Alchemist is built for Eberron Halflings. There's one racial feat for halflings that is huge for alchemists:
Shaped Splash [Racial] (Races of Eberron, p 111)
Prereq: Halfling, Dex 13, BAB +1
Benefit: If you throw a splash weapon and it hits the creature you target, you can immediately make a second attack against any creature adjacent to the first. If the second attack succeeds, the secondary target also takes direct hit damage from the thrown splash weapon. In addition, you can choose not to deal splash damage to specified creatures that occupy spaces adjacent to one or both targets.
Now, alternatively, you can get your DM to allow you the feat without the halfling requirement in which case... well... your bombs are a lot more effective, especially when throwing bombs into melee with your precise shot.
Also you'll want Grenadier from PHB2 (p 79) which gives you an additional +1 on attack rolls with splash weapons, and +1 damage with them (to both primary and splash damage)
Besides Far Shot, Point-Blank Shot and Precise Shot (and maybe Shot on the Run), the Core Rulebook doesnt have great feats for alchemists taking (Vital Strike and IVS works, but only the first dice is doubled, the others dice are extra damage, as noted in the APG Playtes Final, same for critical). So, you can choose feats to help you overall, like Improved Initiative, Iron Will and Improved Iron Will (help with your low Will), Medium Armor Proficiency (only to get mithral ones, for the movement thing), Fleet, Skill Focus and Item Creation feats.
Lets wait the final Advanced Player Guide, it will bring some nice feats for alchemists.
Ah, I missed the core-only part. Yeah, there aren't a lot of useful feats for you to take, then. Even item creation feats don't really work out since the class description implies that the Alchemist has no caster level, only a virtual caster level when combined with the "Brew Potion" feat-equivalent that it gets as a class feature.
You'll just have to wait on the book itself if the DM won't entertain non-core feats.
A new player is asking me about playing an alchemist.
After reading it, and then seeing this post, I'm wondering why would you really want to go nova with your bombs?
At 3rd level you probably only have around 8 bombs per day. With rapid shot, that means only 4 rounds and then you are out of bombs until tomorrow, right?
I'm sure you are very likely to have more than 4 rounds of combat each day, so what do you plan to do the rest of the time?
I'm not trying to be sarcastic - I'm legitimately wondering how the alchemist class plans to be effective in combat, and while I see the benefit of going nova and front-loading your damage, I am actually curious about what you'll do for the other 15 or 20 rounds of combat you're likely to have each day.
Well this would obviously depend on your game. I'm running a game with a Goblin, Alchemist and in our last session he didn't use a bomb once. The one before that I think he used them twice.
A new player is asking me about playing an alchemist.
After reading it, and then seeing this post, I'm wondering why would you really want to go nova with your bombs?
At 3rd level you probably only have around 8 bombs per day. With rapid shot, that means only 4 rounds and then you are out of bombs until tomorrow, right?
I'm sure you are very likely to have more than 4 rounds of combat each day, so what do you plan to do the rest of the time?
I'm not trying to be sarcastic - I'm legitimately wondering how the alchemist class plans to be effective in combat, and while I see the benefit of going nova and front-loading your damage, I am actually curious about what you'll do for the other 15 or 20 rounds of combat you're likely to have each day.
I've played an Alchemist from level 2-7 in a long epic campaign and there has never been a single moment that I couldn't be of some kind of use for the others.
I would recommend you to get Infusion early on so that you can buff other players with spells they wouldn't normally be able to use (True strike comes to mind) and heal them if you feel like it.
If you want to be effective in combat then most of the archer feats will serve you well, but by RAW rapid sot won't work. Igniting and throwing a bomb is a standard action, not an attack action. When you get Fast bombs at level 8 it might work if your DM allows it.
Also be sure to have other kinds of bombs available to you than fire. The ice bomb staggers the enemy while the electrical bomb merely dazzles, although the latter one doesn't allow a save vs the effect. It's your choice.
Heads up, you cannot rapid shot bombs.
+1
The only way to throw more bombs per round is with fast bombs. You can throw a maximum of 3 bombs per round once you reach level 15.
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this is not true. there is a way to rapid shot bombs. it's called the Launching Crossbow from the Adventurer's Armory (pg 4). the footnote says it's also in the Campaign Setting, but i couldn't find it. basically it's a crossbow with a cup that fires out grenades and bombs. now you combine this with the Crossbow Mastery feat from the Curse of the Crimson Throne Player's Guide (pg 10) that allows you to make a full attack with a crossbow with all attacks you would normally get with any other weapon, and you can really decimiate your supply of bombs in 1 round. the feat has 3 other feat prereqs and the crossbow burns an exotic weapon proficiency feat, so you are looking at lvl 7 minimum before you can do all this, but you can really unload bombs if you want.
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since the ability says "this functions just like a full-attack with a ranged weapon" i'd let them work together. either that or allow the bow feats apply. i mean the Crossbow Mastery feat allows you reload as a free action. you you are already that fast at making and throwing bombs with the Fast Bomb discovery. i'm leaning more towards Crossbow Mastery though. i haven't seen an alchemist at high level yet, so i'm not exactly sure how overpowered this can get. burning the extra feats to fire off bombs like a grenade launcher seems like a fair trade off to me.
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yeah. you're trading in the easy way to hit for carpet bombing the area. nothing says you have to use the crossbow every time you want to attack. you can throw bombs normally, but you won't be allowed to apply things like rapid shot or many shot. it's a trade-off, but i think it gives the player more options on how to play their character.
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Heads up, you cannot rapid shot bombs. Rapid Shot is specifically for Ranged Weapons. While bombs are indeed a ranged attack, they are in fact Thrown Splash Weapons. This coupled with the fact that they, like alchemist fire do not appear on a weapon list(they are more items than weapons) should alone be clue enough, but there's more. The feat rapid shot uses the word FIRED as its descriptor, thrown weapons and thrown splash weapons are just that, thrown not fired. Rapid shot is thus specifically targeted at bows, crossbows, slings, and guns which all fire ammunition of some kind.
As for TWF I'm not sure weather it would work or not, as it works with thrown weapons like shuriken and throwing knives. Then again these are weapons, which do appear on weapons charts, and require a normal attack roll not just a ranged touch as the bombs do. Anyone got a ruling on this?
P4 of the Final Class Playtest PDF : "Bombs are considered a weapon and can be selected using feats such as Point Blank Shot and Weapon Focus."
Hence, the TWF chain works. In fact, everything that would work for throwing daggers works for throwing bombs (except for the no-precision damage part : no sneak attacking with bombs, doh).
BTW, Rapid Shot also works because it is for all Ranged weapons and "Ranged weapons are thrown weapons or projectile weapons that are not effective in melee." (p 141 of the core).
But, as DM Blake mentioned, it does not make the alchemist broken. Just more fun to play :-)
Edit : of course, all of this requires Fast Bomb too
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If you haven't already considered it, look at "Splash Weapon Mastery" from the Adventurer's Armory. It makes your bombs a little less erratic when you miss and gives you an extra 5' square of splash.
I've been struggling with the same feat issues with my alchemist and I found perhaps the biggest problem the lack of a +1 BAB at level 1. That really limits ones options, especially if they want to take a more melee oriented tack. For your ranged character though, precise shot, improved precise shot, and the like might be useful (and by extension you're required to take point blank shot), and I think far shot and shot on the run could be especially handy for a ranged alchemist.
GREETINGS FROM 2010
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Proving once again that you CAN argue with history.
And that history repeats. Apparently every two years.
Dates are hard
At least they are when they've been eaten, digested, voided, and fossilized over years.
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Not sure why there's so many folks hating on late contributions. So long as this thread continues to exist, it's like an immortal document of Pathfinder fan reference material. I still find it useful, here on the edge of 2016, and it's only more useful if people are still throwing in their 2 cents every 2 years or so. Does that somehow bother people, philosophically?
Hello people from the future. In two years when this thread opens up again, I want you to remind me that leaving a message for my future self when I had nothing to say was a stupid idea.
Not sure why there's so many folks hating on late contributions. So long as this thread continues to exist, it's like an immortal document of Pathfinder fan reference material. I still find it useful, here on the edge of 2016, and it's only more useful if people are still throwing in their 2 cents every 2 years or so. Does that somehow bother people, philosophically?
It's because it's pointless to continue this discussion. It's based entirely on several faulty premises because it's in a thread made before the class was officially released.
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