I started a character as a Mechanist Gunslinger, the main gist of which is that it subs Int for everything Grit related instead of Wis, and adds a Deed which adds damage as a swift action based on your ranks in Engineering. And it also adds Trapfinding and Disable Device, so it's a very "tinkery" feeling class. It also makes an excellent dip, since the damage scaling is based on ranks in Engineering and not class level. My questions here are assuming that
My plan was originally to multi-class into Spellslinger Wizard to create a really cool arcane gunman. Getting the great utility of a spellbook and and scrolls, and after 5 levels of wizard, go into Eldritch Knight. I've built it out, and it works pretty well. I like the flexibility the build gets being able to switch damage types to the situation by adding on-the-fly enhancements to the gun. Good blaster, but with awesome utility. However, losing access to 4 schools is pretty painful. Also, he can't wear light armor anymore, but that's not a huge problem thanks to Mage Armor.
I just had the idea last night of instead progressing as an Alchemist instead of the Spellslinger. It still captures that "arcane gunman" feel, but with a definitely different bent, mainly focusing on the bombs. The bombs provide awesome AOE effects, and with the Explosive Missile discovery, can actually be channeled through a bullet, letting me really smack down the pain on single targets, with various utility effects layered on, and healthy dose of blasts (party friendly, of course, using the Precise Bombs discovery). The Mutagen ability provides a nice buff to Dex, which is good. However, the spell list isn't nearly as good. But you also get UMD, which goes a long way towards covering that up. You can add some energy type flexibility to the bombs through discoveries, but that sure takes up valuable resource. You also get to keep wearing light armor which is nice.
Note that neither build will ever see level 5 of Gunslinger to get Gun Training, which adds Dex to the damage of every shot. While it would be so very nice to have, it dilutes the caster effect too strongly to be worth it, IMO.
I'm just curious if anyone has any thoughts/advice on this idea?