Alchemy

## Description

Alchemy in Barony is a skill that governs the effectiveness of potions and influences the outcomes of brewing with an Alembic.

## Skill Bonuses

Gaining levels in the alchemy skill will improve your characters abilities in the following ways:

* Improves the damaging alchemical effects of offensive potions
* Increases the flat impact damage of thrown potions
* Improves the chance of successfully duplicating a potion with water
* Improves the chances of salvaging an empty bottle when consuming potions
* Improves the chances of salvaging an empty bottle when brewing
* Provides a chance to learn the alchemical uses of potions you have not yet consumed

### Legend Bonus

By reaching level 100 in Alchemy your character's Alembics will never degrade while brewing, and all brewed potions will have a +2 blessing. Note that this blessing is not applied in the process of duplicating with water or decanting potions of the same type.

## Advancement

Alchemy Skill levels are granted with a certain probability based on player actions as detailed in the table below.

## Alembic

**The Alembic** is a utility item in *Barony* which allows the player to duplicate, brew and experiment with potions in order to create new kinds of potions that they would otherwise not have access to.

## Brewing

In order to brew with an Alembic, the player must interact with it in their inventory, selecting "Brew" (the default option). This will display the brewing interface through which all brewing occurs.
The Brewing interface has three slots for potions. Two upper slots, which are for the input potions, and one lower slot, which will contain the output potion. Any potion may be placed in either of the two inputs interacting with them in the player's inventory while the brewing interface is open. The result of combining the two selected potions will be previewed in the output slot. Interacting with the output slot will produce the displayed result.
Each time an alembic is used for brewing it has a 1/40 chance to degrade its condition. If acid is one of the ingredients, the chance is increased to 1/10. If the legendary brewing capstone has been achieved, the chance is reduced to zero.

### Potion Uses (ingredients)

Ingredients for brewing are potions themselves, and each potion falls into one of three "use" categories: "Base potion", "Secondary potion", and "No unique use". The use type of each potion is visible only when an Alembic is open for brewing. Prior to the character learning a potion's use, a potion will be displayed in the inventory as [Unknown use].

The character can learn the use type of a potion in one of several ways. The simplest method is to drink the potion, however if the potion is dangerous it may injure, inhibit, or even kill the player.

The second method is to combine the potion with another potion in the alembic. If the combination produces a result that isn't an explosion or a potion of sickness, the use of one of the ingredients will be learned. If both of the ingredients have unknown uses, only the one on the left will be identified.

The third way to learn the use of an ingredient is by leveling up the Alchemy skill. Every five levels the character has a chance to learn the use of a random alchemy ingredient, and the player is guaranteed to learn the use of certain ingredients at certain levels.

If a potion has "No Unique Use" it is not part of any learnable recipe and will typically produce a potion of sickness when combined with other potions.

 40
 60
 Every 5th Level
This will only occur if you did not already learn an ingredient as part of leveling up.

### Potion Recipes

A potion recipe is the known combination of any two potions and the expected result. Once a recipe has been learned, the 'Recipes' interface in the Alembic can be used to automatically populate the alembic with the requisite potions from the character's inventory. When two potions have been placed in the Alembic for brewing, if they correspond to a known recipe, the known result will be shown in the bottom chamber.

To learn a recipe, a character must combine two different potions for the first time while brewing. Some recipes will not appear in the recipe interface, such as the recipe for a volatile explosion, or the recipe for a potion of sickness. Nevertheless, learning these combinations will allow the player to preview the result the next time those potions are placed in the alembic together.

Most recipes involve combining a base potion with a secondary potion as depicted in the Table of Brewing Outputs, below. If a combination is not listed, or the combination is not discussed in "Exceptions" it will typically produce a potion of sickness.

### Additional Recipes

#### Water (Duplication)

Potions may be duplicated by combining any potion with water other than Acid or Polymorph. Duplication is a chance based action that starts at 50% and increases by 10% for every 20 points of Alchemy skill. When duplication fails, the potion being duplicated will be turned into a bottle of water. In addition, there is a chance to retrieve an empty bottle from a failed duplication depending on alchemy skill, scaling from 50% at level 0 and 75% at level 100.

#### Decanting (Stacking)

Potions of the same type but different qualities or appearances may be stacked by decanting them together. In order to decant two potions, simply place two different qualities of the same potion in the inputs of the alembic. The result will match whichever type is in the left hand input of the Alembic interface. Unlike duplication, decanting has a 100% chance to succeed at all skill levels.

### Other Brewing Interactions

Some potions have more complex or specific interactions. These are explained in detail below.

#### Acid

Acid is particularly volatile and while it produces some of the strongest offensive potions available, it degrades the alembic more quickly than standard brewing. Brewing with acid has a 1 in 10 chance to degrade an Alembic, compared to the 1 in 40 chance of a normal brewing action. Furthermore, combining acid with an invalid ingredient, such as water or another "Base" use potion, will result in an alchemical explosion, which has a 100% chance to degrade the condition of your Alembic.

#### Potions of Polymorph

Potions of polymorph can be extremely valuable to a beginning alchemist because they are capable of transforming any potion (including water) into almost any other potion. The result will always be random, and the result will never be a firestorm, icestorm, thunderstorm, polymorph potion, or a bottle of water. Because they interact with water, potions of polymorph cannot be duplicated, however if one learns the recipe for a potion of polymorph, they can duplicate the requisite ingredients instead.

#### Unstable Potions and Potion of Strength

Unstable potions are potions created from mixing acid with the correct ingredients. There are three different types of unstable potion, Potion of Firestrorm, Icestorm, and Thunderstorm. Each potion is a very powerful concoction, exploding into a spiral of magical bolts of related elemental typing when they land on a surface or creature. Firestorm will destroy a wall it comes in contact with, Icestorm inflicts slow, and Thunderstorm deals the highest amount of damage of any of the unstable potions..

Given their overall power, these potions can only be found by using the Alembic to brew them, never being found in the open dungeon, sold by shopkeepers, or even from basic brewing with Potions of Polymorph.

The Potion of Strength shares similar restrictions to the unstable potions, being generally hard to come across outside of alchemy and requiring some mixing in order to whip one up inside the dungeon. When consumed, it will allow the player to move faster and gain +5 Strength and the ability to push boulders at the cost of -5 Perception for the duration of the effect.

#### Potions of No Unique Use

Certain potions do not fall into either Base or Secondary category, effectively forming their own group of materials. Potions of Paralysis, Healing, Extra Healing, the Unstable Potions and Potion of Strength comprise this group, causing any potion they mix with to create a resulting potion of sickness.

Rule-based bases such as water, polymorph and acid will still result in their typical behavior, creating duplicates, random potions and explosions respectively.

## Trivia

* The Bottle Book provides some subtle hints and tips on how the player can use the alembic and several potion tips by reading its contents.