| 1 person marked this as FAQ candidate. |
I thought this was pretty clear cut as a "No" but rereading the bomb rules I'm not so sure anymore.
The damage of an alchemist’s bomb increases by 1d6 points at every odd-numbered alchemist level (this bonus damage is not multiplied on a critical hit or by using feats such as Vital Strike).
Now base bomb damage is 1d6+INT , and according to the above wording it gets a 1d6 dmg bump every odd level however in brackets these increases sound like they are being treated as "bonus damage" and the thus do not apply for crits and vital.
However
It dosent say that the base damage of a bomb doesn't crit or allow the use of vital strike.
meaning e.g. a level 5 alchemist with 3d6+INT bombs should actually be written like this
1d6+INT+2d6
If you used Vital Strike you attack would change to 2d6+INT+2d6
On a Critical Hit your attack would be (1d6+INT)x2 + 2d6
Thoughts ?
I agree completely and that is exactly how I write my Alchemist's damage on my character sheet.
1d6 + 5 + 2d6 (as he is 5th level).
I will probably take vital strike for my 9th level feat. I have not yet had the pleasure of getting a crit with a bomb.
not sure if you've gone the ferral mutagen route or what your build is but you can get good use out of vital strike on a melee alchemist if you start bumping your natural attacks with stuff like improve natural attack and spell size changes. get a good base bite attack of e.g. 3d6 and vital strike to 6d6 , even better with master chymist.
that way your getting both melee and ranged benefit from vital.
Vital strike is just the base die of damage. It doesn't add INT twice any more than it adds strength twice in a greatsword. Its just an extra d6 damage.
You're probably vbetter off with extra discovery.
The INTx2 was on his critical example, not his vital strike example.
Whoops, my bad.
I mean its not a huge thing but it does open up possibilities with other critical feats
The only time this changes at all is with the rogue's bomber talennt because that sets the base damage to equal of your sneak attack damage.
However I would not be surprised if that changed in the future.
You got it covered.
However, you technically can't Vital Strike with bombs because preparing and throwing a bomb is a standard action and Vital Strike is an attack action, another type of standard action.
