Sell me on alchemy

[dvdbillen]

I have an embarrassing number of hours playing Skyrim. I don't even look anymore.

In all that playing I've never touched alchemy. It just looks like the worst possible grind for nothing but a few potions that require tons more grind to replenish if you use them.

Are the potions you can make a lot stronger than the ones you buy/find? I'd like to hear something that makes me wants to try it.

[alexander_dougherty]

Potions can get much stronger than what you find, and you can tailor potions to your needs... And it generates cash quite easily...

[psychotron666]

And basic ingredients can make even better effects, like potions that fortify health and heal at the same time, and heal for more than regular ones.

You never run out of healing..and there's some real bangers with poisons, like paralysing.

[Halliwax]

• Alchemy is by far the fastest way to make money in the game. With that money you can afford to get 5 levels of skill training every character level. It's great support for every build.
  
• When your alchemy skills are up, you can brew stronger potions than any you can find or buy.
  
• Once you're familiar with the system, it can be easily and quickly leveled in three ways: exploiting super high value salmon roe potions, growing high value potion ingredients in your alchemy garden, or even just efficiently combining every random ingredient you ever picked up.
  
• Alchemy supports stronger enchanting which supports stronger alchemy... this repeats until you hit an eventual ceiling. Then both support smithing. Weapons smithed this way are much stronger.
  
• Some potion effects can be good even if you don't invest in the skill. A paralysis poison of even 1 second can turn a fight because of the long delay enemies will have falling over and getting back up. Invisibility potions are also very useful even when brief. The ingredients are easy to get when you know what they are.
  
• If you want to boost your character level further for more perk points, it's a pretty fast skill to make legendary and re-level, when you have good ingredient stockpiles. It's not the fastest (that would be Illusion), but if you are harvesting herb gardens then it's basically a freebie every few times you collect.
  
• There are some fun exploits with poisons like giving NPCs a combination invisibility+frenzy potion/poison that they will take when aggro'd and then frenzy themselves.

[worm_master]

Alchemy poisons, poisons and more poisons, toxins and nasty things, paralyse ya opponent with a potion and arrow.+ if you grab the CC MOD you get a plantation, and u can plant all the plants u need for toxins etc... Potions also sell for good money, and for the plantation, the plants grow back every 3 days and u can make some very EXPENSIVE potions, the type shopkeeprs may not have enough gold for

[dvdbillen]

Am I getting here that you can make dual potions so you can customize? I didn't know that. I also didn't know they could be so expensive a shop owner maybe can't even afford them.

@Halliwax thanks for so much detail.

[lizrdfishr]

If you mod, check out The Coffee House.
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/67102

The old cat who runs the joint is a skilled alchemist and has been known to leave a book with a few wilder recipes.

Reading that book and trying a few of the potions, really opened my eyes.

[Senor Cinco]

Alchemy... arguably, THE strongest skill in the game and absolutely THE most versatile skill.

One can reach the Armor Resistance cap, Magic Resistance caps, and can use any weapon effectively and can reduce casting cost of any school to zero, with Enchanted gear that is boosted from Alchemy.

One can be a God on Legendary and never perk anything but Alchemy.

[alexander_dougherty]

Originally posted by dvdbillen:

Am I getting here that you can make dual potions so you can customize?

More than that, you can have potions with six or seven effects, with the right ingredients.
So very easy to tailor a potion that has three or four effects that you specifically want...

[th]

Without any mods (with only official content) one can create a potion with base cost 15000+ septims. With only growable ingredients it's 2000+ septims potions.

[theyangman0]

You can definitely make some incredibly powerful potions with alchemy. Especially since you're not limited to only a single effect. Just to pull few of the potions I made with a previous character:

Potion of Lingering Damage Health: 37 poison damage for 10 seconds + 110 points of poison damage (deathbell, imp stool, mora tapinella).

Poison of Weakness to Poison: 73% weakness to poison (bleeding crown, giant lichen)

Potion of Fortify Smithing: Smithing improved by 147%. (blisterwort, glowing mushroom)

With the fortify smithing potion (couple with smithing enchants admittedly) I've achieved an armor rating of 1567, with the chest-piece alone having an armor rating of 655. Damage reduction caps at an armor rating 567 (542 if including shield), so the rest of the 1000 points of armor rating is just decoration at that point. My sword does 137 damage, which considering that I literally have no perk points into it says quite a bit with how much damage it could if I actually allocated points into it. Another character back on my PS account achieved maximum armor rating with Hide Armor as well. So if you want to pursue a more aesthetic look without screwing yourself over in the long-term, alchemy makes it a viable option.

For my current character, I'm only wearing Banded/Iron armor and plan to switch out to Ancient Nord Armor when I get far enough in the Companions quest to smith it. Enchanting and Smithing alone may not be enough to temper the armor to maximum, but if I can achieve max armor rating with Hide Armor using alchemy to increase with the rest of the crafting skills, I'm confident I can do so with what's basically Ancient Iron Armor.

[dvdbillen]

Ok, now that I understand you're not limited to the same potions you can buy (even if stronger) I think I'll try it. I guess the best character to start would be an archer so I can easily deliver potions to enemies as well as use them.

[Senor Cinco]

Originally posted by dvdbillen:

Ok, now that I understand you're not limited to the same potions you can buy (even if stronger) I think I'll try it. I guess the best character to start would be an archer so I can easily deliver potions to enemies as well as use them.

The Bound Bow makes an excellent delivery device.

EDIT:
My most favored poison from day 1 to day 2,001...
Canny Root - Impy Stool - Mora Tappy

Paralyze 3 sec, and 70 DOT at L1 is insane.

...freely planted at Tundra Homestead after Helgen and before nightfall.

[Liquid Inc]

to add to cinco's method, Canis root and swamp fungal pods also create a paralyse potion, so if your around Solitude, you can pick up many of these ingredients for free, and you've got a very useful poison

[Longhaul]

Alchemy in my opinion is probably the strongest skill, being able to make potions that drop someone who would other wise 1 or 2 shot you is pretty damn fine. Paralyse, Poisons, skill buffs. Heck my main character I am playing right now is purely an Alchemist/Bard with side "cough" jobs with some... shady types.

[Senor Cinco]

Indeed. Pre-buffs, alone make an Alchemist ridiculous. Then, add paralysis/DOT, followed by Weakness to poison and weakness to (X) de-buffs on the enemy and then a high damage kill-ya poison to finish with an enchanted weapon of (X).

..good times.

EDIT : a shameless copy-paste from a post I made a few days ago on Alchemy.

I had one that enjoyed prebuff with potions of Invisibility, Sneak and remove everything to be silent, slip up to the target as they are eating dinner.... and prick them with a poisoned shiv to the thorax.

Get dressed, sit across the table and ponder the finer meats, stews and wines as the target sits motionless with eyes wide.

...you toast and dab the corner of your mouth as they slump.