Sorry, didn't really mean to pee in your cheerios.
I didnt think you were...
I had considered this though. You can spend an event to unlearn your highest rank arcane, and then next event spend the points to take it again but with a different spell/potion. Yeah, you're out that top rank for one event, but there is a work around for swapping them out.
As you pointed out , the issue is speed and only one rank. The arcanists and alchemists were presented to be scholarlywizards/mages/shamans/witch doctors that had secret recepies or old scrolls and books that allowed them to harness magic in a brew, or through a ceramony. They were not even as combat effective as an empath, but had powers and flexability that made them the ultimate Bat Balt for those they fought along side. Now they are vending machines.
The changes have just made them less fun to play, since they have become the opposite of what they were.
2 more things
1) Nearly every player has complained to us about how their skill set was not useful. The only exception are healers
I am not complaining let alone complaining about MY PC since I have never PCed a full arcane or alchemist. Nate did have a level or two of arcane...but he is real real real dead.
I am pointing out that I can see without even adding into the discussion, the other discussions I have had with players that DO/DID play them, they although i kinda get your goal in the changes; you removed the fun WITH the control dificulty.
Just pointing that out since all the GMs talk about making the game fun for everyone.
Aslo, if a PC is geared to be an alchemist; his or her skills as an alchemist ARE useless once his potions are made, and even the potions he or she makes can be of little or no help if he doesnt know just the right ones the players may bneed for a particular bad guy. That flexability is what made them cool to play.
An arcanist/wizard type is less so since they do get to re use the spells over the event, but they to have been hamstrung because they can only know the ones they are created to know.
My point is simply that you do NOT have to hog tie them like that, to get the control your seeking as a GM staff.
2) there is a misconception of how arcane and alchemy is suppose to work due to a logistic issue which should be fixed soon.
Therer is no misconception about how they are supposed to work, the archtypes are well known among gamers. There may be a misunderstanding about how the GMs have planned to hanedle them with respect to game mechanics since this change, ovbiously because it was not included in the skill description about these items (somewhat understandably).
It doesnt breed confidence that a logistical issue has made them broken, based on what was intended, since your stating they were changed because of a logistical issue that made them different than was originally intended.
In the old old system if a new spell or potion came out then eventually everyone knew that spell or potion.
sooo? If the Pcs want to let such valuable secrets proliferate, let em. Its thier loss. Best way to have prevented that was to have NPCs charge crazy prices for an unknown spell to be cast or potion brewed and "your outta your friggan tree" prices to get a copy. They would eventually see thier error and change or not.
To make things more mysterious and stuff we as gm's are suppose to be coming out with magic items that are only usable by an arcane or alchemist.
Then what your doing is essentialy giving PCs that play those skill sets a race car with a 2 stroke engine and making them go find a bigger engine if they want to use the skills as the GMs intended. That doesnt fit with the "like other skills" excuses I have been hearing in discussions of late.
And how does "my transform to Mattasaurus potion needs an aincient egg beater to brew correctly" make for more mystery? If you want mystery, go back to having them fins components. I think the fact the staff has gotten soft on such things has made some RP aspects of the game bland. Maybe the players are letting other players skate on such RP requirements too, like just standing around and calling it defensive matrix.
Problem is we have not been putting out such items, and 2 people have not been researching plot lines where such items might be found.
a) Shame shame if you havent, but easily fixable I guess.
b) any skill set that has to be researched to reach its full potential AFTER your khnow all the skills in it...is broken, since it "isnt like the other skills in FH"
All in all its just a suggestion to step back towors the way it used to be, to make the arcanists and alchemists happier in a way that will still give you the control over the chaos the GMs fealt the original system was.
Also making them "relics" that have to be found or researched or both is unfair since warriors can just go get gear from a crafter, as can rogues, empaths, healers, and sages. They dont NEED items to make thier powers "mysterious".
Nor should wiz/arcanist/alchemists have to spend levels or points or anything like that to use items that bring out the "true power" of the skills they buy
