Are Experimental Elixirs Magic Items?

Question

I admittedly can't get a straight answer on a seemingly simple question. I would like to recreate Pathfinder 1e's Vivisectionist by making a Alchemist Artificer/Rogue multiclass, and I was wondering if I could use the Thief's Fast Hands feature to drink the Experimental Elixirs created by the Alchemist. Fast Hands explicitly disallows one from activating magic items, but these elixirs are not explicitly denoted as magic items. So, does this mean that they are not (given there is nothing to say otherwise) and, thus, I can drink them as a bonus action using my Fast Hands class feature?

Answer 1

Experimental elixirs are magical

Experimental elixirs can be created using spell slots:

You can create additional experimental elixirs by expending a spell slot of 1st level or higher for each one.

The Sage Advice Compendium explicitly states on page 21 that any feature "fueled by the use of spell slots" is magical. Hence, experimental elixirs are magical. (The fact that not all elixirs are created from spell slots doesn't change the fact that the feature is fueled by spell slots.)

Answer 2

They're probably magical, but you probably can't use them with Use an Object either way.

Unfortunately, it isn't quite as explicit as I would like, things are generally only magical if the game feature says "this thing is magical. However, making such a distinction may be splitting hairs, as the feature description for experimental elixirs states:

Whenever you finish a long rest, you can magically produce an experimental elixir in an empty flask you touch.

So producing them is definitely magical, and one of the potential effects is explicitly magical:

Transformation. The drinker’s body is transformed as if by the alter self spell. The drinker determines the transformation caused by the spell, the effects of which last for 10 minutes.

So I'll say it's "up to the DM", but to me, I lean pretty hard toward "yes, these are magical" and would not allow them to be consumed via Fast Hands.

Further supporting this is the fact that the feature probably restricts their use to the action granted specifically by the feature:

As an action, a creature can drink the elixir or administer it to an incapacitated creature.

I don't think Use an Object is an eligible sort of action for using the elixirs, magical or not. But again, ask your DM.

Answer 3

It doesn't matter

Experimental Elixir requires an action:

As an action, a creature can drink the elixir

Which means Fast Hands isn't applicable according to DMG p. 141 "Activating an Item":

If an item requires an action to activate, that action isn't a function of the Use an Item action, so a feature such as the rogue's Fast Hands can't be used to activate the item.

Magical or not, you still can't drink an elixir using the Fast Hands feature.