Alchemist discovery Sunlight Bomb


Rules Questions


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Here's the description of Sunlight Bomb:

Quote:
The alchemist can throw bombs that explode with a searing radiance equivalent to that of sunlight and that act as blinding bombs. Undead, fungi, molds, oozes, slimes, and creatures to which sunlight is harmful or unnatural take +2 damage per die from the bomb. Undead that are harmed by sunlight and that fail their saves against the bomb are staggered for 1 round.

My question: does the staggering effect require a direct hit (using a Fort save, a la Blinding Bomb), or does it work on a splash (using a Reflex save)?

My first thought was that it requires a direct hit and a Fort save, but it's a bit confusing because undead are immune to the blinding effect (it's a non-harmless Fort save effect that doesn't say it works on objects), so the line "Undead that [..] fail their saves against the bomb" wouldn't make sense.


To add to the FAQ: if the intent was to use the Reflex save associated with the bomb to apply the stagger effect, what happens to the undead hit directly by the bomb (as they don't make a Reflex save)?


As written I see the reflex save is the one that would apply to undead hit by splash, since a dex save is the default for bombs and splash weapon splash damage. It would then seem to imply that the primary target would make a reflex save, otherwise the primary target would be the only target not capable of being affected by the bomb, which would be counterintuitive. You can use the reference to the save itself as the justification for having it.
Undead are immune to effects requiring Fort saves, as noted above, and this discovery as written doesn't specifically override that. Therefore I would recommend ignoring the reference to the blinding bomb in regards to undead. It may or may not have the author's intent to have Fort saves, but since language to back that up didn't make it in here we can't opperate under what is only possible RAI.

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