This article is inspired by this article’s wonderful piece of marvelous art (and pun) by Matteo Brizio. You can find him and his mind-blowing work on Instagram, Youtube, and Facebook! My initial article was going to be an archetype for any class, but I decided I’d rather see class options such as research fields, arcane thesis, and muses that all use the same skill feat to create bubbly magic! I’m going to present two today, but if you want to see more you know where to find me! But first, the skill feat these classes need to operate:
Bubble Blowing [one-action]
General, Skill, Hybrid
Prerequisites trained in Performance and Crafting
Requirements A blowgun, staff, or two-wands
You can create and control fantastical bubbles in mesmerizing performances. The bubble moves in a single direction of your choice at a rate of 10-feet per round. Wind and other conditions can affect a bubble’s direction and velocity. A bubble is destroyed when it takes any damage or becomes the target of an Interact action or Strike (AC 5). When you blow a bubble, you can choose to make it destroy itself when it comes into contact with any solid surface (including solid creatures).
If you’re an expert in Performance, you can increase the speed of your bubble to 15-feet per round and can change the direction of your bubble with an Interact action using the same item you used to blow the bubble. If you’re a master in Performance, you can increase the speed of your bubble to 20-feet per round and can change the direction of any bubble in any square you move through during a Move action. If you’re legendary in Performance, you can split a bubble with an Interact action, causing it to move in two different directions. If a bubble combined with an alchemical item or spell is split only one of the split bubbles retains the effect.
If you’re an expert in Crafting, you can make more potent bubbles that no longer pop when it becomes the target of an Interact action. If you’re a master in Crafting, you can make larger bubbles that fill a 5-foot-by-5-foot space. Larger bubbles do not hinder movement and are moved to a random adjacent square if they would otherwise block the path of a creature moving or being moved through their square. If you’re legendary in Crafting, you can make giant bubbles that fill a 10-foot-by-10-foot-space and you can choose to give them a special coating that allows creatures to move through them without moving the bubble itself.
Note Soap and alchemist tool’s can be used to make the fluid for Alchemical Soap Bubbles in 10-minutes. Normally having this fluid available and the method by which the bubble blower applies it to their instrument(s) of choice is up to the character in question and does not change the requirements of the Bubbling Blowing action.
The Bubble Alchemist [Alchemist Research Field]
As whimsical as they are ephemeral, few things in the world are as universally mesmerizing as the delightful dance of the iridescent soap bubble. Yet despite the deceptively simple nature of the humble bubble, controlling these spheres takes a sophisticated technique that blends the magic of the muse with the art of alchemical perfection. Many have lost a laboratory bursting too volatile a bubble. But with enough dedication, those few who master the bubble can control an enemy on the battlefield as readily as the hearts of an audience.
When you craft an alchemical item, you can use some of the reagents of the crafting process to combine the item with bubble fluid. Alchemical items combined with bubble fluid can only be activated using the Bubble Blowing skill feat. Bubbles combined with alchemical items affect one target when popped as though they were the target of the alchemical item. Targets are usually the same adjacent creature who used an action to destroy the bubble, but in some circumstances can be a creature below or downwind of a bubble. Items that affect multiple squares, such as bombs with splash damage, still function normally. Some items may require specific non-creature targets and may even affect the weapon used to strike the bubble, such as a weapon blanch.
You are trained in Performance and gain the Bubble Blowing skill feat.
Field Discovery [Level 5]
When using advanced alchemy to make alchemical items combined with bubble fluid during your daily preparations, you can spend one batch of reagents to create three items instead of two.
Perpetual Infusions [Level 7]
Choose any two formulas when combined with bubble fluid.
Perpetual Potency [Level 11]
The moderate versions of the formula you chose for perpetual infusions.
Greater Field Discovery [Level 13]
You can create long-lasting bubbles that can encase or shroud a creature for 1 minute by using an alchemical item combined with bubble fluid. If you encase a creature in a giant bubble, the bubble is destroyed when the creature uses or is the target of a Strike or Interact action, and the creature in the bubble is affected by the alchemical item as if it were the target of the alchemical item. If you shroud a creature, the bubbles are destroyed when the shrouded creature is the target of a Strike or Interact action, and the creature who triggered the action becomes the target of the alchemical item. Encasing or shrouding a non-willing target requires a successful melee attack roll using your Alchemical Bomb proficiency.
Perpetual Perfection [Level 17]
The greater versions of the formulas you chose for perpetual infusions.
Bubbology [Investigator Methology]
There are several theories as to the origins of this esoteric methodology. Some claim a world-famous detective once solved an infamous case by following bubbles spewing from their pipe to discover a secret passageway. Others point to an eccentric bubble alchemist who used a bubble wand like an oversized magnifying glass. Whatever the case, this methodology is a little more versatile than traditional alchemical sciences, albeit relying on bubble fluid as a catalyst for even its most explosive tinctures.
You’re trained in Crafting and Performance and gain the Bubble Blowing and Alchemical Crafting skill feats. In addition, you gain a standard formula book for free and learn the formulas for two additional common 1-st level alchemical items. Each time you gain a level, you learn the formula for one common alchemical item of any level of the item you can create.
During your daily preparations, you can create a number of versatile bubble fluids—alchemical concoctions that can quickly be turned into alchemical items—equal to your Intelligence modifier. Bubbles combined with alchemical items affect one target when popped as though they were the target of the alchemical item. Targets are usually the same adjacent creature who used an action to destroy the bubble, but in some circumstances can be a creature below or downwind of a bubble. Items that affect multiple squares, such as bombs with splash damage, still function normally. Some items may require specific non-creature targets and may even affect the weapon used to strike the bubble, such as a weapon blanch. You can use the Quick Bubble Tincture action to turn one of these vials into an alchemical tool combined with bubble fluid for which you know the formula.
Quick Bubble Tincture [one-action]
Investigator, Manipulate
Cost 1 versatile bubble fluid
Requirements You know the formula for the alchemical time you’re creating, you are holding or wearing alchemist’s tools, and you have your staff, wand, or blowgun.
You quickly create a single alchemical item combined with bubble fluid without having to spend the normal monetary cost in alchemical reagents or needing to attempt a Crafting check. This item has the infused trait, but it remains potent for only 1 minute and can only be activated using the Bubble Blowing skill feat.
