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So bombs in the resonance test now have higher level effects. That means anyone who finds or makes that bomb can use it. However with the Empower Bomb, you'll notice that when you make a level 1 bomb and empower it, it is the same as a higher level bomb, you just have access to the damage 1 level before. An empowered bomb to 3rd level does the same damage as a 4th level bomb, but you get it a level earlier.

Perfect, thanks for the clarifications guys. Just when I read the bomb section, it say drawing, preparing and throwing like they are all supposed to be separate actions and I'm like well I guess I could see preparing as like, lighting a fuse or something so I was worried it was like a whole turn thing.

Glad that's not the case.

I assumed you wouldn't want them because there are better feats at those levels.

And you're right. Again, to the point that splash damage seems like the tiniest tick and the Focus effect of Alchemist's fire is useless.

This applies to the proposed changes in Resonance Test

So most of the Bomb's do 1 splash damage but this doesn't change at any level for the bombs in the Resonance test. A level 20 Alchemist's fire still only does 1 splash damage.

Given the importance of Focus points as another resource to keep track of, I wanted to point out the complete uselessness of the Focus point ability of Alchemist's Fire.

Acid Flask can have a focus point spent to do the persistent damage up front, pretty neat and good. Alchemist's Fire allows you to spend a focus point to increase the splash radius from 5 ft to 10 ft. However the splash damage is 1 damage, at all levels. So I am using a Focus point to do 1 damage to each creature within 10 ft, at level 1 up to level 20. This just seems very weak and pointless.

Am I missing something about splash damage?

It is always 1, all the time for bombs that do splash damage. I think splash damage should be changed so that it counts for something at later levels.
I also think Alchemist's Fire should be changed too. The Focus effect should make it so that each creature within the splash radius (and if Paizo is being generous keep the increased splash radius for the Focus effect) also take the persistent damage.

Sorry on a side note with quick bomber, when you make a bomb, would it not already count as being drawn?

So since quick bomber allows you to draw a bomb and make one, would you have 2 bombs in hand, the one you created and the 1 you drew for free as part of quick bomber or does making a bomb with quick alchemy not count as having it drawn and you would make the bomb and then draw the bomb you just made?

Pretty new to the concept of the 3 action system. I was just wondering for a player using alchemical bombs in combat, does it take 3 actions to use a bomb attack assuming you didn't have one in hand?

1 action to Draw the bomb
1 action to Prepare the bomb
1 action to Throw the Bomb (which would be a strike action)

or do you just need to draw and throw the bomb for 2 actions.

Using the Quick Bomber feat, assuming it takes 3 actions

you would draw 2 bombs with one action, one in each hand.
Assuming the requirement of one hand needed, you could just use one hand to draw, prepare and throw each bomb so in your turn you would draw 2 bombs, prepare one, and then throw the prepared bomb, then next turn prepare the other bomb, throw it and then draw 2 bombs.

Or if it just takes 2 actions, you would draw 2 bombs, throw them both each turn.

Which is the right way to do this?

But what part of the spectrum needs to change? The casters need more power to contribute to DPR or the martials need less power?

I was thinking that just hacking at something shouldn't be consistent top damage. Then you can go into characters trying to get the best bonuses for those heroic strikes.

Mind you the resonance system needs some big changes to so tying a fix to it is asking for another fix.

I've seen a few discussions on the forums about how caster classes feel like their damage just doesn't compete. One discussions a player had was when he could cast disintegrate, which at the level you obtain is severely limited in the amount of times you could cast it. In comparison to their party's fighter with a magic weapon appropriate for that weapon, the damage difference was negligible and the fighter just had to swing his sword which he could do as many times in a day as he wanted really.

This and the discussions on casters damage output being low made me a bit concerned but I wonder if there was a fix that could be applied so that casters still had their place as a nuke and the disparity between martials and casters was a smaller gap. Ironic considering for the history of RPG's casters usually dominate especially at high levels.

So a system the new edition has is resonance points. What if magic weapons were tied to resonance points. I love the change to them in that they do more damage and feel incredibly special. But what if they added that attack bonus and half the damage dice of their level for every swing but you could use a resonance point to up the damage of the sword to max dice potential or for weapon variety, they would have much more effects the weapon could do for resonance points so that high level weapons aren't just there to be a big club.

So for example a +4 sword would add +4 to hit and 2 damage dice, but for a resonance point do the full 4 damage dice effect.

Just some thoughts. Maybe the problem that I perceived reading other posts isn't a big deal in reality except for a few scenarios or maybe this isn't a solution in the right direction.