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~~~~~01|Alchemist
~~~~~02|Classes|Alchemist
#####R=== Alchemists ===

#####GDescription
Alchemists are the only class that can harness the abilities of the 
essences found in the dungeon. They can add these essences to staves, 
rings, wands, rods, and sometimes weapons and armor to create new items
or recharge old ones. They can also extract essences from magical items
they find. Using these abilities, Alchemists can get very good items at
low levels. The trouble is getting them to survive later on.

Alchemists are extremely proficient with all kinds of magical devices,
and have made a fine art of extracting, storing, and using these 
objects' magical energies.  Because they neither fight well nor cast 
powerful spells, alchemists rely on their craftsmanship to cope with 
the dangers of the dungeons.  They will quickly learn to create damage-
dealing wands, rods, and staffs, forge powerful weapons and armour, 
make highly useful objects of other kinds, and eventually, at great cost 
to other knowledge, they can learn the perilous art of artifact creation 
itself.

#####GStarting Stat Modifiers
Strength         -5
Intelligence     +3
Wisdom           +0
Dexterity        +1
Constitution     -2
Charisma         +1
Bonus Blows       0
Hit Die          +d0
Exp Penalty      30%

#####GStarting Skills:
#####BSkill                   Start Level     Skill Point Gains
Combat                  1.000           [0.700]
  Weaponmastery         0.700           [0.700]
Sneakiness              1.000           [0.900]
Magic                   3.000           [0.900]
  Magic-Device          0.000           [0.250]
  Geomancy              0.000           [0.500]
    Fire                0.000           [0.100]
    Water               0.000           [0.100]
    Air                 0.000           [0.100]
    Earth               0.000           [0.100]
  Temporal              0.000           [0.100]
  Divination            0.000           [0.500]
  Conveyance            0.000           [0.100]
  Nature                0.000           [0.100]
  Meta                  0.000           [0.500]
  Mind                  0.000           [0.100]
  Necromancy            0.000           [0.100]
  Runecraft             0.000           [0.700]
  Thaumaturgy           0.000           [0.100]
  Alchemy               1.000           [0.800]
Spirituality            1.000           [0.800]
  Prayer                0.000           [0.500]
Monster-lore            0.000           [0.500]

#####GInnate Abilities:
#####BAbility              Character level
Perfect-casting             1

#####GStarting Equipment
An alchemist begins the game with:
    A small sword
    Six essences of explosion
    An empty bottle
    A set of leather gloves
~~~~~03|Alchemist|Alchemy powers explained
~~~~~05|Skills|Alchemy - Alchemy powers
#####GAlchemy
[[[[[BThe alchemical techniques are accessed using the 'm' key.]  
Alchemists may then 'E'xtract power or 'A'dd power. The Alchemist [[[[[vmust]
be wearing GLOVES to use their alchemy powers.

Alchemist's are also capable of [[[[[Bcreating their own artifacts], but
this is a time-consuming, and costly, activity. To do so, they must first 
learn the ability *****ability.txt*09[Artifact Creation], which costs a whopping 70 skill points
to learn, and requires some high pre-requisites. Once they have done so, 
they need to imbue an ego item with a number of essences of magic (equal
to their skill level) and then wield the item. While using the item, 
it will gain experience (which reduces the amount of exp the wearer 
gains during this time). When the alchemist feels that the item is 
powerful enough,  they can finalise the artifact by "buying" powers 
using the experience the artifact has collected. They will also require 
exotic ingredients to add the abilities.

Most (but not all) potions, scrolls, wands, staffs, rods, rings, and 
amulets contain usable magical energies.  An alchemist taps that 
energy, using the technique "'E'xtract power" to create one or more
essences of a type appropriate to the original object.

The drained object itself is now called "of nothing".  Unlike any
other kind of object, it can have new magics added to it.

An alchemist can add power to such items by using essences he made 
or found.  He does this with the technique "'P'ower".  He
can then select the object he wishes enchant, and the kind of 
object he wishes to create. Only object types that he knows the 
recipe for will be displayed, and ones for which essences are 
lacking will be displayed in red. Objects whose level exceeds his
own are sometimes difficult to create, though he can always add
gold to improve the chances of his success.

[[[[[BA few pointers:]
     -Recipes are (usually) logical. Acid essences don't make Dragon 
      Weapons. And you can always look at the recipes you know with
	  the 'B'ook command.
     -Not all objects or ego-item types can be made using alchemy.
     -Alchemy is mostly reversible.  Most items that you can 
	  'E'xtract from, you can later re-create, if you learn about
	  them when extracting from them. You won't always get enough
	  essences from destroying an item to recreate it, though the 
	  chance of doing so will get higher as you increase in skill.
     -*identifying* an object that you can destroy will always teach
	  you how to create it (if creating it is possible).
     -Since you can't create abilities in artifacts that you aren't
	  aware of, make sure to *identify* all the artifacts you can.
     -You can't *identify* things you buy in shops, so you'll have
	  to extract from them and take your chances.

[[[[[BSome Recipes:]
Any alchemist worth his salt knows lots of recipes.  By extracting from
items in the dungeon, he learns to create more and more items. You
can see the recipes you know using the 'B'ook command. The alchemist
starts off knowing some basic recipes, and gains more recipes as time 
goes on.

More details can be found in the *****essences.txt*0[Essences SPOILER]).

