Can Ghosts Be Harmed By Alchemists’ Bombs?

[Matthew Downie]

supervillan wrote:

Ectoplasmic bomb and force bomb both describe how they do full damage to incorporeals on a direct hit.

Ectoplasmic bomb says:

Quote:

Incorporeal creatures struck by an ectoplasmic bomb take full damage from the bomb.

So it's implied that they can strike incorporeals, even if it doesn't actually say 'direct'.

Force bomb says:

Quote:

When the alchemist creates a bomb, he can choose to have it inflict force damage. Force bombs deal 1d4 points of force damage, plus 1d4 points of force damage for every odd-numbered level, instead of 1d6. Creatures that take a direct hit from a force bomb are knocked prone unless they succeed on a Reflex save.

Nothing specific about their interaction with incorporeals.

[supervillan]

Your quotes are correct Matthew. I didn't need to add "on a direct hit".

The wording of the ectoplasmic bomb discovery is explicit. For force bombs we also have to refer back to the incorporeal quality stating that force effects have their normal effect. Force bombs are clearly a force effect.

[Matthew Downie]

The explosion is clearly a force effect. Whether impact with an incorporeal triggers the explosion isn't so clear - but 'bombs are supernatural, therefore they interact with incorporeal unless otherwise stated' is good enough for me.

[UnArcaneElection]

The Sideromancer wrote:

Related to supervillain's post,

You throw a bomb whose components are capable of contacting an incorporeal creature. the container can't, and so begins to pass through. The contents can, and so are compressed by the combination of body and bottle. Eventually, the container cannot handle the pressure and breaks. End result, the bomb explodes when it impacts the creature.

That's what I was thinking when I said that maybe Holy Water should be Errata'd (in the PCs' favor for a change).