So I'm looking in the bazaar and see the usual motley assortment of natural resources, rare earth elements, semiprecious stones, and the very occasional piece of salvaged refined metal.
The only sources I know about for tin, silver, titanium, brass, etc. are from feeding pets unwanted items, and from packs. So for now, these are vanishingly rare!
So I got to thinking. What if you took some lumps of copper, and some lumps of say, nickel, and mashed them together to transmute yourself a coil of brass? (Tin is already a refined metal).
Or take some pyrite and some iron and add some ghost fire to reach blast-furnace temperatures, and come out with fine steel?
Titanium is already a pure element so I cannot see any alchemy using pre-existing ores, but let's say a small amount of Ti is present in rocks containing mostly cobalt, or mostly copper, etc. Maybe it is found in the same veins as mithril (platinum) or, because of its high heat resistance, with tungsten. Cook up enough mithril or tungsten, and you get a small quantity of titanium.
Orichalcum (alchemical term for a mixture of gold and copper) is sufficiently rare in its natural state that it doesn't co-occur with any other metals of salvage. But you can use it as a catalyst for other alchemical reactions. For instance, smelting iron in the presence of orichalcum increases your yield of steel.
Alchemy can be used in different ways in crafting as well. Not just to transmute rare salvage metals, but to improve preexisting gems, speed up crafting timers, and do other things to reduce the opportunity cost to craft many items.
Thoughts? Anyone have a different take on the role of Alchemy in the spiral? Any other elements you would like to see? (Phosphorus, sulfur, niter, quicksilver, Alum, pewter, electrum, magnesium - who doesn't want magnetism in magic?)
Of course i know the perfect vendor for alchemical recipes - good ol' Xipli Tailbiter heh heh heh. Here's your recipe. Just make sure you never get water in the flask heh heh. Boom!
Great ideas! We surely do need more ways to get tin, titanium, and silver especially. I haven't been able to craft one pet jewel yet, and I will likely have to craft many before getting one I can use. That isn't how crafting should be.
Alchemy is a fundamental part in any fantasy game, because if ya got alchemy you got potions and we already have those. As some think alchemy should be added to the game,( I am a huge supporter of this), it would not be a school,( I mean come on, you're gonna throw potions at them until they die?). It would be another way to pass time like being a gardener, cook, pet trainer, pet racer, fisher, crafter, etc.
If you add alchemy you would have to add cooking, if you can make potions, you can sure as heck cook some pizza.
