Alchemy

One of the few magical disciplines that does not require any sort of shaping skills to use, alchemy is basically magical chemistry – gather the proper ingredients and follow the recipe in order to get a magical product. Medical elixirs and salves, temporary augmentation potions, powerful poisons, mind-affecting brews, exotic alloys and extra-durable construction materials are just some of the examples of what alchemy is capable of.

Alchemy is not a very difficult field to dabble in, but it is very expensive to seriously pursue. The materials for alchemy are not cheap, and neither is equipment. Additionally, alchemy is tightly regulated in most places, as well as already controlled by established alchemical workshops that usually have special access to valuable alchemical ingredients and knowledge of secret methods that make their products cheaper and/or better than any newcomer can possibly be. Thus, mages who decide to specialize in alchemy either come from families already involved with alchemical trade or are exceptionally wealthy and thus able to finance an attempt to break into the field.^[1]

The basic uses of alchemy are medical (though not general-purpose healing potions; those exist but aren't exactly beginner's level stuff), minor enhancement (boost your magic resistance, endurance, reaction times and the like; these are more like magical drugs than no-strings-attached bonuses, though), mind-altering concoctions (lower your inhibitions without suffering loss of coordination from being drunk, things like that; general intelligence boost don't exist in MoL-verse), and creation of super-substances (powerful glues, oils, treated wood, enhanced metals, and so on). Golem animation cores generally require alchemical materials.

Transformation potions (including enhancement potions based on transformation) are doable at beginner level, but not commonly taught to students, as they are considered dangerous.

Beginners can also make magical poisons pretty easily, but that is likewise not taught.^[2]