The Alchemists' Association

Alchemy

All living things have natural magic within them. In most cases, this magic is dormant, unused and unwitnessed. An alchemist is someone who, using their learned practices, extracts the latent magical properties in naturally occurring things and binds those properties to a base to achieve various results. The discipline of alchemy encompasses all of the specializations that make potions and other magical mixtures.

The Alchemists' Association

Alchemists understand the link between the natural world and the magical. An alchemist uses the naturally occurring resources found throughout the world, and, along with specific catalysts and methods, extracts and binds that magical essence to a physical material such as a liquid solution. This allows someone else to take advantage of that magical essence.

Core Principles of the Alchemists' Association

Alchemists hold to these core principles, along with the general principles that all associations hold:
Respect for Nature. Members acknowledge that the natural world holds within itself great power, and it is a privilege to work with it. This does not mean that all members must be tree-embracing druids (though some certainly are), but the Alchemists' Association does not condone the wholesale abuse or destruction of the natural world. Members doing so face disciplinary action up to and including termination of their membership.
Secrecy. Members acknowledge that their work involves processes that could be carried out by unskilled individuals to create dangerous substances. To prevent this, practices and recipes used for alchemy are restricted and not for release to non-association members. The confidentiality of the Alchemists' Association's information is paramount to the safety of all. If an alchemist's recipes are found outside of their possession, other alchemists will investigate. If the recipes were lost through negligence or were deliberately shared, in violation of this principle, the member faces disciplinary action up to and including termination of their membership.

The Fundamentals

Materials

Regardless of specialty, all alchemists focus their efforts on the same trade: the creation of magical mixtures. All alchemy recipes are a combination of a base, a reagent, and a catalyst. Bases are the liquids or other kinds of solvents that make up the bulk of the mixture. They usually determine whether the resulting mixture will be helpful, harmful, or transformative. The element of the natural world that gives every mixture its unique properties is the reagent. These are herbs, roots, fungi, crystals, metals, and creature parts with latent magical power.
The catalyst is the agent that bonds the magical essence of the reagents to the base. Without a catalyst, an alchemical mixture would just be a weird, foul- tasting soup. With a catalyst, the same mixture becomes magical. A catalyst is either a seed, dust from gems, or blood. Seeds are intrinsically tied to the spark of life held within all plants, gems and precious metals are a pure manifestation of the threads of magic within the world, and blood is a link to the life force and magic in all creatures.

Tools

Alchemists use Alchemist's Supplies, a Herbalism Kit, or a Poisoner's Kit to make their mixtures. In most cases, alchemists don't need a lot of space for their work but higher ranking recipes could require processes that take days in a lab to complete.

Discipline Ability

Mental Adaptability. When you make an ability check to craft an alchemy recipe, you can use either Intelligence or Wisdom.

Specializations

When an alchemist becomes an apprentice, they select a specialization, a subset of alchemy that focuses on the deeper examination of certain properties or alchemical mixtures. Each specialization has its own principles that members must adhere to, as well as the principles for alchemy as a whole and the general principles of associations. When an alchemist becomes an expert, they gain an expert ability for their specialization. The specializations for alchemy are detailed below.

Alkahest

Alkahests focus on destructive mixtures, full of entropy and disruption. Typical products for an alkahest are poisons, corrosives, explosives, and flammables. Alkahests hold to the following principles:
Considered Clientele. More than any other, these alchemists deal in dangerous substances. They therefore hold themselves responsible for vetting whether a potential client is someone the association wishes to do business with.
Paranoia with Purpose. Never be complacent when handling or storing any materials or creations.
Unwavering Response. The reputation of the alchemists who delve into alkahest is the most fragile of the three schools of alchemy. Any problems, especially those of a public nature, must be addressed with care, precision, and speed.
Alkahests gain the following ability when they reach the rank of expert:
Careful Process (expert). If you fail on an ability check to create an item using an alkahest recipe, you ignore damage from volatile ingredients or recipes.

Apothecary

Apothecaries focus on restorative mixtures. Typical products for an apothecary are healing potions, antidotes, and antitoxins. Apothecaries hold to the following additional principles:
Altruistic Aid. Alchemists who take up the study of the apothecary will help any who ask for it, regardless of alignment, political affiliation, or other such concerns. So long as a request is made, terms have been agreed to, and any necessary payment is received, aid will be given. During a crisis that affects the health of the general population, these alchemists will work to combat or manage the situation, expending their own resources to do so if needed.
Do No Harm. An alchemist of this school vows to not create any alchemical substance with the intent to harm another living thing.
Natural Protection. When nature itself comes under serious threat, alchemists from this branch of the craft are the first to respond. They are often caretakers of the natural world.
Preservative practices (expert). Ingredients you collect or purchase, as well as items you create using an apothecary recipe, lose the delicate property if they had it. If you fail in the attempt to make an item from a delicate recipe, you still lose the ingredients as normal.

Tincturers

Tincturers focus on transformative mixtures that cause change or malleability. Typical products for a tincturer are things that change the user's appearance or give the user a quality they didn't have, like resistance to fire. Tincturers hold the following additional principles:
Cleverness. For every task there is a tool. Members should pursue association business in an elegant a manner as possible, achieving their goals with a clean and subtle approach.
Pursuit of Knowledge. Alchemists who follow this branch of the craft are inquisitive and interested in all manner of phenomena, natural or otherwise. All knowledge is worth having, unless gaining it would cost your life or bring trouble to the association.
Security. Ingredients and mixtures that transform others can be particularly perilous in unpredictable ways. All materials and work should be secured by any means available.
Tincturers gain the following feature when they reach the rank of expert:
Alchemical Flexibility (expert). Even if you don't have the exact ingredient you need, you can use something similar to get the job done. When you make an item using a tincturer recipe, you may use a different ingredient in place of any one ingredient listed on the recipe, as long as they are of the same grade and type. Doing so increases the recipe s crafting DC by 2. Properties of the substituted materials may still affect you or the recipe as normal.