Explosive bomb

[The smitter]

Explosive bomb*: The alchemist’s bombs now have
a splash radius of 10 feet rather than 5 feet. Creatures
that take a direct hit from an explosive bomb catch fire,
taking 1d6 points of fire damage each round until the
fire is extinguished. Extinguishing the flames is a full round
action that requires a Reflex save. Rolling on the
ground provides the target with a +2 to the save. Dousing
the target with at least 2 gallons of water automatically
extinguishes the flames.

The first line state that well you can read it. Dose this mean all the alchemist bomb have a 10 foot radius or just the base line fire Bombs. I have gone back and forth on this one.

[StabbittyDoom]

It has the magical "*" on it, which means it can't be applied with any other effect that has a "*", which all of the damage-type-changing ones are under. That means that the explosive bombs have to be fire.

[MaxAstro]

Note the * after the name; at the start of discoveries it says that discoveries with a * after their name do not stack; you have to pick one and only one each time you make a bomb.

EDIT: Drat, my first time being ninja'd. :)

[The smitter]

I was thinking that the burning part did not apply but Why not the 10ft radius.

[0gre]

The smitter wrote:

I was thinking that the burning part did not apply but Why not the 10ft radius.

I'm not exactly sure what the thinking was. It might just be limiting the effectiveness of an individual bomb. Also, there are other effects which are based on the splash radius so if you change the splash radius you change the other effects.

[Themetricsystem]

The smitter wrote:

I was thinking that the burning part did not apply but Why not the 10ft radius.

Because doubling the base radius of a bomb can more than double the damage dealt by it depending on what the combat scenario looks like. Letting the radius apply to all bombs would be a HUGE buff that frankly the class does not need.

[The smitter]

OK that is fair, had not thought about the increased damage potential, still it would be cool if it did.
thanks every one

[WhiteReaper]

The real question in this discovery is, does "The alchemist’s bombs now have a splash radius of 10 feet rather than 5 feet." mean "All the Alchemist's bombs with 5 feet splash radius now have a splash radius of 10 feet rather than 5 feet." or does it mean "The alchemist's explosive bombs now have a splash radius of 10 feet rather than 5 feet." ?

If it is only the explosive bomb, why doesn't it say like in other bomb discoveries: "When the alchemist creates a bomb, he can choose to have it 10 feet radius rather then 5 feet and Creatures that take a direct hit from an explosive bomb catch fire, taking 1d6 points of fire damage each round until the fire is extinguished. Extinguishing the flames is a full round action that requires a Reflex save. Rolling on the ground provides the target with a +2 to the save. Dousing the target with at least 2 gallons of water automatically extinguishes the flames."

[ArtyFM]

the 10 ft radius would only be OP for the smoke bomb path, imo. Explosive bomb has the most damage potential for a direct hit, not counting resistances. It deals the extra 1d6 damage indefinitely, until the enemy takes a full round action to extinguish himself.

because of the resistances though, i might be better off taking acid, frost, and shock bombs, since i can already deal fire damage with my regular bombs. then take sticky bombs when i qualify for the extra DoT.

that being said, it is a pretty good buff for the fire bombs. especially good for those situations where you have a large mob of weaker enemies.

I'll see how my DM interprets this. I wish they just wrote it like this though:

"When the alchemist creates a bomb, he can choose to make an explosive bomb. Explosive bombs have a splash radius of 10 feet rather than 5 feet. Creatures that take a direct hit from an explosive bomb catch fire, etc."

This would allow you to choose between making a regular bomb, or an explosive bomb. Really only useful at low levels where you either don't have precise bomb, or you're just afraid of missing.

[ArtyFM]

0gre wrote:

there are other effects which are based on the splash radius so if you change the splash radius you change the other effects.

Oh, and this almost seems like a reason to interpret this as affecting all bombs. Unless they worded the smoke bomb discovery to acommodate future released discoveries (i.e. strafe bomb). If not, they should have just said smoke bombs affect an area with a 10 ft radius.

[roger Gilbert]

Would that fire damage stack with a second hit or an arrow that does similar?

[roger Gilbert]

what i'm trying to get at if i use a Explosive bomb on a enemy twice would they now be takeing 2d6 or would it still just be 1d6...

[Brooks]

roger Gilbert wrote:

what i'm trying to get at if i use a Explosive bomb on a enemy twice would they now be takeing 2d6 or would it still just be 1d6...

Being on fire does not stack; once you are on fire, you're on fire, you cannot be even more on fire. Hitting an opponent with an explosive bomb who was already on fire (for whatever reason) would deal the normal bomb damage, but would not increase the 1d6 per round for being on fire.

[roger Gilbert]

Thanks for your help...