Alchemy is genuinely broken and the guides never tell you why

[WhiterunModder]

I've been playing through on Legendary and just realized why alchemy feels so weak compared to what everyone says it should be. The issue isn't that alchemy is overpowered - it's that you're all making poisons wrong.

Everyone talks about paralysis potions like they're the endgame, but nobody mentions that you need to stack effects properly. If you're just throwing random ingredients together you get garbage. But if you actually sit down and plan out ingredient combinations that hit multiple effect slots, the numbers get stupid fast. I made a poison that does paralysis + lingering damage health + ravage stamina and it trivializes everything.

The real problem is the skill tree. Most people dump perks into the damage multipliers and call it a day. But the actual broken stuff is stuff like the perk that lets you make poisons with more ingredients at once - that's where the scaling comes from. You can layer effects in ways the game never intended.

Also on PC if you're running any alchemy overhaul mods (Apotheosis, Thaumaturgy, stuff like that) it gets even more ridiculous. Console players have no idea what they're missing there.

What's your go-to poison setup? I'm curious if anyone else has figured out the stacking thing or if I'm just overthinking it.

 

[DragonbornVet]

You're onto something with the ingredient stacking, but I think you're overstating how "broken" it is. Yeah, paralysis + lingering damage + ravage stamina hits hard, but that's just... alchemy working as designed? The game literally gives you perks to do exactly that. It's not some secret exploit.

The perk you're talking about - the one that lets you use more ingredients per poison - that's just the standard progression tree. It scales because you're supposed to invest in it. Same reason Destruction gets crazy when you grab the right perks and stack Augmented Frost or whatever. That's not broken, that's just how the game rewards specialization.

Where I'd push back though: on Legendary, yeah, alchemy trivializes combat if you're making custom poisons and actually using them. But most people don't bother because chugging potions mid-fight is tedious and stealth-archer just... works without the setup time. Alchemy's "weak" reputation isn't really about the numbers - it's that the alternatives are faster and require less planning.

Also, the mod stuff is kind of a separate thing. Apotheosis and Thaumaturgy absolutely break alchemy into orbit, but that's modded content. Console players aren't "missing out" on broken balance - they're just playing the vanilla game, which is fine. Not everyone wants to turn their Dragonborn into an alchemical god.

What's your actual endgame with those poisons though? Just one-shotting everything or are you using them for specific encounters?