It states under “Alchemy” the following -
“An alchemist can create three special types of magical items—extracts, bombs, and mutagens (…) Mixing an extract takes 1 minute of work (…)An extract is “cast” by drinking it, as if imbibing a potion (…)The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against an alchemist's extract [See latter] is 10 + the extract level + the alchemist's Intelligence modifier. (…) [Continued via Bomb (Su)] Bombs are unstable, and if not used in the round they are created, they degrade and become inert (…) In order to create a bomb, the alchemist must use a small vial containing an ounce of liquid catalyst—the alchemist can create this liquid catalyst from small amounts of chemicals from an alchemy lab, and these supplies can be readily refilled in the same manner as a spellcaster's component pouch. (…) Most alchemists create a number of catalyst vials at the start of the day equal to the total number of bombs they can create in that day—once created, a catalyst vial remains usable by the alchemist for years. (…) [Continued via Mutagen (Su)] It takes 1 hour to brew a dose of mutagen, and once brewed, it remains potent until used.”
This essentially states that it takes you one minute of work to make an Extract (Essentially a Potion), while: Brewing a potion takes 2 hours if its base price is 250 gp or less, otherwise brewing a potion takes 1 day for each 1,000 gp in its base price. [Brew Potion]
This makes little sense. So an Alchemist can brew an Extract (potion) in 1:120th of the time?
Swift Alchemy and Instant Alchemy apply to Alchemical Items, such as Sunrods and Thunderstones. Not to Extracts, Bombs, and Mutagens. I’m fine with this. So you create an Extract (Potion only you can use) in a minute, and a Mutagen in an hour. Unless this is RAI, in which case Extracts, Mutagens, and Bombs are also Alchemical Items - in which case we can suddenly go from:
Extracts: One minute to 30 seconds (Swift Alchemy) to 6 seconds (Instant Alchemy)
Mutagens: One hour to 30 minutes (Swift Alchemy) to 6 seconds (Instant Alchemy)
But nothing is listed for Bombs. No time frame is listed. At all.
Additionally, no DC is listed for Bombs. Even for Splash, unless you have something like Evasion, I don’t see a DC for avoiding it.
How long does it take to brew Bombs? If you brew 12 Bombs in the morning, are you making all 12 together or separately and one at a time? If I wanted 12 Extracts, that's 12 minutes of work. So do we just assume each Bomb takes 1 minute of work, so 12 Bombs is also 12 minutes? I understand you are making the Bombs during the Standard Action, so that they do not become inert, however you still create the liquid catalysts at the start of the day. How long does this take?
Does this also follow along the lines of being an Alchemical Item, so;
Bombs: One minute to 30 seconds (Swift Alchemy) to 6 seconds (Instant Alchemy)?
Also, what the heck is the Craft (Alchemy) DC for any of this??
And finally, you can only create a specific number of catalyst vials for your Bombs per day, which I'm totally fine with. But once created, they remain active for the Alchemist for years.
Doesn't this RAI that you could spend a full month crafting Catalyst Vials and essentially have hundreds of Bombs ready for use in a single afternoon? You are not limited PER USE OF BOMBS PER DAY, but PER CREATION OF BOMBS PER DAY. Since they remain active for years, you could theoretically store craploads of CVs. The Bombs become inert upon mixing for use, but as long as they aren't mixed, you can have tons of them?
