Larger parties don't always work better for alchemists either, since buffing a larger party with elixirs using QA is going to really eat into your reagents. Buff everyone with darkvision? You're done for the day, break out the crossbow.
There is one asset that people tend to forget and that I consider the main asset of the Alchemist: Poison. The more characters in the party and the more poisoned weapons, making the Alchemist a very potent indirect damage dealer in the early rounds.
Roughly, every 4 poisoned weapons is the equivalent of a martial full round of attack for 0 action.And every time I get into this discussion, it's all about bombs, mutagens and elixirs. A poison weapon deals as much damage per reagent than a fully specced bomber. For 0 feat...
Unfortunately, due to the current lack of poisons (and the fact that many of them are more debuff oriented) there is a lack of visility about poison damage. I hope there will be some day a book with lots of poisons so people will have the choice between a debuff oriented poison and a damage oriented poison at every level.
I'm not seeing the math there how this is such a great thing. A simple Haste, at level 5, is 10 more actions, not just "1 round worth of actions".
You should differenciate actions. Because a free immediate first attack and a free delayed third attack have nothing in common.
Haste is 10 delayed third actions. Poison is one immediate free round.Now, if you think that long lasting fights are the top in terms of resource management and group tactics optimization, run for it.
I personally prefer to win in 2 rounds because my party is very violent than to go for a slug fest. And if I win in 2 rounds, an extra full round is 50% of a character's contribution. Hence why I consider poison the main Alchemist feature.
Roughly, every 4 poisoned weapons is the equivalent of a martial full round of attack for 0 action.So... using your math, the main thing that this adds is 1 round of attacks of a martial per encounter.
At the cost of being extrmely subpar yourself for all the rest rounds of each encounter.
I'm not seeing the math there how this is such a great thing. A simple Haste, at level 5, is 10 more actions, not just "1 round worth of actions".
LOL If that's the best they are, you don't even need to bring the alchemist along. Get your poisons from the alchemist every morning and then the alchemist can be team B, having tea and cookies in town while Team A actually does the adventure...
And even if the battle doesnt last 10 rounds, even on 4-5rounds it still comes across as overrall better.
My combats last 2 rounds on average. Not from the moment initiative is rolled to the moment we get out of initiative but from the moment the first attacks are made to the moment everyone knows what's the result of the fight. So, from my point of view, Haste is not even worth the 2 actions used to cast it.
But I agree we are more into tactical considerations.Haste is not a 3rd attack for a majorit of rounds. For a lot of builds it allows them to do their PRIMARY attack while moving. That's huge.
Lot of builds? I can't even come up with one, so, it looks to me that it's just for a few builds. Most characters can move and Strike twice per turn.
Maybe at higher level, when you have more feats. I must admit I have only experience of low levels. PFS is currently limited to level 8.Btw, the reason Bombs are actually good for damage, is those feats that you think are not feat taxes.
If you compare the damage of a fully-runed poisoned Javelin and the damage of a fully-specced Bomb, they are extremely close. There are some levels (3-7) where you want to use Bombs. But for the rest of your carreer, Poisons are a better choice in my opinion (they cost less reagents).
It's also extremely expensive, costing around 8 ingredients for an average day, meaning that doing that, you sacrifice (probably) every single other offensive capability of yours, like bombs.
I only use Bombs to exploit weaknesses. So, I don't carry much.
I have never been into a 2 round combat. Most fights seem to last 4-6 rounds for me. Increasing as levels increase.
Citricking's tool allows you to know the average damage a character can do approximated in % of the enemies hit point pool. With it, you can see that a martial will deal between 8 and 15% of a moderate encounter hp pool per round with 2 Strikes (more if there is only one enemy, less if they are many). As most fights are won after getting rid of half of the opposition, it means less than 2 rounds to get rid of a moderate encounter, and as such less then 3 rounds for a severe one.
So, my approximation of 2 actual rounds of pounding is not bad. And that's why I use it to calculate my Alchemist's efficiency.The only way poisons do the same damage as bombs is if you completely disregard the pilling of persistent damage every round from the bombs.
Nope, same with Persistent Sticky Bombs. I've obviously added persistent damage into the calculation as Poison is persistent damage, too.
As I said, Poison is a very undervalued ability because of its unreliability. But actual damage is very nice (once you hit level 8, before that, it's not crazy bad but it's far from overwhelming).