How would these abilities stack?
You take 2 levels of rogue, pick up the Bomber's talent, and then multiclass to Alchemist (vivisectionist) for the rest of your levels. Vivisectionist gives you Sneak Attack that stacks with other sources, and the Bomber's talent grants you bomb damage based off of sneak attack. Since Vivisectionist does not remove the Throw Anything ability of the Alchemist, does this mean you would have bombs that deal +Int damage, and do the same damage dice as sneak attack? You only be able to create your Int mod per day of course, but is this a viable way to have both sneak attack and bombs at your highest damage?
It does say, "damage dealt by the rogue's sneak attack" so it could mean only the sneak attack that the rogue class is providing.
Mmm, that's true. I was mostly curious about the parenthesis at the end, where it says the rogue does not apply his Int mod to damage. Does this override the Alchemist's ability to apply Int to damage, or vice versa?
Also, before anyone says, I know there is Underground Chemist, which is much simpler, but the goal here is to be an alchemist, not a rogue. Extracts, multiple bomb discoveries, feral mutagen, etc.
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Based on the horribly written sneak attack entry, vivisectionist sneak attack is rogue sneak attack.
Sneak Attack: At 1st level, a vivisectionist gains the sneak attack ability as a rogue of the same level. If a character already has sneak attack from another class, the levels from the classes that grant sneak attack stack to determine the effective rogue level for the sneak attack’s extra damage dice (so an alchemist 1/rogue 1 has a +1d6 sneak attack like a 2nd-level rogue, an alchemist 2/rogue 1 has a +2d6 sneak attack like a 3rd-level rogue, and so on). This ability replaces bomb.
RAW, this works. I doubt I'd allow it in a home game though.
I don't see any reason you could not do it. The parenthetical about rogues not getting INT damage seems to me to be simply a reminder that they don't have throw anything, which is where the int damage for an alchemist comes from.
The only thing that might be questionable is whether alchemist talents that modify bombs would affect the rogue bomb, as though they 'act as bombs' they aren't the bomb feature from the alchemist class. That said, I would allow it, but I doubt many would take any talents to buff up a very limited supply of bombs.
I also just don't see this as being a better choice than just straight vivisectionist. A few bombs a day is a pretty poor trade for slowed extract advancement and later qualification for key discoveries. If you aren't using fractional BAB, that is going to hurt too.
I'd actually think that the part of bomber that specifies that it doesn't add Int to the damage would override the vivisectionist's throw anything, since this is a case of something specific to a rogue's version of bombs applying over the general rule of an alchemist class feature affecting all splash weapons. Also consider that you no longer have the bomb class feature, even though you can make bombs, but I don't think there's any bomb-related alchemist discoveries that actually require the bomb class feature; it would only really matter for if you wanted to take the extra bombs or deafening explosion feats.
@Dave Justus: It does specifically state that they act as an alchemist's bombs, so anything that can affect them - such as alchemist discoveries - should work. Likewise, anything that cannot affect an alchemist's bombs - such as the concentrated splash feat - wouldn't work, whereas it would if you didn't count these as alchemist bombs, so you'd end up consistently doing 1.5 times sneak attack damage to mobs when you don't need the splash damage.
I'd actually think that the part of bomber that specifies that it doesn't add Int to the damage would override the vivisectionist's throw anything, since this is a case of something specific to a rogue's version of bombs applying over the general rule of an alchemist class feature affecting all splash weapons.
If that were the case, the text shouldn't be parenthesis. Parenthesis like this should be used to convey additional information that isn't part of the main idea. If they intended to ensure that rogue bomb discovery could not benefit from the alchemist throw anything class feature, it should have been worded, and punctuated differently.
You will note that the alchemist bomb class feature specifically says intelligence is added to bomb damage, but later in throw anything it clarifies that the INT bonus is due to throw anything, nothing to do with a bomb. However, if a rogue took the talent and just looked at the alchemist bomb feature (without looking at throw anything, which he doesn't have) he could easily believe that INT added to damage was part of the bomb itself, hence the need for the clarifying parenthetical.