| Jimbonee |
I was excited to play an Alchemist until I really dug into the class feats which left me pretty bummed; not an uncommon feeling it seems. The alchemist guides I've read are all great, but for the bomber they recommend Calculated Splash, Sticky Bomb, and Expanded Splash. All math fixes to have a play action be Quick Alchemy (a lower level bomb) to Sticky Bomb and then hope for lots of persistent damage... it just seemed a bit bland. Nevertheless I decided to stick with alchemist and see if I could make a more exciting build. I'm interested to hear thoughts and ideas on my Boogieman Bomber creation.
My inspiration was John Wick. I envision a stealthy, mutated (Quicksilver) goblin bomber, fueled by elixirs (Mistform and Cheetah) and spells (True Strike / Invisibility / Gravity Weapon), popping out of cover to fire off a few bombs then disappearing into the shadows. Maybe on a personal vendetta.
The primary strength of the Alchemist class seems to be Advanced Alchemy and the daily Infused Reagents with Field Discovery at 5th Level. After Quick Bomber at 1st Level I completely ignore the disappointing Alchemist Feats and focus on multi-class feats.
1st Level
Heritage: Unbreakable Goblin - For the added hit points and future flair of Bouncy Goblin, Roll with It and Unbreakable-er Goblin.
Ancestry Feat: Burn It! - Added fire damage which is helpful at early levels.
Class Feat: Quick Bomber - One action to draw and strike with bombs.
2nd Level - Multi-Class Witch
Class Feat: Witch Dedication - Gives 1 Cantrip (I chose electric arc given at this level bombs are in short supply and electric arc is better than a crossbow, can hit two targets, and scales), Familiar, and access to Spells (I chose the arcane spell list).
Skill Feat: Battle Medicine - Basic first aid for party and self during combat is always a plus.
3rd Level - Bombs, Quicksilver and Drakeheart Mutagens all get a nice level-up
General Feat: Ancestral Paragon to get Very Sneaky - Faster sneak and able to sneak without cover until the end of your turn. This pairs nicely with Mistform Elixir which makes you concealed. (My understanding is concealed would still work "when your position is not obvious", such as being already hidden/undetected and passing stealth checks).
Skill Increase: Stealth to Expert. At this point, with Dex at 16, you should have a stealth modifier of +12 and a sneak movement of 20 ft (when paired with Quicksilver Mutagen and the Very Sneaky feat)
4th Level - Mistform Elixir available
Class Feat: Basic Witchcraft to get Enhanced Familiar - From what I've read, a familiar seems more helpful to the alchemist than any other class. With Manual Dexterity it can carry two elixir/mutagens and feed them to the alchemist or run onto any party member and feed them an elixir/mutagen. With Enhanced Familiar I chose Manual Dexterity, Independent (can feed elixirs or mutagens without using the Command action), Cantrip Connection (can use two cantrips), and Extra Reagents (9 daily at this point).
Skill Feat: Assurance (Medicine) - Always get a success on Battle Medicine or Treat Wounds
5th Level - Alchemist gets Field Discovery (can make 3 bombs for 1 reagent on morning prep), Elixir of Life levels-up (3d6+6 HP)
Ancestry Feat: Bouncy Goblin (pre-req to get Roll with It at Level 9)
Skill Increase: Acrobatics to Expert
6th Level - Mistform and Cheetah Elixirs level-up
Class Feat: Basic Witch Spellcasting - Now you can use True Strike spell and Invisibility, though as a dedication spellcaster you're very limited on casts per day. Good thing both of these spells are low level so scrolls should be easy to find and fairly inexpensive. I'm honestly not sure if this feat is worth it given with Witch Dedication you already have access to scrolls and wands/staffs, but I don't know which feat to get in its place.
Skill Feat: Fleet - Adds 5 ft to speed which should now be 30 ft (or 50 ft with Cheetah Elixir and Quicksilver Mutagen)
7th Level - Alchemical Bombs finally increase to Expert
General Feat: Swift Sneak - Can move up to full speed when sneaking (50 ft with Cheetah Elixir and Quicksilver Mutagen! Also a pre-reg to get Legendary Sneak at Level 15)
Skill Increase: Stealth to Master
8th Level - Multi-Class Ranger
Class Feat: Ranger Dedication - Gives Hunt Prey. Finally an increase in bomb range from 20 ft to 40 ft.
Skill Feat: Continual Recovery - Can treat wounds every 10 minutes on the same target. Now you and your party can recover to full health fairly quickly between battles.
9th Level - Cheetah Elixir (+10 ft) now lasts 1 hour. Elixir of Life levels-up (5d6+12 HP)
Ancestry Feat: Roll with It - When you take a big hit, you bounce around like a rubber ball. You gotta love goblins.
Skill Increase: Arcane to Expert
10th Level
Class Feat: Gravity Weapon - Focus spell that lasts 1 minute. On your first weapon Strike each round, you gain a status bonus to damage equal to twice the number of weapon damage dice.
Skill Feat: Toughness
11th Level - Bombs level-up. Quicksilver Mutagen now lasts 1 hour
General Feat: ?
Skill Increase: Arcane to Master
Final Thoughts: By 11th Level I can imagine The Boogieman Bomber really fitting the bill. He has a familiar feeding him mutagens and elixirs which generally last an hour, and with the Independent familiar ability these boosts don't require using an action. A Master in stealth greatly buffed by Quicksilver and Mistform along with all the above sneak feats and the occasional Invisibility spell. While I didn't focus on sticky bomb, an 11th level Blight Bomb that hits with Gravity Weapon will do pretty reasonable damage: 3d6+6 poison damage, 3d4 persistent damage, and 3 splash damage with hopefully a high chance to critically hit if the target is flat-footed and using True Strike. Paired with an Acid Flask Bomb, the total persistent damage will be 3d4 + 3d6 per round.
Another Alchemist strength is adaptability with alchemical items. At level 11, the Boogieman Bomber will have 17 daily reagents. Using 5 reagents you could make 15 bombs with a potpourri of variety. 3 reagents to make 6 mutagens. 3 reagents to make 6 elixirs of life. 3 reagents to make 6 Mistform Elixirs. 2 reagents to make 4 Cheetah Elixirs. Then still have 1 reagent left to Quick Alchemy anything you might need in a pinch.
Unfortunately a lot of the Alchemy class features and upgrades are fairly worthless:
Quick Alchemy - Use it in combat to make a bomb/elixir/mutagen in a single action, but then it only lasts until the end of your turn. At level 9 you get double brew, now you can make 2 items that will be impossible to use by the end of your turn unless you spend a class feat to make them last until the end of next turn, woohoo.
Perpetual Infusions - Make an unlimited amount of two 1st level bombs. Really?
Let me know your thoughts. I tried to keep everything RAW, but if I'm misreading any rules or you see areas to make The Boogieman Bomber even more potent, I would love to hear them!
| shroudb |
If you're going to multiclass witch, i rate getting Elemental Betrayal through basic lesson quite high.
Plus, it does fit the theme of cursing your opponent to take more damage from your bombs.
As for the general issues of alchemist, Bomber has it better than the rest of the class exactly because of his Perpetual Alchemy. Level 1 bombs at level 7 may seem not too great, but with all those mathfixers like calculated+sticky (that you skipped ^^) they are actually quite more powerful than a cantrip or an attack, plus they come with free debuffs on top of them (lightning for Flat footed, frost for speed decrease, etc)
| Jimbonee |
If you're going to multiclass witch, i rate getting Elemental Betrayal through basic lesson quite high.
Plus, it does fit the theme of cursing your opponent to take more damage from your bombs.
As for the general issues of alchemist, Bomber has it better than the rest of the class exactly because of his Perpetual Alchemy. Level 1 bombs at level 7 may seem not too great, but with all those mathfixers like calculated+sticky (that you skipped ^^) they are actually quite more powerful than a cantrip or an attack, plus they come with free debuffs on top of them (lightning for Flat footed, frost for speed decrease, etc)
I'll check out Elemental Betrayal, thanks! Does it work for acid or poison damage?
I'm not so sure Sticky Bomb is still the best way to go now that the APG came out with Blight Bomb. Calculated+sticky might be more powerful than a single higher level Acid Flask, but it takes the same amount of actions as two attacks. I'd be interested in seeing the math comparing a lower level bomb with calculated+sticky to a higher level Blight Bomb + Acid Flask persistent damage.
| shroudb |
shroudb wrote:If you're going to multiclass witch, i rate getting Elemental Betrayal through basic lesson quite high.
Plus, it does fit the theme of cursing your opponent to take more damage from your bombs.
As for the general issues of alchemist, Bomber has it better than the rest of the class exactly because of his Perpetual Alchemy. Level 1 bombs at level 7 may seem not too great, but with all those mathfixers like calculated+sticky (that you skipped ^^) they are actually quite more powerful than a cantrip or an attack, plus they come with free debuffs on top of them (lightning for Flat footed, frost for speed decrease, etc)
I'll check out Elemental Betrayal, thanks!
I'm not so sure Sticky Bomb is still the best way to go now that the APG came out with Blight Bomb. Calculated+sticky might be more powerful than a single higher level Acid Flask, but it takes the same amount of actions as two attacks. I'd be interested in seeing the math comparing a lower level bomb with calculated+sticky to a higher level Blight Bomb + Acid Flask persistent damage.
calculated is basically for the early level. Expanded splash is always a damage increase.
Higher level bombs will naturally be more damage than Perpetual ones, but Perpetual are free.
Using 2 high level bombs each round is not sustainable, and it's a terrible waste of resources to attack with a -5 on a limited resource, that's where the Perpetual comes in.
As an example, at level 11 (since that's the level you stopped at) you have Perpetual moderate bombs.
Let's say we use a bottled lightning (for the flat footed) that's:
2d6+7 splash (5 from Int+2 base) and 7 persistent, for 2 actions.
a 6th level cantrip, let's use telekinetic projectile, would be 6d6+5
2d6+7splash+7persistent is minimum 21 damage if it would only hit the main target and noone with the splash, and the target managed to get rid of persistent in the 1st round (1 in 4 chances) and average around 35 (got rid of it on the 3rd try) +Flat footed.
6d6+5 is average 26 damage and no secondary effect.
even at minimum damage, 21+flat footed is arguably better than 26.
If we used a damaging bomb, like Blight bomb, we would be looking at 2d6poison+7splash+(2d4+7) persistent, bring us up to minimum 26 damage but with 12 of those being persistent.
The thing is, since Perpetual are basically free, you can always chuck a normal bomb followed by a perpetual one if you dont have to move (where the mathboosters that bring your range to 60 and ignore cover and concealment come into play)
So, you throw your Acid Flask or whatever you have to "deal damage" at normal MAP, and if you have neough actions, throw a Perpetual for an effect like flat-footed, slow, frightened, etc with teh -5 attack.