Go to magic shop in city.

Buy scroll for one gold.

Alchemist magic object for three gold.

Repeat until you have all the gold and two rings and two spell books.

Completely legal by the rules.

Limit of thirty gold normally, but with city revealed ending its infinite gold.

Either way, just send the alchemist to magic shop and its heal all life, fate, spells, full gold, gain spell at start of turn, plus two craft and strength, and attack in psychic combat. Totally dominant!

Our group's nerf to the Alchemist - ITEMS THAT ARE DISCARDED BY ALCHEMIST ABILITY DO NOT RETURN TO THE PURCHASE DECK UNTIL THE END OF THE TURN.

This means the Alchemist can rush for the magic emporium, with his starting 5 gold purchase two scrolls, alchemise them to go from 5 --> 3 --> 9, then purchase two 2 gold items, to go from 9 --> 5 --> 11, then purchase a spell book. And the alchemist has a spell book and his starting 5 gold back.

How is the Alchemist getting so many buy actions on a turn?

Kallabecca said:

I would argue that you can only encouter the space/shop once. That means only one purchasing transaction.

You must then leave the shop on the next turn. I guess if you rolled a "1" you would only go out onto the street and could therefore

drop back into the shop on the next turn, you are never allowed to double-back on yourself in any single movement .

It adds a strategy for all other players that if the see the Alchemist heading towards the City you might want to get over the PDQ.

A point that has not been raised as far as I can see it that you are more vulnerable to attack in a shop - you do not have to roll the exact number to enter the one you want. Therefore a stronger character can much more easily track you down and attack.

If you hang around too long you may find someone coming to getcha!

Characters that rely of PvP might want to hang near the City as they will find it much easier to land on their targets.

With the City exp characters like Leprechaun and Alchemist can quickly buy all the powerful items. Having 2 Spellbooks can give 2 spells every turn or riding on a 3 or 4 Warehorses make easy to kill LoD in Dungeon. It will be very hard to stop those 2 especially Alchemist who can buy Scroll or potion in Apothecary and alchemise it for 3 gold. He can make 3 or 4 rounds in City and easily win the game or heal Life endlessly even if someone else reached CoC first. I think trinkets should not be able to alchemise. There are many other strong characters like Ogre Cheftain or Fire Wizard but they don't auto-win. I think this is the first time when Alchemist have a overpowered combo in hand and he can lose only by fickle finger of fate… (like Reaper)

Yeh run around the city the whole game Alchimist! Then suddenly someone else is taking the crown and all you have is a bunch of gold! ha ha sucker!

BanthaFodder said:

You can't double back on yourself in a single move, but you can still choose which direction to walk in on each new turn, right? As long as you follow the arrows, of course.

Go to the magic shop, do your Alchemist thing. First turn after, go to the Soothsayer (or the street if you only roll a 1.) Second turn, back to the magic shop.

Unless you roll abysmally and keep getting 1's for movement, it's an every-other-turn cycle. And since you're making so much money at the magic shop, keeping your Fate topped up through the Soothsayer shouldn't be too hard, while you're at it.

BanthaFodder said:

Of course I tried. Alchemist starts in City with 5G.
1st City round - buy 3 potions in Apothecary and alchemise for 9G, so totally 11G, next Magic Emporium buy 3x Scrolls and 3x Psychic Crystal (cos of 9G) alchemise them for 18G, totally 20G (so he can get +15G per one round), then he can buy powerful items in Armoury and Stabels and go for the second City round. He can make 3 or 4 City rounds end easily win for example by defeating LoD in Dungeon on a few Warehorses. I think no one can reach CoC quicker. This is first major playtesting bug and it should be clarify soon because mistakes like that dicourage playing…

Croonos said:

Aha. As I had said, not had an opportunity to play or even examine yet. The Apothecary makes the difference.

That does sound like it needs fixing but difficult, Alchemist was introduced at the same time as Trinkets and they are specifically ruled to be the same as Objects in all regards apart from carrying limits.

The difference before was you could not reliably acquire Magic Objects, this has now changed and then some.

That said, special abilities always override so legitimate I think to overrule there.

I think my preferred houserule would be to amend the Alchemist's abilities slightly

• During your turn you may alchemise any Objects you have into Gold. Discard the chosen Objects and gain 1 gold for each Object and 3 Gold for each Magic Object. Trinkets can only be alchemised into a maximum of 1 Gold each

I think the Alchemist is strong enough as he is as so not nerfing him at all by this restriction.

Hi,

This is from FFG:

Two Spellbooks would indeed give you two spell per turn if your Craft allows.

If you have two Warhorses you can indeed use both of them in Battle to grant your Craft Value twice. Remember that the term "Craft Value" means the Craft listed on your Character Card, so only the starting amount; not any added through Trophy trade-ins or Objects.

I guess we're not really that competive, my wife/co-player and me. I wouldn't have thought of having 2 spell books or warhorses. She was angry when I cast a spell on her the other day. We're both evil characters, hun…

Thernand said:

We have put a House Rule in place - you cannot stack the effects from the same object/ spell unless your ability states otherwise. It just seems silly and stops the exploits of the Alchemist. We allow the Magic Ring (trinket) and the Magic Ring from the original board to stack.

Why is that silly? If you have two different spellbooks, they could have entirely different contents, inspiring you with arcane insight, or whatever. This also doesn't stop another arguably "silly" form of powerstacking, namely the bonuses from the Warhorses (how can I get the effect from multiple warhorses if I can ride only one?). The point is, it's a game, with abstratctions representing different aspects of the fantasy world it's simulating, and they can be justified whichever way you choose, but mechanically, I personally, I believe in "inherent additivity" i.e. an effect or trait is additive unless it's inherently not, e.g. the Flail, also from the City. That way, cases like stacking rings and spellboks and warhorses are allowed, for fun and profit, while keeping an internal consistency. Sure, you could make it so that each instance of an effect only counts once, but it's more fun to say "yes" than "no".

The only fix the requires is a house rule - Any object that is purchasable cannot be alchimized for more then it was purchased for. Seems Simple to me.

The warhorse stacking is the biggest concern and the most broken, but we apply for it all the same items etc in the city. It really has made the game fairer and more enjoyable.

The Alchemist issue is definetly broken Getting the warhorse and a few power items early makes him extremely powerful enough without stacking - with stacking a clever player can win the game very early.

Buy multiple war horses, wharf to crags and make your way through the dungeon - obtain cloak of feathers for the easy win!

My group banned the warhorse after the first use of it. We thought it was crazy.

Triakor said:

Why do you think adding your Craft value to Strength in battle is crazy?

Losing a Warhorse when your character is weak is quite common and the bonus becomes less and less meaningful when the character is strong, so I think this Follower is all but broken.

First time we played it, it wrecked. Maybe we should try again.

Just to specify. The craft value is the value printed on the character card?

Yes, it is. Note that you would also lose the Warhorse from losing a life in a psychic combat, in which you get no bonus from it, so I agree that it is far from broken.

I'll try to talk my group into bringing the warhorse back into the fold for another try

Potions are trinkets, and the Alchemist cannot sell them for 3 gold each. Objects are 1 gp and magic objects 3 gp as we are limited in how many we can have at one time. The term 'potion' on the alchemist is not the same as the potion introduced in the City where a new class of cards: the Potion which anyone can buy was introduced. The term on the alchemist probably should be a different term since it merely is an alchemical compound that lets him do what it states: object a fate, life, or spell, and he convert object/magic objects into gold. Trinkets are objects, not treated like Objects, and are magical but are not Magical Objects. Its a confusion of terminology that does need to be clarified.

In other words, the potions would be sold back by the alchemist like Objects, for 1 gp each the same cost it costs to buy them. The 'ability' is that he can exchange them back and 'sell' them to reobtain gold for them which normally characters can't do so its a real ability, yet he can't buy for 1 gp and sell for 3 gp. The Alchemists needs a simple tweek: Object or trinket for 1 gp and Magic Object for 3 gp, then its clear and understandable since the terms for 'potion' were altered in what they mean between the highland and city.

The best solution would be just to update the Alchemist and release him so we can either print him or include him as a bonus in the next small expansion. OR just clarify officially in the FAQ but after reading the rules, Trinkets, due to the fact they aren't limited like real Objects (ie you can have more than 4 without a mule or horse and cart or some other means to carry more) means they are more like pseudo objects or pseudo magical objects.

If you want to say otherwise, then limit Potions LIKE objects and magical objects, meaning you may have up to 4 maximum on you character unless you find some means to carry more stuff. This way your limited in how many potions you can have and that restriction could potentially matter, and be a real limit. Next, since potions are only bought at 1 gp each, then you can treat them like Objects and thus the alchemist can trade them in for 1 gp.

that is a quick simple clarification and fix. I know for a fact the designers would not want a situation where they created a character that can buy trinket potions at the apothecary for 1 gp each and then resell via their ability for 3 gp. Of course, that is OP because it is total BS and a complete misunderstanding of the rules, or rather the rules are fuzzy and need clarification.

Personally, the Alchemist should have a maximum value of 3 Life, and start with 4 Gold (maybe the 5 starting as stated, and I wrote it so that he can replenish 1 fate or heal 1 life for 1 gp (up to starting value), and can buy a spell for 2 gp. That also would help balance him since right now you can buy a spell on the City for 2 gp each and heal life/fate for 1 gp each. Essentially what his ability is to obtain these without the need to go to the city or some other space. He could be the in middle of the Dungeon and do it. Thus a slight lowering of the Life down 1 and Gold down 1 is appropriate as it limits him a bit but still he can be a beast. I'd like to see that as a 'revised Alchemist' if they do. With 4 gold he can buy 2 spells to start with, but gives up the option to 'buy' back a life or fate if he truly needs it so its a tactical choice. Its best to wait till he gets another gold possibly.

The fact is, the Alchemist can obtain these wherever he is, whereas the merchant and other type of characters must go to the City to do things like buy a spell.

I have sent 3 times a question to FFG regarding Alchemist OP problem but not received any answer for months. I hope they officially clarify this soon because some people are demotivated to play if Alchemist wins all the time...