Alchemy is one of the places in which Harshlands and Harn begin to diverge. Harshlands Alchemy skill is used in four areas.
1. The Apothecary
2. The Guild of Arcane Lore
3. The LK/Poisoners
4. Kath and other Tribal Groups
The Apothecary
The Apothecary buys herbs and prepares them for use. While members of the GoAL are required to understand the preparation of raw herbs, they are much more likely to buy them for their purposes. The alchemy skills of the apothecary are used to prepare tonics for strength, healing and other physical ailments. Skilled apothecaries are more likely to be recruited by the GoAL and the LK.
The Guild of Arcane Lore
Alchemists within the GoAL, while well trained as apothecaries, pursue more esoteric arts. They commonly buy prepared herbs from apothecaries and combine and enhance them to produce other things.
The Lia-Kavair
The LK has it's own use for the apothecary's skills. Besides the normal preparation skills of the apothecary, the LK member will be trained specifically in the use and preparations of poisons and other dangerous concoctions.
The Kath
The use of the alchemy skill by the Kath and other tribal groups wavers between the skills of the apothecary and the skills of the GoAL. While herbal preparations for wounds and the like are the most commonly used skills, the shaman will also use certain herbal preparations in rituals.
While Alchemy in Harshlands has traditionally used the "combine" command, we are in the process of changing to a craft based system. Using Robin Crossby's herbal preparation paper, a craft to prepare each raw herb is being written. In some instances this will require us to change the descriptions of the plants in the game, and what is gathered from each. Please don't panic if descriptions suddenly change on items in your possession, they will still work the way they always did. We will also be adjusting the costs of the herbs and potions to more accurately reflect the economy of the game.
Herbalists
Not complete yet, but in the planning stages, is a change to the way herbs are gathered in Harshlands. In the past it was simply a of matter of finding and identifying a plant. This has led to players simply memorizing where the plants are in a certain area and waiting for the mud to reload them, as well as gluts of plants in one area and lack in another. The same system that we currently use to forage has been reworked for gathering herbs also.
In the new system, the plants are coded by terrain type and rarity. The command "rummage" will allow the PC to search out any plants that may be in the area. While "gather" will be used to harvest the plants.