Holy Bombs - What is "good divine damage"?

[Unruly]

The description for the Holy Bombs discovery is this -

Holy Bombs wrote:

When the alchemist creates a bomb, he can choose to have it deal good divine damage. Evil creatures that take a direct hit from a holy bomb must succeed at a Fortitude save or be staggered on their next turn. Against neutral creatures, holy bombs deal half damage, and such targets are not affected by their staggering effect. Holy bombs have no effect on good-aligned creatures.

As far as I was aware, Divine and Arcane are simply types of magic and there isn't anything that really differentiates between them outside of casting spells, using scrolls, etc. Good is an alignment, and while there is DR/Good, it doesn't say that the bombs suddenly start doing B/P/S damage, so DR wouldn't apply. There isn't any Energy Resistance: Good or ER: Divine, so there's no way to stop it on that front.

So what, exactly, is "good divine damage?" Is it some nebulous damage type that can't be countered except by your alignment?

If a Holy Bomb is thrown by a Neutral character, would Protection from Good still work against the attack because the damage is specifically typed as good despite the spell saying it works based on your attacker's alignment?

It seems to me that the discovery is poorly worded or at least badly explained. Granted, I don't have the actual splatbook that it's in(Champions of Purity) and am going by the listing on D20PFSRD, so it could be on there with something missing, but they're usually pretty good about getting it right.

[Pupsocket]

Unruly wrote:

So what, exactly, is "good divine damage?" Is it some nebulous damage type that can't be countered except by your alignment?

Yes, that's exactly what it is. See also: Flame Strike.

[Rynjin]

It's kinda like Hellfire damage, which is "unholy evil fire that's not actually fire and not subject to Fire resistance and there is no resistance that applies to it except being Evil".

It's the good equivalent of that. New energy type that nothing has ER to, but Good people are immune.

Or, more accurately, it's Holy Smite in Bomb form.

[Unruly]

Ok, so if it's a nebulous damage type, but it's declared as being Good-aligned, does that mean that Protection from Good would affect it regardless of the throwing alchemist's actual alignment?

[Rynjin]

No. Protection from Good has three specific effects. The other two are mind affecting effects and summoned creature protection, so no.

The other is a +2 bonus to AC and on saves against attacks made by Good creatures. Good creatures specifically.

[Taenia]

The bomb does divine damage, that is the damage type and since that is a form of "energy" it ignores damage reduction.

The good part is important as some evil creatures regenerate unless damage from a "good" source is used which can do real damage and block their regeneration.

So Good Divine Damage ignores DR, and counts as good for purposes of being hit with a good attack.

[Nefreet]

It's one of the few options an Alchemist has of dealing full damage to a Demon, which is resistant or immune to most energy types.

[Unruly]

I kind of figured as much, but I wanted to double check. I'm running a WotR PbP that's just now approaching the middle of the first book, so it's a ways off, but I'm almost positive that the alchemist in the group will be taking the discovery as soon as it becomes available.

I'm just making sure I understood it correctly beforehand so that when it does come up it isn't a problem.

[Eligarf]

Nefreet wrote:

It's one of the few options an Alchemist has of dealing full damage to a Demon, which is resistant or immune to most energy types.

I can't find "holy bomb" as any kind of weapon type in Hero Lab (with appropriate sourcebooks active). I have Bomb, Force Bomb, and Frost Bomb. Question: what is the damage die for Holy Bomb, and what is the damage modifier? Is it officially half fire, half good divine damage as described for Flame Strike, or is it all good divine?

And what about evil creatures that have DR/adamantine or DR/good+silver?

Inquiring minds are ... struggling still.

[Sandslice]

Quote:

Holy Bombs* (Champions of Purity pg. 24): When the alchemist creates a bomb, he can choose to have it deal good divine damage. Evil creatures that take a direct hit from a holy bomb must succeed at a Fortitude save or be staggered on their next turn. Against neutral creatures, holy bombs deal half damage, and such targets are not affected by their staggering effect. Holy bombs have no effect on good-aligned creatures. An alchemist must be at least 8th level before selecting this discovery.

The bomb deals normal damage to evil (with a stagger proc), half damage to neutral, and none to good. All of the damage is divine.

"Divine damage" just means that, like the divine half of Flame Strike, the damage isn't subject to any sort of DR or elemental resist. "Good" seems to be referring to the alignment-targeting mechanic that these bombs have.

[Matthew Downie]

Holy Bomb defined here
It should work just like the default bomb except in the ways stated. All the damage becomes 'good divine' damage, which I guess would mean that anything that was vulnerable to 'good' or 'divine' damage would take extra damage, though there might not be any such creatures in existence.

Rule of thumb: Damage Resistance had no effect unless you're dealing bludgeoning or piercing or slashing damage, so Holy Bombs (and regular bombs) would be unaffected by it.

[glass]

One other effect worth noting is that a Holy Bomb will shut down the regeneration of certain creatures, such as a Pit Fiend.

_
glass.

[Sandslice]

glass wrote:

One other effect worth noting is that a Holy Bomb will shut down the regeneration of certain creatures, such as a Pit Fiend.

_
glass.

Funny enough, that actually came up in our game last night. After trudging through several qlippoths and a barbazu, we backtracked into a decrepit armory where our last encounter was with an accuser devil, an augur kyton, and some invisible flying conjurer who threw a rat swarm at us.

That was also the last of our resources, and we haven't even gotten down into B2f of this ancient monastery to Shelyn and Dou-Bral.

Augur kytons have the same sort of regenerate ability as pit fiends, but 2 (silver or good) instead of 5 (good).