Alchemy

This system was originally written up from an old Dragon article, long before the concept of improvable non-weapon crafting proficiencies entered my game.  Because of this, the 'levels of skill' in Alchemy is based on character level.  Any character class can learn Alchemy, and can brew potions up to their character level. In addition, if they learn the non-weapon proficiency of Alchemy, each level adds to that cap, though that NWP cannot get higher than level 5.  

If a player character has the NWP of Alchemy in addition to their level, the following apply:

1.    The chance of failure when brewing is reduced to 8/5/3/2/1/1% with an Alchemy 1 non-weapon proficiency, to 4/2/2/1/1/0% with Alchemy 2, to 3/2/1/1/0/0% with Alchemy 3, to 2/2/1/0/0/0% with alchemy 4, and 2/1/0/0/0/0 with alchemy 5 (based on intelligence of 15 or lower/16/17/18/19/more than 19).

2.    Research is sped up by 1 week per level of skill, but will be reduced by no more than half to base time.

3.    The maximum level of recipes that the alchemist can learn is increased by their level of alchemy.  For instance, a level 12 character can normally only learn up to level 12 recipes, but that magic-user could learn level 13 recipes with Alchemy 1.

4.    The maximum number of levels of potions brewable per day is increased by their level of alchemy skill, as above, a level 12 character who could normally make 12 levels of potions per day could make 13 levels of potions per day with Alchemy 1.