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There is an alchemist discovery from Ultimate Combat called "Explosive Missile," which allows an alchemist to infuse, load, and fire a single ammunition item as a standard action. The RAW seems clear on this point, but I'm feeling a little bit of a "too good to be true" vibe coming off of this one.
If I take this discovery, can I really start loading and firing my heavy crossbow as a standard action every round, in addition to gaining bomb damage and effects added to every shot? (At least until I run out of bombs, I guess.) Even with Rapid Reload, I would normally have to take a move action to load a heavy crossbow and then a standard action to fire it.
For clarity, the Explosive missile discovery is presented, below:
Explosive Missile: As a standard action, the alchemist can infuse a single arrow, crossbow bolt, or one-handed firearm bullet with the power of his bomb, load the ammunition, and shoot the ranged weapon. He must be proficient with the weapon in order to accomplish this. When the infused ammunition hits its target, it deals damage normally and detonates as if the alchemist had thrown the bomb at the target. If the explosive missile misses, it does not detonate. An alchemist must be at least 4th level before selecting this discovery.
What do you think, forums? Is the RAI as clear as the RAW is, here?
Thanks in advance,
- the Garden Tool
I wouldn't worry about it. The benefits appear to be that you get to use new weapons range for bomb damage, that your bomb is effectively doing an additional 1d10 (plus relevent additions) from the bolt hitting, and it saves you from needing to pick up rapid reload so long as you have bombs to infuse.
The negatives appear to be that you are still only making one attack per round, which doesn't appear to be able to be combined with fast bombs at 8 making this lackluster in the long run, you're still running through a limited resource, and you no longer get to resolve it as a ranged touch attack.
Honestly I feel the negatives outweigh the positives, and while it is cool thematically it is likely a weak choice for discoveries overall. I don't see it as being OP enough to consider modifying,though as far as it needing thought due to being UP or a trap, YMMV.
Of course, if I missed or glossed over something that you feel is important I'm willing to listen
Yes you can. Its limited by your bombs per day, not terribly game-breaking.
Another yes to the pile.