[PF2e] Free Archetype AlchSci Investigator Build

Howdy folks, I posted this little dude in the CharArt community, and thought I’d ought to post his funny numbers here too.

Shitty Artwork

Yogi Troubles, Professional Forgettor and Part-Time Grenadier. Goblin culture warns that practicing literacy steals thoughts from your head, so in order to make ends meet, Yogi has to constantly be learning staggering amounts of information on an enormous amount of subjects. Although he’s best suited for exploration and a bit of downtime activity, it’d be unwise to underestimate his combat ability.

Note: This build benefits from an origin in Alkenstar, Dongon Hold, The Shackles, or some other place with access to guns. You can also just ask for Access from your GM.

Ancestry:

Goblin, naturally. Goblin grants access to the Goblin Weapon Familiarity feat, which gives you Martial Scaling on the Explosive Dogslicer and Crit Specializations for it and the Big Boom Gun at lv 5. Unbreakable Heritage is probably best, but I chose Charhide.

Chassis:

Lv 1 Statline should be | STR +3 | DEX +0 | CON +1 | INT +4 | WIS +1 | CHA +0 |

You might wonder why a gun-toting, finesse weapon wielding investigator would dump dex. The answer is because DEX only meaningfully modifies your Reflex and AC, and your soft-cap for the latter is only a +1 as early as lv 3. Devise a Stratagem is how you’ll aim your gun, and you can just swing your Dogslicer around with STR if you don’t have time to aim. You can use Athletics if you want to forget a bad Devise a Stratagem Roll, especially since you can brew up Fury Cocktails to wrestle huge enemies.

Alchemical Sciences Investigator grants you a small pool of wildcard items, but they can only be Elixirs or Alch Tools. This is pretty huge, but kind of restrictive. Some seriously useful tech can be pulled from this pool, though, so don’t underestimate it. Cognitive Mutagens remove the potential of crit failing recall knowledge checks. Fury Cocktails as described before can make you Large. Juggernaut Mutagens can clear non-combat mutagens from your system.

Speaking of Cognitive Mutagens, Investigators get a Lv 3 Feature that lets them attempt any unskilled Recall Knowledge Check as if their proficiency Modifier was equal to their level, rather than 0. Use Specific Lore + Cognitive Mutagen + Dubious Knowledge to guarantee useful information no matter what you’re thinking about.

Feats:

My own table uses the Free Archetype ruleset, so I’ll be including that into the build here. If you’re not using that variant rule, prioritize the dedication!

Lv 1: Wildcard Class feat slot. I like Flexible Studies, but you might prefer the action condensation of Known Weakness. Take Goblin Weapon Familiarity for some nice weapons that work with Investigators.

Lv 2: Duelist Dedication + Shared Stratagem. Duelist gives you Quick Draw, which is a vital feat for blasting and dart throwing. Shared Stratagem’s just nice to your teammates. Be nice to your teammates. Take Dubious Knowledge as your skill feat.

Lv 3: Armor Proficiency. Medium Armor decouples you from dex almost entirely. Note that you’ll need to upgrade to Sentinel Dedication at lv 18. Take Specialty Crafting: Alchemy for an even easier time making cheap bombs when you’ve got downtime.

Equipment:

Explosive Dogslicer: Part Scattergun, Part Knife. It’s actually pretty good as far as investigator weapons go. Only use the gun half for its Critical Fusion benefit on crits, or when you’re up against swarms.

Shifting Rune: Dogslicer not cutting it? Turn it into a bastard sword. or a whip. Or whatever. Any 1h strength weapon you’ll ever need, all in one rune. In particular, use this when an enemy has resistance to slashing, or weakness to another physical damage type.

Adaptive Cogwheel: Slap it on your dogslicer, and bam. Now its an arquebus for a turn. Or a bigger scattergun. Honestly, between this and the shifting rune, you should always be using the right weapon for the job.

Big Boom Gun: Fatal d12 available when you roll a guaranteed crit.

Darts: Ranged + Agile, for when you roll a guaranteed hit, but dont want to close in with your knife or swap to its gun form.

Thrower’s Bandolier: Put 20 darts in here and phase 16 of them out with bombs as you become wealthier. Cheap 4gp bombs only.

Blazons of Shared Power: Fuse your Dogslicer and Big Boom Gun’s runes together to save money in the long run.

Cognitive Mutagen: Push Crit Fails off the table, letting your Dubious Knowledge guarantee useful information no matter what. Incidentally gives a nice scaling boost to your untrained Recall Knowledge ability.

Every Bomb Known to Man: You have guaranteed information. Combine that with every damage type you can get your hands on. Buy or make them for dirt cheap and stow them in your bandolier to scale their damage up as you level. Don’t bother with higher level bombs unless they add new effects.

Tactics:

Always be learning. Remember that you can Recall Knowledge on ANY subject with Specific Lores to reduce the DC by 5. You also don’t need to be in combat to recall knowledge. Find tracks? Roll a Footprints Lore to determine what kind of monster left them. It was an Troll? Roll a Troll Lore and brief your team on their strengths and weaknesses.

Swing->Devise->Swing again. When you’re fighting an enemy with Low AC, don’t be afraid to get a little greedy with your first hit. You’ve got the strength for it.

Use outcomes wisely. Don’t waste actions running up to cut someone with a 20, Quickdraw your fatal d12 big boom gun. Don’t pull it out for a miss, obviously, because it will blow up in your face if you do. Pull out a splash weapon keyed to your targets weakness instead. If you know you’d critically miss, then throw it at the floor beneath them instead. Did you guarantee a hit by 4 or more? Cut someone else first, then throw a dart at your original target.