Just from playtest experience,
I thought I should say the ability of the Ninja to mix Poisons with Smoke Bombs is very powerful, considering many Poisons require multiple Saves to Cure if you Fail the first one. Targetting an AoO based on hitting the Touch AC of open ground makes this alot more effective than Poison-coated weapons, and AFAIK the Smoke Bombs Class Ability works like Alchemist Bombs, i.e. the drawing of the bomb is included in the Standard Action, which is a signifigant advantage vs. everybody else`s action economy. Certainly the Rogue has nothing on this, not to mention many other characters.
I`m not per se opposed to them having an effective tactic, I just don`t see so much justification for them having such a disparity in this area vs. other characters` ability to do such things, since this is basically just an application of the Alchemy skill.
I guess I would be happy with cutting this from the Ninja, and letting players multi-class with Alchemist if they want to do this kind of thing. Just thought I`d share my playtest feedback.
I really like poison bombs. They best not go away.
Have you seen the new poison clarifications in the Paizo Blog? I'm a big fan of those too.
Yes... I wasn`t advocating they go away, I just find some ancilliary mechanics (action economy) and their exclusivity to Ninja (vs anybody else with Alchemy, etc) slightly wierd, and a particularly stark contrast to the Rogue.