too many in a short period.
However, they don’t stop at the brews they drink, applying alcohol to their bombs as well. When they choose to do so, the alcohol aerosolizes into the air when the bomb explodes, giving the targets a contact buzz from the alcohol, potentially getting them drunker and drunker until they outright pass out if they keep getting hit by such bombs.
Naturally, their constant experimentation also means they develop just as much tolerance to alcohol as they do to poison, though never full immunity (gods, can you imagine?)
Normally, they can only have a small fraction of their extracts be alcohol-enhanced, but masterful mixologists can double that number, ensuring that their brews are quite potent (and their selves almost never sober) throughout most of the day.
Whether you’re playing an alchemist that never got over their party years at the college, a fantasy bartender who enjoys blending disciplines, or simply a brilliant scientist that is willing to pursue progress even to the bottom of a bottle, this archetype can be fun whether you plan on using it with the expanded or classic drunkenness rules. In practice, you can get a little bit more potency out of a lot of your extracts and potions at the cost of getting some debuffs through their use, but much like in the real world, moderation can help mitigate that.
Now, I probably don’t need to say this. Most of you who play this game are adults and get it. But between the mixologist and fermenter, not to mention archetypes like drunken rager and drunken brute barbarian and the drunken master monk, please drink responsibly at your table. Do not try to emulate the alcohol intake of your character, especially if you gotta drive home after the game. You likely do not have their fantastical liver nor the ability to gain superpowers from your booze. It’s like playing a character who smokes or does drugs. Neat for narrative reasons, but you know better.
While everything on the Plane of Law runs like clockwork, even axiomites must take a break every now and again, but rarely do they party so hard as to disrupt the schedules of the plane. This is why the arbiter inevitable Seventy-Fifth Timekeeper is so concerned when they learn that a new bar that has opened up on the plane provides drinks that can knock even lawful outsiders for a loop.
Though he make look like a fish out of water, Bizgax the grindylow can knock your socks off from behind his combination fish tank and bar, The Soused Siren. What’s more, he sells alchemically enhanced brews to wealthy customers, preferring bottles to mugs so they can take them where the effects benefit them the most.
Learning about the Drunk Mosquito speakeasy is hard. Getting in is even harder, as the play is owned by a powerful wizard who shrouds the place in secrecy and magic. Starting trouble in there, however, is easy the first time, because it won’t happen again with the barkeeper keeping a few special brews below the bar that let them hit harder than any drunk dumb enough to pick a fight.
