I'm reasonably sure you're not meant to apply both direct hit damage and splash damage to the same target. I'll see if I can drag up the ruling.
Ah, here it is.
A splash weapon is a ranged weapon that breaks on impact, splashing or scattering its contents over its target and nearby creatures or objects. To attack with a splash weapon, make a ranged touch attack against the target. Thrown splash weapons require no weapon proficiency, so you don't take the –4 nonproficiency penalty. A hit deals direct hit damage to the target, and splash damage to all creatures within 5 feet of the target. If the target is Large or larger, you choose one of its squares and the splash damage affects creatures within 5 feet of that square. Splash weapons cannot deal precision-based damage (such as the damage from the rogue's sneak attack class feature).
It could be read either way, I guess?
Personally I would not allow both splash damage and direct damage to the target, since the direct damage IS essentially splash damage - the target just gets more of it since the splash weapon impacts on him.
I did a few forum searches and I couldn't find anything conclusive on the topic, but maybe one of the more veteran Rules Questions guys can step in here and clear this up for us.
No, go look at alchemist bombs, which are splash weapons. The rules wouldn't make sense if the direct target took splash damage.
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Direct Damage from the splash weapon and Splash Damage are considered two seperate things that affects the area at the same time, but does not affect the target twice. If a creature was hit with an Insomnia Powder from the Dungeouneer's Handbook, do they have to make two saves, one for the direct hit, and one for the splash? Would an Alchemist with 100 INT toss an alchemist fire to do 1d6+45 to the target, then an additional 46 to the same target because of the splash? I believe the designers try to avoid situations like that.
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Think of it like throwing a water balloon at someone. The target takes the brunt of it and people nearby would get splashed a little. The water wouldn't u-turn in mid splash and hit the target again would it? The target already takes more damage than the splash victims do, why would you compound that?
So the text with acid flask is wrong?
Or is it an exception?
I can see the confusion but I disagree with your interpretation. In both cases I read an implied "other" in the statement.
You can throw a flask of acid as a splash weapon. Treat this attack as a ranged touch attack with a range increment of 10 feet. A direct hit deals 1d6 points of acid damage. Every [other] creature within 5 feet of the point where the acid hits takes 1 point of acid damage from the splash.
To attack with a splash weapon, make a ranged touch attack against the target. Thrown splash weapons require no weapon proficiency, so you don't take the –4 nonproficiency penalty. A hit deals direct hit damage to the target, and splash damage to all [other] creatures within 5 feet of the target.
