|
I had this situation come up in a game I was running the other night. Does anyone know how an alchemist bomb works against mirror image figments?
I believe that if the alchemist targets the grid intersection rather than a foe, the foe gets a save for half damage vs. the splash damage of the bomb and no figments are destroyed.
I further believe if you target a foe and actually hit the target, the target takes full damage and still no figments are destroyed.
Here is where it gets tricky. What happens if the bomb targets a figment? I seems reasonable that if the figments AC is achieved, the figment is destroyed. The mirror image spell states "Spells that require a touch attack are harmlessly discharged if used to destroy a figment." Does the bomb destroy the figment and fail to activate?
If it does activate, what happens to the effect of the bomb? Does it go off and hit the foe with splash damage? Does it miss and sail past the foe per the normal scatter rules?
What if the bomb targets the figment and misses the AC? Does the bomb scatter as normal? I suspect the answer is yes.
It depends on how you view the bombs as working: Do they explode on impact, or are they on a timer which the alchemist has set to explode when they reach a certain trajectory?
If it's the timer and trajectory, it will explode where the figment is just as neatly as it would if it hit the target in fact will be somewhat neater since the non-facing rules defy logic. After all, if you throw a grenade at someone in real life, their body can shield the person behind them from the blast, to say nothing of what should happen with a wizard with voluminous robes and anything called a "splash weapon."
If it's "impact" that's the trick, you can either say they sail on through after they pop the mirror image, or you can rule that mirror image has enough "shadow reality" to trigger the impact on the bomb.
I'd personally go with the last because it makes metaphysical sense and also saves book-keeping.