Do you even alchemy?

[killthesun]

Hi everyone,

 

I plan on making a mod that makes alchemy more attractive. I'm looking for feedback about your utilisation of alchemy:

- do you gather ingredients?

- do you craft potions?

- do you drink potions? Restore potions, or Fortify potions? That you crafted yourself?

And why do you, or don't you, do it?

 

Thanks!

 

 

 

[SleepyJim]

I pretty much only pick things I know you need to turn in for side quests. Nightshade, deathbell, nirnroot, jazbay grapes, that kind of thing. Or if a mod has a crafting recipe that needs something rare. Other than that I sometimes pick blue mountain flowers and catch blue butterflies for their wings. Combining those two makes an almost completely useless potion that gives a big jump to the alchemy skill and sells for a fortune.

 

Really though, I don't bother with alchemy much at all. If I came up with a character built around it, and a roleplay reason for using it that was part of who that character was, I'd do more with it. But one reason I've never done that is because alchemy hasn't ever felt worth it to me in the vanilla game. A mod improving it would certainly be something worth trying out.

 

I have heard that poisons can be very effective, especially for sneaky archers, but I haven't dabbled with them.

[Caulator]

I like to make some potions, using alchemy overhaul now. Don't bother with recipes, because I like to discover something on my own. For sneaky archer poison of frenzy with added lingering damage is pretty sweet.

[thesteve812]

I usually only do poisons with Ordinator perk tree and cheat with infinite weapon poison.

[darkconsole]

i collect everything because they aren't just used in alchemy. lots of mods add lots of cooking and smithing that also uses things like flowers and bugs. also i use a mod that levels alchemy when cooking. i mostly spam craft/cook just to farm levels and keep the health, magic, stamina, and whatever ones buff the skills for a specific character. like health restore, block, and 1h, for a tank. magicka restore, destruction, for mages.

 

i've also been tweaking I Am Your Shield to try and get my npcs to drink health and block potions while they are tanking when i give them to them.

[afa]

In vanilla alchemy is the first pick when it comes to cheesing gold and levels, which in turns allow mass buying of materials for smithing, equipment for dis-enchanting, and soul gems to enchant, while getting speechcraft along the way. Use skill trainers for combat skills and having superior equipment from the combined crafting skills is enough to take over combat.

[Nazzzgul666]

In the beginning i always pushed alchemy but that has changed recently, basicly what i actually always wanted were powerful poisons for my sneaky archer assasins i've played several times. The problem i had with poisons:

Too weak for single use, and even if they'd be powerful enough for one-hits it's too unconvinient to use them for every attack imho. I've been looking for mods to change that, but all i found was that they never get exhausted which is too much. Something like 3 uses per potion and 6 with the appropiate skill would be great  (or just 5 ignoring the skill), with enough power to kill with a single strike but not at once, rather within 10-20 seconds so you see it's actually poison and not just some magic effect. Too specific i guess.

 

Similar for other kinds of potions like destruction buff. Too weak, too short. I want a serious effect if i bother to carry that stuff around and go to inventory at all, but i don't want to do that every 30 seconds, 3-5 minutes would be ok so i can do one bandit camp with one (combination of) potion.

 

I always found enough healing potions, don't use them that often either thanks to Defeat.  And because it feels like cheating just to open inventory every 3 hits i get and drink something. 

[Ernest Lemmingway]

I still use potions to buff Enchanting and Smithing, as well as other skills I need/could use a quick boost to. Plus I made all ingredients weightless in my own personal plug-in, among other changes to things I didn't like or felt needed tweaking. Plus I get an adolescent thrill out of slipping a poison on someone through reverse pick-pocketing them so they die or suffer some other calamity without the game authorities knowing it was me. Now if I could find a mod that would cause NPCs to be raped by other NPCs if they were paralyzed or otherwise unable to fight back, I know of a few characters I've love to see humiliated with some poison.

[SexDwarf2250]

Poisons are utter weaksauce, and you overflow with potions from loot lists so they're not needed, plus you could buy them if you wanted. The way to fix "core" alchemy involves first removing all dropped potions from enemies and containers, the way You Hunger does for food and survival mods; though I imagine you'd have to also account for ASIS and mods, etc. The other way is to make alchemy a viable alternative to magic in a way that doesn't let players rape balance by stacking both vanilla magic and new alchemy for a double dose of magic. Mana-fueled alchemy tricks would be one idea.

 

Alternatively, you could call Vanilla alchemy the boring pile of cheese that it is, rip out the alchemy tree, remove vanilla potion crafting entirely, and replace the alchemy tree and vanilla potions with an entire lineup of Sexlab-and-submod-supporting perks and potions. They could still have some mechanical benefits, but fuck it, just get some voodoo sex magic love potion up in that bottle, right? I wonder how much you could do with base Sexlab before you needed to add stuff for submods to keep the content going.

 

Note to self: go look for updates to that one mod that had some sexlab potions and see if it's still dead...

 

Edit to include link for interest, post lists potions included in the mod and I picked two good ones for the spoiler below. Not updated since '16. Potions are created at cooking stations in exchange for gold.  Actually has some amusing poisons (listed as potions for some reason) I would use except not for 600-1000 gold a pop - though I get why, they're long-lasting paralysis+damage spells.

 

 

 

Spirit's Lust - Potion Only- Implemented. Effect varies slightly depending on whether the target is male or female. Female targets will spawn a 1 -4 humanoid ghosts near the them who will then drain their life force while they rape them (slow poison to health, magicka and stamina). Male targets will only get 1 ghost but the same effect (there just aren't many animations for them) Spell will last 60 seconds after which the ghost will be dispelled.

Word of warning - if the spell back fires and the player tries to skip through the animation so that it ends before the spell has finished then the ghosts will be hostile! Best to just let them have their way with you!

Molag Bal's Punishment - Potion Only- Implemented - This potion varies in power depending on what happens. It will initially spawn a 1 - 4 ghosts armed with whips who will strip the target's armor (as in drop - not unequip, I don't want the player simply re-equipping their armor  ) and then attack them. The target can fight back. If all ghosts are not killed before the spell ends (and assuming the target hasn't been killed) then Spirit's Lust will then be cast on the target hopefully finishing them off.

[SexDwarf2250]

3 hours ago, Ernest Lemmingway said:

Now if I could find a mod that would cause NPCs to be raped by other NPCs if they were paralyzed or otherwise unable to fight back, I know of a few characters I've love to see humiliated with some poison.

You should check the spoiler/link I added above, it's pretty close, and functional (last time I checked) though the implementation is cooking/for gold... I haven't tried to reverse pickpocket any of those poisons yet, though. I wonder if OP might consider more sexlab related ideas for alchemy at all... if so:

 

 

Just for funsies, some other ideas for effects that could be collected into a single sexlab alchemy mod. There are quite a lot of effects and even potions already out there now that I think about it, though a lot are sub-mod specific, but consolidating a lot of them (or similar effects) into one alchemy mod would probably fill quite a roster, and would actually fill a new niche, I think.

 

(And if we're going to talk about perks... one thing I'd like to see is poisoned food as an alternative to reverse pick pocketing, a la poisoned apples from previous TES.)

 

With this approach, each potion/poison should have a weak regular mechanical use, so they aren't entirely pointless in case a user does not have particular mods installed. Alternatively, the default effect without submods could just be arousal/timerate related somehow, so that SL covers that too. In other words, by default (without required submod) perhaps sex magic poisons only increase arousal by varying amounts, and if they hit a target that's already at 100, it is, eg, forced into a masturbation scene. Sex magic potions without submod reduce the users timerate (sex addiction), and if the timerate is already 0 they add 1-24h regen buffs depending on strength. Anyway:

 

Pheromone poison that paralyses, but if EC is installed will induce Estrus Chaurus tentacle attacks instead. (And SLA has a pheromone potion series already that raises Arousal around you, race-specific.)

Effects from Enchantress' mod of alternate illusion spells: fury and calm spells cause rape and consensual sex, respectively.

Dwarven "lubricating hex" poison that causes weapons to randomly be dropped. Will apply to devious devices added after use if DD is installed. Can be used to create poisoned food with the same effect for self-use or stealth administration. Alternatively: makes picking DD locks easier, etc.

Potions that cause damage to any sexual assaulters. (I'm sure I saw a mod that does this in spell form.) Alternatively, it could grant a fire shield.

Love potions to temporarily make the imbiber a lover. Afterwards, they will dislike you. Vanilla relationship system works for this. Other mods hook into this, such as Eager NPCs.

Poisons that impart the troll/falmer SOS dick-shrinking effect on males along with accompanying psychological trauma in some form of debuff. Without SOS, just the "horrified" debuff. No effect on women.

Speechcraft buffing potions that, with appropriate mods, can temporarily enhance bust and package size.

Craftable potions that improve stamina regeneration and enhance milk production for soulgem oven and milkmaid. (Lactacid effect there.)

Likewise for SGO's soul gem incubation.

Craftable potions for the various 3 or 4 (cursed) egg incubation mods, to speed or stop said pregnancies.

 

Optionally, poisons and poisoned food to inflict these curses.

 

Potions to manage sex addiction. (Cult of Dibella features a time-rate decreasing potion.)

 

Submission poisons (which also damage health regen) and potions (require more skill/perk) that also increase the speed of target slave training if Paradise Halls is installed.

 

Conversely, poisons and poisoned foods to inflict nymphomania; eg time rate goes to 100. Bonus/perk: locked at 100.

[karlpaws]

1 hour ago, SexDwarf2250 said:

You should check the spoiler/link I added above, it's pretty close, and functional (last time I checked) though the implementation is cooking/for gold... I haven't tried to reverse pickpocket any of those poisons yet, though. I wonder if OP might consider more sexlab related ideas for alchemy at all... if so:

 

  Hide contents

Effects from Enchantress' mod of alternate illusion spells: fury and calm spells cause rape and consensual sex, respectively.

Potions that cause damage to any sexual assaulters. (I'm sure I saw a mod that does this in spell form.) Alternatively, it could grant a fire shield.

Love potions to temporarily make the imbiber a lover. Afterwards, they will dislike you. Vanilla relationship system works for this. Other mods hook into this, such as Eager NPCs.

 

Potions to manage sex addiction. (Cult of Dibella features a time-rate decreasing potion.)

 

Submission poisons (which also damage health regen) and potions (require more skill/perk) that also increase the speed of target slave training if Paradise Halls is installed.

 

Conversely, poisons and poisoned foods to inflict nymphomania; eg time rate goes to 100. Bonus/perk: locked at 100.

I like your ideas and wish to subscribe to your newsletter. 

 

I think, as you mention, that some of the effects are available in some other mods. The "damage my rapist" concept I think two spell mods used in a succubus theme, but they never were finished, iirc.

 

I have thought about making poisons that could be created at cookpots instead of alchemy stations, that would be the poisoned apple variety, drugged mead, pot pie surprise, etc. I think that they would have to be alchemy poisons though, as there seems something special in the reverse pickpocket and consume mechanic.  Would love to hear just how that works.

 

I think Sexlab Eager NPCs has the arousal control potions you mention, though having another way to make them would be interesting. Sex arousal potions are there as well, with generic and race specific options.

[Corsayr]

Alchemy can fairly quickly become over powered from both the game play aspect and the financial aspect. So I try to avoid it to the extent that I can. 

[Darkpig]

I did bother at one point but then I said fuck it. Alchemy is ridiculously overpowered but it just isn't that practical. Why spend all that time at an alchemy table after merrily picking flowers instead of beating up dragons with your fists? Makes no fooookin sense.

[SexDwarf2250]

4 hours ago, karlpaws said:

I think that they would have to be alchemy poisons though, as there seems something special in the reverse pickpocket and consume mechanic.  Would love to hear just how that works.

Thanks - and regarding your comment above (and this topic), Real Eat Package would probably be of interest: it returns the AI's eating behaviour to Skyrim, making poisoned food a possible mechanic once more. (Aside from using something like Share Your Meal with victims you've fooled into friends that trust you enough.) Though from description it seems it might be incompatible with any other AI replacers whatsoever? Instructions unclear, poison apple got stuck in throat. Edit: also includes a number of poisoned food items... interesting...

[KoolHndLuke]

I don't use potions for anything but restoring health. Magic and enchantments for everything else. Running up to a dragon and whacking it on the nose never seemed like a good idea to me. Deadly Dragons will cut you down very quickly. Sure, I could drink a potion to make myself immune to their breath attack, but, that just kills the whole idea behind making dragons and other enemies more dangerous. I don't like using overpowered weapons or spells either. I have a nice balance in my game tipped somewhat in enemies favor.

[Tirloque]

Depends on the character I'm using obviously. I play it hardcore (no health regen, no starter spells), and have got a nord ranger which does not use a single spell : alchemy (specially health & benefic potions) is vital for her. No alchemy, no missions, it's as simple as that. I've also got a more stealthy one which uses the poisons branch of it and magicka potions. And two others which will only use Fortify enchanting, or health potion in tough encounters.

 

So the two latter have the least use for it, but basically each one of my characters do use it.

4 hours ago, Darkpig said:

I did bother at one point but then I said fuck it. Alchemy is ridiculously overpowered but it just isn't that practical. Why spend all that time at an alchemy table after merrily picking flowers instead of beating up dragons with your fists? Makes no fooookin sense.

I'm not really fond of mods who easen difficulty nor overpowered mod items for my part, so I do not share your experience about weak dragons. However it seems you missed some parts of the regular games, as with DG/DB you can buy a small mortar to pile ingredients/prepare potions wherever you go.

7 hours ago, SexDwarf2250 said:

You should check the spoiler/link I added above, it's pretty close, and functional (last time I checked) though the implementation is cooking/for gold... I haven't tried to reverse pickpocket any of those poisons yet, though. I wonder if OP might consider more sexlab related ideas for alchemy at all... if so:

 

  Reveal hidden contents

Just for funsies, some other ideas for effects that could be collected into a single sexlab alchemy mod. There are quite a lot of effects and even potions already out there now that I think about it, though a lot are sub-mod specific, but consolidating a lot of them (or similar effects) into one alchemy mod would probably fill quite a roster, and would actually fill a new niche, I think.

 

(And if we're going to talk about perks... one thing I'd like to see is poisoned food as an alternative to reverse pick pocketing, a la poisoned apples from previous TES.)

 

With this approach, each potion/poison should have a weak regular mechanical use, so they aren't entirely pointless in case a user does not have particular mods installed. Alternatively, the default effect without submods could just be arousal/timerate related somehow, so that SL covers that too. In other words, by default (without required submod) perhaps sex magic poisons only increase arousal by varying amounts, and if they hit a target that's already at 100, it is, eg, forced into a masturbation scene. Sex magic potions without submod reduce the users timerate (sex addiction), and if the timerate is already 0 they add 1-24h regen buffs depending on strength. Anyway:

 

Pheromone poison that paralyses, but if EC is installed will induce Estrus Chaurus tentacle attacks instead. (And SLA has a pheromone potion series already that raises Arousal around you, race-specific.)

Effects from Enchantress' mod of alternate illusion spells: fury and calm spells cause rape and consensual sex, respectively.

Dwarven "lubricating hex" poison that causes weapons to randomly be dropped. Will apply to devious devices added after use if DD is installed. Can be used to create poisoned food with the same effect for self-use or stealth administration. Alternatively: makes picking DD locks easier, etc.

Potions that cause damage to any sexual assaulters. (I'm sure I saw a mod that does this in spell form.) Alternatively, it could grant a fire shield.

Love potions to temporarily make the imbiber a lover. Afterwards, they will dislike you. Vanilla relationship system works for this. Other mods hook into this, such as Eager NPCs.

Poisons that impart the troll/falmer SOS dick-shrinking effect on males along with accompanying psychological trauma in some form of debuff. Without SOS, just the "horrified" debuff. No effect on women.

Speechcraft buffing potions that, with appropriate mods, can temporarily enhance bust and package size.

Craftable potions that improve stamina regeneration and enhance milk production for soulgem oven and milkmaid. (Lactacid effect there.)

Likewise for SGO's soul gem incubation.

Craftable potions for the various 3 or 4 (cursed) egg incubation mods, to speed or stop said pregnancies.

 

Optionally, poisons and poisoned food to inflict these curses.

 

Potions to manage sex addiction. (Cult of Dibella features a time-rate decreasing potion.)

 

Submission poisons (which also damage health regen) and potions (require more skill/perk) that also increase the speed of target slave training if Paradise Halls is installed.

 

Conversely, poisons and poisoned foods to inflict nymphomania; eg time rate goes to 100. Bonus/perk: locked at 100.

Personally I like to play my characters in a role-play way. Unless in very specific circumstances, if you ask a woman if she'd like to have a potion triggered by sexual assaults... I don't think your product is gonna get too popular. The objective of such characters is to AVOID getting sexually assaulted, not to take advantage of being molested.

The only one who might get interested is my succubus, yet she already has built-in ways to deal with that.

[SexDwarf2250]

32 minutes ago, Tirloque said:

Personally I like to play my characters in a role-play way. Unless in very specific circumstances, if you ask a woman if she'd like to have a potion triggered by sexual assaults... I don't think your product is gonna get too popular. The objective of such characters is to AVOID getting sexually assaulted, not to take advantage of being molested.

Anti-rape devices are as old as chastity belts, and they were popular enough it seems. As far as women at risk (you realize they were not the ones making the choice to wear it most all of the time? Yet the belts existed.), they may also not care about the difference between deterrent and prevention if the end result might be the same, eg, no prolonged, painful rape, far less chance of pregnancy and STD, and no cumbersome belt to wear.

 

Personally, I like to play my characters in a role-play way, too. It could be that a particular (mis-)interpretation of things isn't needed to justify "correct" role-play or if something should exist: Just as a brief example, my character might have his combat slaves drink said potions. Or if you play with SL Sexlife, you could perhaps arrange a devious assassination by befriending a character with the masochistic trait and giving them the potion just before bed time, then watching the ensuing fracas from the bedroom door. Female characters may even elect to use both belts as well as retributive potions.

[Tirloque]

21 minutes ago, SexDwarf2250 said:

Anti-rape devices are as old as chastity belts, and they were popular enough it seems. As far as women at risk (you realize they were not the ones making the choice to wear it most all of the time? Yet the belts existed.), they may also not care about the difference between deterrent and prevention if the end result might be the same, eg, no prolonged, painful rape, far less chance of pregnancy and STD, and no cumbersome belt to wear.

It think I've read somewhere on an interesting topic that chastity belts weren't comfortable nor hygienic, so it was more the husbands forcing their spouses to wear them than the contrary. Yet, if it seems obvious that not getting pregnant of another was one of the objective, it seems logical to me that not getting soiled/penetrated at all (even if they didn't know about illnesses, sex was way more ruled by culture and religion than nowadays) was equally important.

 

Anyway, I guess depending on the character the choices may indeed vary.

28 minutes ago, SexDwarf2250 said:

Personally, I like to play my characters in a role-play way, too. It could be that a particular (mis-)interpretation of things isn't needed to justify "correct" role-play or if something should exist: Just as a brief example, my character might have his combat slaves drink said potions. Or if you play with SL Sexlife, you could perhaps arrange a devious assassination by befriending a character with the masochistic trait and giving them the potion just before bed time, then watching the ensuing fracas from the bedroom door. Female characters may even elect to use both belts as well as retributive potions.

Indeed.

[Nazzzgul666]

5 hours ago, Darkpig said:

I did bother at one point but then I said fuck it. Alchemy is ridiculously overpowered but it just isn't that practical. Why spend all that time at an alchemy table after merrily picking flowers instead of beating up dragons with your fists? Makes no fooookin sense.

Imho it's not OP, think about all the time you put into skilling, collecting ingredients... considering that alchemy is rather underpowered. Well, maybe depends on. I start new games quite often, pretty much for every bigger quest mod i want to play so i hardly ever get above lvl 50, often i'm done at lvl20. 

If you have a character with lvl 200 and alchemy is already skilled or you just rush through to use it for the next 1k hours... then it's still not worth it as you mentioned yourself.

For me using alchemy (and skilling it instead of something else like enchantment or magic) it's far too weak AND not practical to use a potion every few seconds. Making it last longer (and possibly stronger) so 2-3 times to clear a default dungeon are enough might change my mind.

1 hour ago, Tirloque said:

Personally I like to play my characters in a role-play way. Unless in very specific circumstances, if you ask a woman if she'd like to have a potion triggered by sexual assaults... I don't think your product is gonna get too popular. The objective of such characters is to AVOID getting sexually assaulted, not to take advantage of being molested.

The only one who might get interested is my succubus, yet she already has built-in ways to deal with that.

The point of the mod isn't getting raped, the potions are meant to be used on enemies. But they have a chance to backfire, depending on the potion and circumstances.

They are powerful enough to be a real help, so it might be considered worth it... maybe depends on how confident your character is.

[yatol]

alchemy suck, nothing will change that

the only thing to do is to get rid of it

 

have replace alchemy by crafting the potion the merchants are selling

 

alchemy crafting furniture was given forge crafting furniture stuff

something like iron armor recipe copy paste as healing potion recipe, poison potion recipe, resist fire recipe.... that require the composents above

eating ingredients give alchemy composents: element, health, mana, stamina, skill, bonus, malus and euh

it's faster than making recipe for that plant to give either healing, either poison, either bonus...

 

healing potion it's 5 health and 4 bonus, poison 5 health and 4 malus

fortify stamina it's 5 stamina and  bonus

fortify one hand it's 2 bonus and 5 skill, invi it's 2 bonus and 5 euh

 

smaller mess in the inventory

health/mana/stamina potion are now 3, 2 for the rest

and food craft potions because eating a steak during battle...

[Lostdreamer]

I tend to avoid player crafting as it seems a simple (and boring) way of breaking the game for many of the reasons already mentioned.

 

That said, I plan to use a mod called 'realistic regeneration' to remove health regen when standing around &/ fighting - forcing me to use health potions for combat & dungeon healing. Too early to tell how well that idea will work tho.

[karlpaws]

9 hours ago, SexDwarf2250 said:

Thanks - and regarding your comment above (and this topic), Real Eat Package would probably be of interest: it returns the AI's eating behaviour to Skyrim, making poisoned food a possible mechanic once more. (Aside from using something like Share Your Meal with victims you've fooled into friends that trust you enough.) Though from description it seems it might be incompatible with any other AI replacers whatsoever? Instructions unclear, poison apple got stuck in throat. Edit: also includes a number of poisoned food items... interesting...

Interesting mod. Sounds a lot more Hitman than Skyrim with the delay based on dinner schedules. Sounds like it isn't incompatible with ALL AI mods but just the ones with Eat packages.

 

Since he suggests placing the food in the NPC inventory anyway I think I'll skip that mod and stay with my apple-icon-poison-vial idea that I might just try later today.  My bandit faction editing failed miserably though so I have less confidence in my chances.

[worik]

Usually I play on harder difficulties and need potions... aaaaand I have grown to like the witcher style potion systems. That's where various other nice mods come in  

Basically,my Skyrim alchemy is quite a bit different than the vanilla alchemy.

[Grey Cloud]

Carabosse/Vindemiatrix (Bestial Essence) is working (?) on Essential Relief which will feature alchemy. Not sure of the state of play but it may interest some of you.

[SexDwarf2250]

I have made a list of the complaints from everyone's posts regarding alchemy, narrowed down into brief statements, key points bolded. Semi-ordered by gut feeling, and comments after each one:

 

• Alchemy is not practical enough to be worth your time. (I assume if you only level it as you play, instead of power levelling it, you end up with potions that aren't competitive for your current level of play. Power-levelling alchemy first is another matter.)
  • Alchemy is too grindy (I completely agree with this, of course it is a general Skyrim crafting issue that also impacts enchanting and smithing. For those two, I use Honed Metal to correct the problem. I buy basic alchemy potions if needed, but enemies tend to carry just enough to get by, or magic helps out.)
  • Poison is too weak and doesn't last. (Who wants to reapply poison after every enemy or worse, every hit? Who wants to level alchemy only to use their poison on rare bosses.)
  • Potions are too weak, and too short. (See above.)
• Alchemy is too overpowered and game-breaking later on. (So on the other hand, if you power level it, you get access to stuff that is far above your level of play.)
• More potions with sexlab interactions desired. (I agree.)
• Alchemy clutter in inventory. (I agree, but find this a relatively minor issue. Get Convenient Horses and put your misc. item tab into the saddlebags. "I am sworn to carry your butterfly wings...")

 

Conclusion so far: Alchemy is poorly balanced and takes too much time. Early on it's underpowered and unnecessary (You can buy or find better potions.) I assume more people complain about this because they feel it's not worth the time to advance to the next complaint: Late in the skill tree it's game-breakingly good. Inbetween the two problems, it requires a lot of time grinding, which frankly sucks and is boring.

 

Some ideas:

 

• Boost potion durations, boost poison number of uses and power, but nerf high level alchemy. (Nerf power, not duration.)
• Player crafted alchemy potions are largely replaced with utility and quality of life potions, such as sexlab, or teleport-to-nearest-temple type stuff.
  (Stuff you want to use, but stuff that won't break the game later.)
• Recipes bypass grind: now they function like powerful versions of skill books, boosting n% at a time upon reading. Bosses tend to carry recipes.
  (If alchemy can't break the game, it won't hurt to let it skill up fast, and faster by questing, instead of grinding.)
• Bonus idea: add recipe items for other crafting too.
  (But probably not, because those trees still would suffer from making you extremely powerful later. Honed Metal probably still a better alternative, get gold instead.)