Actually, I have been able to work on Paex, pretty well actually. Just the equipment crunch left, I believe.
Don't worry, Flying Dice; I took Alchemy, I can give you all your splash weapons.
I've been looking over the rules for it, though, and the production looks incredibly inefficient compared to other craft skills. Granted, not as bad as poisonmaking, insofar as that we wouldn't have to kill dozens of high-CR monsters for a single dose, but still. :/
Since we won't be going anywhere tonight, I might see about drawing up a factotum, because that'd be functionally a more versatile skillmonkey.
You read the OP rule changes to crafting, right?
EDIT: Oh, sweet! I just realized I have more skill points than I thought I did!
I did, and I totally forgot about them in the past few hours.
Doesn't change all the problems with poisonmaking unless Hans will let that follow the same rules as alchemy (pay 1/3 the price for cost of materials, rather than having to find and harvest enough to make doses). That and making sure it doesn't require spellcaster levels, because I can't find consistent, comprehensive rules on it anywhere. That, and allowing us to make pretty much any alchemical product/poison out there, because a lot of them won't be useful too much farther beyond our starting point, and the ones that are mostly come from errata.
Take, for example, the thunderstone. It's a great thing for lower levels (everything within 10' of the impact point needs to make DC15 Fort or take -4init and 20% chance to miscast anything with a verbal component), and can stay useful against high-level casters. Alchemist's fire, OTOH, is pretty shitty. 1d6 fire damage, 1 fire damage splash, and an additional 1d6 for the target if they fail a DC15 Refl save. That's barely useful at our level, and practically useless later. And then there's the real reason I went for this, Eggshell Grenades, Dust... :3
Yeah, between you and the crafting rules, I'm feeling better about being Batman.
It's just a shame that there are so few splash weapons, and that there is so little written in terms of rules for splash weapons, alchemy, and the like. Hell, just setting up as an alchemist seems to take material from 4-5 books, and that doesn't even cover everything. That's why I stayed away from that part of it. :/
Technically, you can get all that from just the PHB, it's just limited.
And yeah, alchemy and splash weapons are overshadowed by magic. Even at first level, Burning Hands covers a greater area (albeit a smaller range) than alchemist's fire, and Acid Splash has better range than a thrown vial of acid. Moving along, you're still in low levels when you can get Fireball, which completely overshadows them both. They simply aren't practical for long.
And that stinks, because alchemy is neat. But basically anyone who can alchemize (in vanilla) will soon or has access to those lovely AoE spells that render them nigh useless.
There are some saving graces, though. Eggshell Grenades, Dust are 10gp each, and are a ranged touch attack that blinds the target for 1d4 rounds with no save if you hit them, as well as blinding everyone else in a 5' radius for 1 round if they fail a(n admittedly weak) DC10 Fort save.
Aboleth Mucus is 20gp for a Save-or-Die DC19 Fort save. Firestones are 50gp each, and if you target the square an enemy is in, each of them is an automatic 1d6 fire damage, no save, as a ranged attack against AC5. Ferrous Aqua and Powdered Silver are 1d6 plus a DC12 sickness ranged touch against things weak to cold iron or silver. Stonebreaker Acid is 20gp for 5d10 damage that ignores hardness to stone creatures and objects. Torch bug paste is 25gp for a nonmagical faerie fire that negates concealment and reveals invisible creatures.
There's also the bit that all of those things proc sneak attack damage as well.
Hans: Would you be willing to apply the PHB rule on alchemy (1/3 cost of the product for materials, no gathering required) to poisonmaking? That'd be an absolute godsend, because otherwise working in that direction is a waste of time. It'd be all the more fitting, considering that we're a party of evil kobolds. That, and having # ranks in Craft (Poisonmaking) (From CA) should remove the 5% chance to poison yourself.
Additional question: Would you allow the Collar of Perpetual Attendance? It's a ring-slot item that costs 2k gp and grants Unseen Servant at will.