Alchemist + Party = ???

[Seth Brummond]

I play a level 8 alchemist in a home brew setting that barely deviates from the core PFS rules. (We level at a slower progression basically.)
How do I become a better party member? Or more importantly, how can I assist other party members? I don't want to take the spot light with my damage dealing, and I have.

How I try my best:

I have precise bombs, frost bombs, and fast bombs. I have the trait to get me a 5% reduction in brewing potions, but no party members have expressed an interest. Outside of combat, I am the knowledge guy and craft(Alchemy) guy.

In combat, I fly, hasted, and fast bombs until the enemies stop moving. I'm doing tons of damage and the party makes quick work of most encounters with three precise bombs per turn from the flying Alisto.

TL;DR: How do I stop taking the spotlight and become the guide on the side?

[hogarth]

Do you have the Infusion discovery? The easiest way to help your party is to share your extracts with them, I think.

[Mojorat]

infusion discovery as Hogarth mentioned. in our second darkness game the alchemist used crowd control stuff stinking cloud etc it often allowed melded to get close safer which helped the whole group.

if your standing out that much though the problem could be your group. alchemists are nice but not usually known for standing out above other classes

[0gre]

It's expensive but consider getting a wand of haste so your whole party benefits from it. As long as you don't blow through the charges it should last a long time too.

[Demoyn]

How do you have enough bombs to outshine the party? You should have somewhere in the area of 18 bombs per day at level 10, meaning that a combat lasting three rounds would cause you to be out of bombs after two combats.

[Maerimydra]

Take the Force Bombs Discovery: your target will fall prone and the your buddy Fighter will get an AoO when your target get up, so the Fighter will become the new spotlight. :D

[Thalin]

Yeah, if party can't keep up they are pretty bad; 8d6 max per round is nothing by level 8, and you run out of bombs.

[Snorb]

Other things that may help out the party:

Launching crossbow- costs 75 gold, and has a range increment of 20'. Really useful for throwing potions, alchemist's fire, liquid ice, acid flasks, or holy water.

Invest in alchemist's fire, acid flasks, and liquid ice- sure, they do far less damage than your bombs, but every one you throw is one less bomb you're not. (And it helps you not blow up the entire party, like my alchemist's tending to do in Legacy of Fire.)

Even better: Poisons. Anything that has a poison ability, extract some of that after the party kills it. You have swift poisoning, and you can use daggers and crossbows, and nothing can screw up an enemy's day like scorpion and stegopede venom.

[Dragonsong]

I will agree with the infusion discovery suggestion hogarth made. being able to enlarge person, haste, true strike etc. on the fighter types or let them can make you feel more like a support/buff character. my personal favorite in the lvl 5 test run we did was alchemical alocation (alch lvl 2) as an infusion. Here drink this now drink the potion of Bull's Strength and then spit it back in the vial for later so you can double dip on potions. Getting 2 uses out of a potion will make them want you to make stuff for them.

As to the question of keeping up with you damage wise how many encounters per day does your GM usually have? If you are having 5+ a day you will see a drastic balance out of your few rounds of hasted bombs and thier over time damage, also if you make the melee types large they have less to fear of a bomb taking a bad bounce.