My party is having trouble mixing up various potions and powders ...

What classes and/or skills can do this?

I don't have an alchemist, but do have 3 characters with skills in alchemy ( ranger, ninja, bishop ) It seems as if everyone in my party can mix healing potions to get a hvy heal - but none of them can merge anything else !! Usually its a message "These items cannot be merged". OK, so that combination is a dud, I don't try that recipe again. Sometimes its a message "XXXXX cannot merge these items". All right, possible recipe but wrong class? not enough skill? wrong skill?

I wanna get the good stuff !!

Pang.

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Pangur Ban:
Sometimes its a message "XXXXX cannot merge these items". All right, possible recipe but wrong class? not enough skill? wrong skill?

I wanna get the good stuff !!

Pang.<hr></blockquote>

Not high enough Alchemy skill

Class does not matter, neither does other skills

Any character with Alchemy skill can combine potions/powders, it's just a matter of having high enough skill for the recipe you're attempting.

As you guessed, if the game tells you that the items can't be merged, it means that a combination of those items isn't possible. If you're getting the error message "XXX cannot merge these items" and you are using a character that has, or can train the Alchemy skill, you need to raise your skill before you can combine those items.

You can experiment to figure out the recipes yourself, or if you want a list of recipes other people have found, check out the following URL (just see the Gadgeteer/Alchemist Recipe spoiler link). It seems to be a site that compiles information from various forums and has some useful info.

http://www.geocities.com/jandrall