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For the Smoke Pellet - it's a ranged touch attack to throw against a square. However, would it break if you were to drop it into the square that you're in? (Therefore not using an action or provoking an AOO.)
I was thinking that if it worked - a few Smoke Pellets would be just the thing on an Unchained Rogue who took Moonlight Stalker Feint.
Drop Smoke Pellet into your square (free action?)
Moonlight Stalker Feint (swift action)
Full attack
To make it work really well - you'd probably need to be a Tengu with nat attacks and Quickdraw. That way you'd have your hands free and be able to draw more pellets as a free action. The whole thing would be very effective - but not exactly cheap. It would take 5 (7 for Greater Feint) feats to work plus 25gp a round (which isn't huge but would add up).
Also - it's not totally clear - but I read Fog Cloud that the character in a 5ft cloud from the smoke pellet would have a 20% miss chance when attacking and when being attacked. (Though with Blind-fight it's effectively have a 4% miss chance for the rogue in question - well worth it - and unchanined rogue still gets SA.)
So - am I reading this right - or did I miss something? (Would not be the first time.)
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Unless the item description says otherwise, throwing a smoke bomb at your square still requires a ranged attack roll, which uses an action and provokes an AoO as normal. Think of it as having to prime the pellet and.or throw it hard enough to break.
Well - like many rules in the mundane equipment section - its use a bit more fluid than for spells -
This small clay sphere contains two alchemical substances separated by a thin barrier. When you break the sphere, the substances mingle and fill a 5-foot square with a cloud of foul but harmless yellow smoke. The smoke pellet acts as a smokestick, except the smoke only lasts for 1 round before dispersing. You may throw a smoke pellet as a ranged touch attack with a range increment of 10 feet.
So - it lists the throwing of the pellet as an option - but it in no way says that it's the only option. Heck - one could argue that one could keep half a dozen in their mouth and bite down on them to release the smoke. (I'd probably housrule a low DC vs sickened for a round or some such though - but that certainly wouldn't be RAW.)
So - the real question seems to be whether the smoke pellet would break when merely dropped.
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If the description says you throw it as a ranged touch attack, then that's how it works. Your DM is free to rule otherwise, but RAW says you have to spend an action and provoke an AoO.
No it doesn't. I quoted the rule above. It gives the ranged touch as an option. The pellet goes off any time you break the clay sphere.
You can argue that it won't go off if just dropped because it's not enough to break it - but it's not valid to argue that it won't go off when broken.
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I'd argue that you could spend your action to smash it in hand, which wouldn't provoke, but not that it would go off from a drop (unless it's a very long drop).
How much of an action would you call it? Move action? Use up an attack?
I suppose on a Tengu rogue (I keep going back to Tengu because most rogues are burning feats on TWF and so wouldn't have enough to make this combo work) you could use an unarmed attack on the smoke pellet and attack with your nat weapons as iteratives - it'd generally be worth a -5 to hit to get rid of the foe's dex & activate Moonlight Stalker.
Add Multiattack to the feat combo and the attacks would be at the same accuracy as normal (-2 to hit for iterative vs +2 from Moonlight Stalker) only with the ability to Feint as a swift action, 20% concealment both ways (but the rogue having Blind-fight), & +2 damage added in.
Though if you're taking an action to smash it - I suppose you could just have a bandolier of them attached with netting so you just smash them against your chest - then drop Quickdraw from the required feats to make it work.
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Again, why not just use a smokestick for this trick?
Because it creates a large enough cloud of smoke that it's likely to cover your foe - thereby screwing over your party members. In addition - they'll likely just walk away anyway - without even taking AOOs due to the concealment you just gave them.
Also - I can't imagine that using a smokestick would somehow be less of an action than breaking a smoke pellet. Especially since I don't want to be forced to carry a torch around just to make the combo work.
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I'd make it count as an attack just to keep it consistent with the other way of breaking it, yeah.
Fair enough. I can see that.
Of note though - it wouldn't exactly be OP even if dropping did break it. You could do essentially the same thing only better with a Cloak of Minor Displacement - only you wouldn't need to burn a feat on Quickdraw, have an empty hand to work it, and you wouldn't have to eat the 4% miss chance.
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A Minor Cloak of Displacement also costs the same as 960 smoke pellets (or 2880 pellets if you're crafting them yourself).
Right - which is the main reason you wouldn't just get the cloak. But that has little to do with if it's OP.
By that logic Weapon Focus & Weapon Specialization feats are OP when you're TWF with a pair of +3 weapons beause together they're worth more than raising said weapons from +3 to +4, and that would cost 28k (considerably more than the cloak of minor displacement - which does more than just allow Moonlight Stalker Feint anyway).
Also - especially if you're the one making them - you could make the smoke pellets as easy to break as you wanted them to be.
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You could break it if you have the oracle curse that everything you touch gains the broken condition with VMC or something, but yeah I don't think you can just drop it unless it you drop it 10' in which case falling damage applies. Also it'll take a move action to draw either way as you cannot draw it with Quick Draw.
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Also it'll take a move action to draw either way as you cannot draw it with Quick Draw.
Good catch. I figured there was something I'd missed. I'd forgotten that alchemical stuff didn't apply to Quick Draw.
So - you could start a fight with a couple out - but it'd limit the usage without using up move actions to draw more. Or a swift action with a spring loaded sheathe I suppose.
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but yeah I don't think you can just drop it unless it you drop it 10' in which case falling damage applies.
I thought that was only for creatures. Objects deal damage when dropped - 1/2 what's on the table if dropped less than 30ft - and take the same amount themselves. Tiny/Diminutive aren't on the table, but unless you say that they take no damage from falling - you'd extrapolate it down to 1d6 & 1d3 respectively. Therefore, the smoke pellet would take 1/2 of 1d3 damage - and damage always rounds up.
Or - at least there's a RAW argument for it - as to RAI - *shrug* - the last time I dropped ceramic mug onto the floor it shattered - and I was far less than 10ft up. Plus - unlike the smoke pellet - it wasn't created to be shattered.
(Of note - I'm 1/2 playing Devil's Advocate - I'm not sure. I just don't want either side to be dismissed out of hand without consideration.)