What would happen if, let's say, an archer (fighter archetype) uses trick shot as a readied action to sunder an alchemist's bomb just before it's thrown? First, do you think it's a legal move? If you do, would the alchemist be considered as the target of the bomb (like a direct hit) or would he only takes the splash damage of the bomb? What about disarming the bomb before it's thrown? Would it explode when hitting the ground?
|
It is legal to sunder a weapon (and an alchemist's bomb is one) for an Archer with the trick shot ability.
The alchemist takes no damage since his weapon (the bomb) did not hit anything before it was sundered. The damage of the bomb comes after it hits something.
In the same way, if you ready a sunder against an enemy's weapon when he attacks and you succeed, his attack will do no harm because it never lands.
It is legal to sunder a weapon (and an alchemist's bomb is one) for an Archer with the trick shot ability.
The alchemist takes no damage since his weapon (the bomb) did not hit anything before it was sundered. The damage of the bomb comes after it hits something.
In the same way, if you ready a sunder against an enemy's weapon when he attacks and you succeed, his attack will do no harm because it never lands.
That seems like a fair implementation of the RAW and I might just go with that. Otherwise, even if it's just a corner case, it could be a little unfair for the alchemist.
I'd love to see a developer ruling on this. In general "sundering" a bomb would either make the bomb not explode, or else would produce a flash of fire when the gunpowder burned, not an explosion. Explosions are the result of the gunpowder burning in a tightly enclosed place that ruptures, creating a shock wave. Sundering a bomb would mean the gunpowder would just burn.
So I could see splash damage maybe, but I could also see no damage at all and just a broken bomb.
|
I think something everyone is missing is the fact that bombs are made of 2 vials of chemicals, the catalist and the base. In order for an Archer to sunder a bomb, he would have to wait for the two vials to be mixed together, then have the perfect aim to shoot a constintly moveing target (shaking the vial to mix the components and then it being thrown). Now, you could rule that he could take the shot and destroy one of the vials, but not both, thus, no big explosion, no splash either. At least, that is what I would rule.
Since it's an archer fighter, a more prudent method would just be to pincushion the alchemist and do more damage that way. :)
This is really just the "can I ready an action to shoot a fireball bead?" question in a different scenario. There was a big thread about that awhile ago, I think by, of course, ravingdork.
Since it's an archer fighter, a more prudent method would just be to pincushion the alchemist and do more damage that way. :)
This is really just the "can I ready an action to shoot a fireball bead?" question in a different scenario. There was a big thread about that awhile ago, I think by, of course, ravingdork.
Well, if Drizzt did it in one of his book... :P
I think something everyone is missing is the fact that bombs are made of 2 vials of chemicals, the catalist and the base. In order for an Archer to sunder a bomb, he would have to wait for the two vials to be mixed together, then have the perfect aim to shoot a constintly moveing target (shaking the vial to mix the components and then it being thrown). Now, you could rule that he could take the shot and destroy one of the vials, but not both, thus, no big explosion, no splash either. At least, that is what I would rule.
Ah, yeah, not gunpowder. But the same general effect as I posted. Sundering the bomb essentially makes it a bunch of broken stuff that doesn't go boom. That's probably how I'd rule.
|
|
Not to threadjack but i had a similar situation. I had an issue week before last where my whip master readied an action to disarm an alchemist if he had thrown a bomb. I rolled a nat 20 but after looking at some things, it was ruled that a bomb was undisarmable due to it being a supernatural ability. Has anyone encountered this before, is it RAW, and is there any other way to stop a alchemist from throwing a bomb?
Since it's an archer fighter, a more prudent method would just be to pincushion the alchemist and do more damage that way. :)
This is really just the "can I ready an action to shoot a fireball bead?" question in a different scenario. There was a big thread about that awhile ago, I think by, of course, ravingdork.
The answer is yes because if the bead hits anything it explodes by the rules. Why is it a question?