I was genuinely surprised that there was only one way to play a bombing alchemist.
I think having precise shot and precise bomb discovery would be nice as an bomb throwing alchemist. So you do not take a shooting into melee penalty.
I am geniunely thinking of making an elf mindchemist npc with breadth of expirence feat to beomce really knowledgeable and maybe help people out and maybe add a few expert levels for an npc.
The mad bomber who plagues Fake Healer's monsters is a gnome who converted his favored class bonus into an extra half a bomb per level, which is a whopping +7 bombs at this point. He's almost completely a one trick pony, but it is a surprisingly good trick. With materials from UM and UC I'm sure much more balanced Alchemists who can both toss bombs and enter melee as more than a flanker/nuisance should be possible. Heck, when a Preservationist runs out of bombs he could whip up some dire tigers (maybe celestial even).
Anyhow, as far as the bombs themselves go, they seem pretty brutal due to the FAQ ruling that Fast Bombs lets you throw a lot of bombs each round. The damage potential is very high, but you can do a lot of damage with stuff like Scorching Ray too if you're determined enough. What makes the bombs nastier is the Force Bombs discovery. Little if anything in the game resists force, so the full damage gets through all the time.
I guess this could also come up if somebody decided to play an Evoker who specializes in Force Punch and has access to the right trait, feats, and magical equipment.
Doctor Wu - Precise Bomb seems pretty critical to me. You also want to throw your bombs from the first range increment when possible so that misses don't randomly splash your allies.
Bombs are pretty powerful, but the bombing Alchemist has weaknesses too. So overall, I'd say that bombs are not overpowered.
That'll be two cents, please.
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The mad bomber who plagues Fake Healer's monsters is a gnome who converted his favored class bonus into an extra half a bomb per level, which is a whopping +7 bombs at this point. He's almost completely a one trick pony, but it is a surprisingly good trick. With materials from UM and UC I'm sure much more balanced Alchemists who can both toss bombs and enter melee as more than a flanker/nuisance should be possible. Heck, when a Preservationist runs out of bombs he could whip up some dire tigers (maybe celestial even).
Anyhow, as far as the bombs themselves go, they seem pretty brutal due to the FAQ ruling that Fast Bombs lets you throw a lot of bombs each round. The damage potential is very high, but you can do a lot of damage with stuff like Scorching Ray too if you're determined enough. What makes the bombs nastier is the Force Bombs discovery. Little if anything in the game resists force, so the full damage gets through all the time.
I guess this could also come up if somebody decided to play an Evoker who specializes in Force Punch and has access to the right trait, feats, and magical equipment.
Doctor Wu - Precise Bomb seems pretty critical to me. You also want to throw your bombs from the first range increment when possible so that misses don't randomly splash your allies.
You should post some of damage outputs on those sticky lil' force bastards per round that you do and how many total bombs you run around with at various levels...
BTW, I am fine with the alchemist in my game it is just that he takes some getting used to and requires extended fighting days with no rest in order to challenge him. He's much better when I get him to watch his bomb output due to having to get through more than 6 encounters per day.
I can't speak to more recent innovations (have not scoured UC or UM really), but just using the APG, playing the alchemist was pretty fun in the early levels.
As a one-trick bombing pony, Alchemist rocks in his role. He's good for other options early on, but unless those get kicked up a notch with Discovery selections, they don't age too well.
On top of that, a one-trick pony Alchemist can still be humbled a bit. Spells like Resist Elements, Draconic Reservoir and other sources of energy resistance can take a good bite out of per-bomb damage, and only needs a moderate knowledge of the party to make it a reasonable (non-metagame) choice for the antagonists. Those spells can be removed with Dispelling Bomb, true, but then the bomb does no other damage, only affects one target at a time, and unless someone is up with their Knowledge: Arcana skill, they'll need a round or two to figure out that the bomb damage is being reduced before they tweak to what's happening and throw a Dispeller. Meanwhile, the other party members are rocking it out with style (or at least could be).
Just as with any ranged attacker, smoke effects, illusions, lighting, cover, invisibility and other things can just plain ruin their day, or at least make them "waste" actions repositioning or drinking to get See Invisible or whatever. Even if they go for splash damage to an opponent they can't see or otherwise hit, that is automatically minimum damage, usually with no secondary effect.
If everything is ideal, they can shine. In diverse circumstances? They have a chance to fake it better than other classes out of their element, but that speaks more to how unnaturally specialized other classes are than how badly the Alchemist is made.
Edited.
"The most important rule: Don't be a jerk. We want our messageboards
to be a fun and friendly place. "It's a phrase in the place where you reply. If you are playing a morphing alchemist, take the feats to support it. If you are a more bomb-throwing build of alchemist, take the feats to support it.
Don't let the anonymity of the internet allow you to treat people differently then you would in person.
Well considering he has at most 5 feats I would think he'd want point blank and precise shot more than extra bombs, and he might want rapid shot or two weapon fighting (perhaps both), otherwise he's not going to get out that much bomb damage.
But sure if you are only tossing two bombs a round then you'll have plenty.
Personally I'm not that worried about bombs. The over all damage if fairly low per bomb at each level, the area of effect is rather small, and the splash damage is low as well. The extra effects that are possible are generally limited to a single target are are rarely (if ever) actual SoS or SoD effects.