Some good ideas here, I really wondered how far alchemy could go beyond the traditional philosophers stone / lead -> gold / elixir of youth stuff. It seems to me you could combine alchemy/herbal skills to make some very powerful potions and oils and combine alchemy/blacksmith skills to make animated constructs, automations, mechanical suits of armour, and the like.
Originally posted by Enter_the_Xero
L9: Have the ability to create a puppet: matter conrolled by high level alchemy that can replicate behavioyur of a real creature {lets see that fight for you!}... sweet idea aint it? ability to heal and recreate organic tissue {heal}...
What if someone was a puppet but didnt know of their origins and thought they were a real creature? They could be your unwitting and unwilling servant, or a dummy leader that gets elected to important public postions and then dances on the ends of the strings you are pulling unbeknownst to everyone else..
Yeah its Bladerunner / Tleilaxu-esque, but a sweet plot device. Who knew that the gentle old man who tended his gardens and helped children was really a *dramatic drum roll* covert assassin? Not even he knows! Its the perfect weapon..
Oh, and I\'ve never seen the anime show referred to here.. traditionally an alchemist was an old guy in a wizardly laboratory with bubbling vials of chemicals, pots of exotic substances, pieces of creatures in glass jars full of preservatives, huge fang-toothed skulls mounted on walls and hanging from rooves, piles of musty old tomes, etc. Its the classic \"Mad Scientist\" figure of fantasy literature.