The Brotherhood of Alchemists

[Susramanian]

The Brotherhood of Alchemists

This isn't so much a sidequest as a series of interlocking sidequests and NPCs. In Bree, Angolwen, and Minas Tirith the player can find a building where a Master Alchemist makes their home. They are unique, but talking to any of them will give you the same basic story: The Brotherhood of Alchemists is accepting a single new member this year, and he wants to be the one accepted. The spot goes to the first Master Alchemist to brew every potion on a list, and he's just a few potions short of completion. Bring him the ingredients he needs for a given potion, and he'll make three of them: one to drink himself, one to show to the Brotherhood of Alchemists as proof, and one for you!

Every time you turn in the ingredients for a potion to one of the Master Alchemists, one of the other two Master Alchemists also checks a random potion off his list, thus making it unavailable to the player. They didn't become Master Alchemists by being completely reliant on adventurers, after all. If you aid a Master Alchemist in making the last of the potions on their list, then that alchemist is inducted into the Brotherhood of Alchemists and has a handsome reward for the player. Unfortunately, the other two Master Alchemists now have no use for your services and you cannot interact with them any more. Each Master Alchemist rewards you differently.

Here are the alchemists, the potions they need help making, and their reward for the player upon completing their list:

Bree's Master Alchemist:
Elixir of the Fox (+3 Dex, Cun)
Elixir of Avoidance (+4 defense)
Elixir of Precision (+2 physical crit)
Elixir of Mastery (1 category point)
Final reward: Philosopher's Stone (Unequippable artifact that, when carried, boosts all stats by 1, increases all elemental resistances by 10%, and increases light radius by 1)

Angolwen's Master Alchemist:
Elixir of Mysticism (+3 Magic, Will)
Elixir of Resilience (+2 to all saves)
Elixir of Explosive Force (+2 spell crit)
Elixir of Focus (2 class talent points)
Final reward: Marshal's Belt (gives +.2 to Combat Training mastery, increases stamina by 50 and Con by 5)

Minas Tirith's Master Alchemist:
Elixir of Brawn (+3 Str, Con)
Elixir of Stoneskin (+4 armor)
Elixir of Invulnerability (-4% to enemy crit chance)
Elixir of Foundations (2 generic talent points)
Final reward: Amulet of the Burglar (+1 to Trap Detection, Heightened Senses, Trap Disarm, Evasion, Efficient Packing, Insulating Packing, Burden Management, and Pack Rat)

Note that the alchemists are rather themed by class except for their final reward. Choosing which Alchemist to help win should require some careful consideration, not just saying, "Hey, this is the warrior-friendly one. I'll help him." I also tried to make the rewards desirable for a great many classes. The Philosopher's Stone and the Amulet of the Burglar, in fact, would be useful for any class. The Marshal's Belt is the most specialized, but still desirable for most classes.

The ingredients for these Elixirs should only drop if the player has visited an alchemist and gotten the quest for the item in question, and if the player doesn't already have the required number. We don't want every stone troll to litter the ground with their body parts for the whole game. Ingredients that drop from uniques should drop whether the player has the quest or not, so as to avoid making the quests impossible. Each alchemist should have at least one potion that requires ingredients only found in the Far East, thus providing motivation for linking Middle Earth and the Far East with portals.

Turn-in Strategy: Since turning in the ingredients for a potion causes one of the potions for another alchemist to become unavailable, some care is required. It is entirely possible to fail to get any of the final rewards. If, for example, you get the Elixir of Brawn and the Elixir of Stamina for the Minas Tirith alchemist, then decide to go get the Elixir of Focus for the Angolwen alchemist, turning in the Elixir of Focus could cause the final Minas Tirith alchemist potion (Elixir of Foundations) to get completed, thus making the Minas Tirith alchemist the winner... only you weren't the one who got him his stuff for the final potion, so you get no reward. Gambling with your turn-ins can result in getting extra potions, but losing means not getting a final reward.

If this sounds like something Darkgod wants, I could come up with the additional details: ingredients for each potion, the alchemist dialogs, etc. I'm also considering adding a fourth potion to each alchemist, as it might make the whole turn-in minigame more interesting.

Post your thoughts and suggestions. I don't have my heart set on any of the ideas in here.

[Taxorgian]

I would suggest making it the Marshall's Belt instead (since there are so few if any artifact belts...)

[Shoob]

regens need balancing, and so do masteries.. but other than that it does look fun.

[Susramanian]

I'm not sure that the regen potions are even appropriate, whatever the numerical value. I'm open to fun alternatives.

[darkgod]

I like where this is going

[Repton]

Turn-in Strategy: Since turning in the ingredients for a potion causes one of the potions for another alchemist to become unavailable, some care is required. It is entirely possible to fail to get any of the final rewards. If, for example, you get the Elixir of Brawn and the Elixir of Stamina for the Minas Tirith alchemist, then decide to go get the Elixir of Focus for the Angolwen alchemist, turning in the Elixir of Focus could cause the final Minas Tirith alchemist potion (Elixir of Foundations) to get completed, thus making the Minas Tirith alchemist the winner... only you weren't the one who got him his stuff for the final potion, so you get no reward. Gambling with your turn-ins can result in getting extra potions, but losing means not getting a final reward.

If this sounds like something Darkgod wants, I could come up with the additional details: ingredients for each potion, the alchemist dialogs, etc. I'm also considering adding a fourth potion to each alchemist, as it might make the whole turn-in minigame more interesting.

With three turn-ins, I think the only safe possibilities are:

(1,2,3) from a single alchemist.
(1,3) from one and (1) from another.
(1,3) from one and (2) from another.
(1) from one and (2,3) from another.

Anything else risks losing the final reward.

In place of regeneration, perhaps +1 life rating? (I guess that would mean +1HP/level) You could do similar for mana/stamina/equilibrium.

[Susramanian]

Edited the original post.

Replaced Elixir of Regeneration with Elixir of Defense, Elixir of Mana with Elixir of Resilience, and Elixir of Stamina with Elixir of Stoneskin. Also added Elixir of Precision, Elixir of Explosive Force, and Elixir of Invulnerability. Made the Marshal's Mantle a belt and changed its stats to keep its mastery bonus at a sane level.

[Susramanian]

Okay, here's an attempt at making recipes for these things. My goal was to have one item from each alchemist require an ingredient from the Far East. Also, each item requires one hard-to-get ingredient, one not-so-hard-to-get ingredient, and one easy one. Note that it's still possible to get a final reward without going to the Far East if one of the items requiring a Far East ingredient auto-completes when you turn something else in. Here's a list of ingredients, organized by difficulty (which isn't a very important quality; mainly, I just wanted three groups of items so I could easily make recipes that took one item from each group). Bold items are, I think, only found in the Far East.

Hard ingredients:

1) Naga tongue
2) Vial of greater demon bile
3) Potion of Full Healing
4) Potion of Full Mana
5) Diamond

Medium ingredients:

a) Vial of bone golem dust
b) Frost ant stinger
c) Minotaur nose
d) Vial of ancient vampire blood
e) Multi-hued wyrm brain stem

Easy ingredients:

A) Ritch stinger
B) Troll intestine
C) Orc heart
D) Skeleton mage skull
E) Spider spinneret (are spiders found in Middle Earth? I can't remember. If not, I'll have to change this)

Here's a list of the potions and their recipes. Recipes use the labels from the above ingredient lists. Thus the recipe 1bB calls for a Naga tongue, a frost ant stinger, and a troll intestine.

Bree's Master Alchemist:
Elixir of the Fox (+3 Dex, Cun) 1bB
Elixir of Avoidance (+4 defense) 2cC
Elixir of Precision (+2 physical crit) 3dD
Elixir of Mastery (1 category point) 4eE

Angolwen's Master Alchemist:
Elixir of Mysticism (+3 Magic, Will) 2aB
Elixir of Resilience (+2 to all saves) 3bC
Elixir of Explosive Force (+2 spell crit) 4cD
Elixir of Focus (2 class talent points) 5dE

Minas Tirith's Master Alchemist:
Elixir of Brawn (+3 Str, Con) 2bA
Elixir of Stoneskin (+4 armor) 3cB
Elixir of Invulnerability (-4% to enemy crit chance) 4dC
Elixir of Foundations (2 generic talent points) 5eD

I just stuck ingredients from the three lists together in a consistent, easy pattern. I've made no attempt to have ingredients match up thematically with the elixirs they produce. It might be cool, but I didn't have the energy. Anybody who wants to put together a new list with sensible recipes like Elixir of Brawn = Diamond + Minotaur Nose + Troll Intestine should feel free. I'll take a stab at writing dialogs tomorrow.

[Fela]

Would the ingredients be 100% drops then, since some of the monster requirements (like ice ant) seem pretty specific?
Maybe only indigenous monsters to a zone should drop those, otherwise Bree would not need Far East progression, seeing as Nagas can be ODD monsters in the west opposed to ritches and bone golems (at least i've never seen any)- possibly that's intended, though

[darkgod]

I like 100% drops, or very high chance at least

[Fela]

Ditto.

[Taxorgian]

If I understand correctly the end artifacts will only be available to people who get through the Armoury? That's an amazingly tough requirement to me (admittedly the FH/FM potions are easier to come by over there but there's the transportation issue....)

[Zonk]

I really like this idea and think it should be implemented - the idea of having potions that give permanent effects is interesting. I've got a few thoughts, though...

1)What's wrong with Elixirs that give permanent +regeneration? They looked fine to me, personally. I'd certainly consider getting them(I like the +regen passive talents), although maybe you could give a lower +regen bonus but also give a max health/stamina/bonus(the +X life/mana/stamina per level thing sounds good).

2)*If* you want to make getting the ingredients challenging but not too grindy - perhaps make it so you need to kill the monsters in specific ways to avoid ruining the body parts?
Avoid exploiting elemental vulnerabilities, for example. Might not be worth coding, but just felt like suggesting.

3)Perhaps as an add-on to this quest later on..what about Elixirs that are more powerful than these BUT have a serious side effect?
Maybe after you've helped one of the alchemists, you can eventually get an additional quest - help them one final, 'experimental' Elixir.

This would require some exotic/rare to get ingredients, but would give larger bonuses than the standard ones...but with penalties - ideally, they should be penalties that are relevant for everyone.
Two examples could be...
Elixir of Stoneform: +resists, -enemy crits and +armor, but also lowered your speed/energy by a relevant amount(a penalty for everyone).
Elixir of the Jack of All Trades(needs a better name): Gain bonus category AND talent points(both class and generic), but all of your masteries are lowered by 0.2 or 0.3.

[darkgod]

I think the Armoury should be made less deadly if important stuff exists in the West yes

[Susramanian]

Yes, the ingredients always drop. I've spent too much time in MMOs killing bears with no livers. Screw that. The challenge is in finding the monsters in the first place.

I'm okay with it being possible to complete a set of potions without going to the Far East, as long as it's unlikely. Even if a character does get lucky and gets a naga tongue in the west, it might be in their best interest to not finish off a set that early. The idea is to get as many potions as possible before getting the prize at the end.