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So, in a recent game we had an alchemist with some type of feat (don't know what the feat was) that allowed him to pick up to four squares that took no damage from splash. This I have no problem with as my ranger can hit just about anything no matter what it is hiding behind. However, when he missed his target it didn't matter were the bomb dropped only the target took damage. I was told the reason was that as long as there are no more than 4 friendlies around the square the bomb dropped into they don't get hit. This makes no sense. I would think that when the bomb is thrown the squares that are free of splash damage are set and if the bomb misses the target the splash damage squares adjust. Let me explain what I mean. Let's say that the target is in the center of nine squares and three friendlies are standing in front of the target. The alchemist states that the three friendly squares are safe and throws the bomb. It misses and a roll puts the bomb directly behind the target. Now in the game I played the target would still take splash damage but in my mind the target is now in a safe zone as the bomb dropped behind the target moving the safe zone. In the same example if the bomb dropped in the middle of friendlies everyone would take damage as the safe squares are not on anyone. Feel free to tell me that this is for flow and balance. I don't intend to play an alchemist and anything that means I don't take damage from a friendly is a good thing. The guys I play with say I am too logical and real world, and I am good with that. This is just my two cents.
You are correct, and the alchemist (or the GM) seems to have mis-read the ability. (Or the GM houseruled it). See bolded text.
Precise bombs: Whenever the alchemist throws a bomb, he can select a number of squares equal to his Intelligence modifier that are not affected by the splash damage from his bombs. If the bomb misses, this discovery has no effect.
Taken direct from the prd: http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/advanced/baseClasses/alchemist.html
So the bad guys can't end up in a 'safe' square, but your allies will take the splash damage too.
Depends on how badly the bomb missed. Normal bomb only splashes out to 5 ft. so if you miss by 10 then your original target won't get hit at all, but if one of your allies happens to be standing next to where the bomb went off though, tough luck for them because you can't exclude their square.
In the group I'm in we just keep it simple, if you miss, the bad guy takes the splash damage and not the direct damage. So does everyone else who happens to be unfortunate enough to be there.