Precision damage with alchemical weapons?

[Aroth Khashar]

Can you deal precision damage (sneak attack, etc.) with alchemical weapons or and alchemist's Bombs class feature?

[avr]

No.

combat chapter, throw splash weapon wrote:

Splash weapons cannot deal precision-based damage (such as the damage from the rogue’s sneak attack class feature).

You could in D&D 3.x, which lead to the 'flask rogue' build, but this did a sufficiently large amount of damage and offended enough people's sensibilities that it was blocked two different ways in PF (the above + quick draw not working with splash weapons).

[Name Violation]

Normally no...

but...

Precise Splash Weapons (Ex): At 4th level, an underground chemist can deal sneak attack damage with splash weapons. The attack must be her first attack that round, qualify for dealing sneak attack damage (such as against a flat-footed target), and be directed at a creature rather than a square. This ability replaces the rogue talent gained at 4th level.

1 specific rogue archetype can

[JiaYou]

And if you VMC into Alchemist, for instance, you get a number of full-power bombs at level 7.

Furthermore, you should be able to stack Scout with Underground Chemist.

[zza ni]

you can take the bomber rogue talent if your a core rogue and not unchained (or ask your gm to allow unchained to take bomber) - this give you some bombs

[Alphavoltario]

JiaYou wrote:

Furthermore, you should be able to stack Scout with Underground Chemist.

And Sniper if you don't care about Trapfinding. Match it with some throwing feats, such as Charging Hurler and it's Improved version, you can lob splash weapons for some decent damage.

If you're doing unchained, yeah ask a DM for Bomber and Bomb Discovery talents, but even if they don't allow them, with unchained you'll have Dex -> Dmg for a finesse weapon at 3rd, ability to use a bow effectively, and by 4th, can toss grenades, acid flasks, and alchemist's fires without sacrificing much for a combat focused rogue.

EDIT: Oh and the 'Strong Arm, Supple Wrist' combat trait would work well for rogue utilizing archetypes stated above (UG Chemist, Scout, Sniper) for yeeting splash weapons for sneak attack.

[Firebug]

If you are dipping for damage anyway, consider Medium(Champion). Splash/Alchemical weapons are 'non-spell', so bonus hit and damage.

Its also important to note that Underground Chemist is very important for another reason than has been stated... you can quick-draw alchemical anything with it. Normally you can't full attack with alchemical weapons (alchemist's fires) because you can't draw them as a free action. Even regular Alchemists.

[Scott Wilhelm]

You can inflict Precision Damage with Alchemal Weapons as a Grenadier Alchemist or with the Explosive Missile Discovery, sort of.

Grenadiers can infuse their arrows or bullets or whatever with Alchemal weapons like Acid and Alchemist Fire. Explosive Missile lets you do that, but with Bombs. So you aren't doing SA Damage with the Acid or the Bomb: you are doing it with the Arrow or Bullet or whatever. But the effect will be much the same.

[pad300]

A further note, there is at least one alchemical weapon which is not a splash effect (but still attacks touch AC) and thus can be used with sneak attack : Bottled Lightning

[gnoams]

Underground chemist rogue.
Feats- Quick draw, sly draw, ranged feint, throw anything, concentrated splash
talents- fast getaway, underhanded
trait- strong arm supple wrist.

You quick draw a dart, getting a free sleight of hand feint, using the dart for ranged feint, procing fast getaway allowing you to withdraw, procing strong arm supple wrist, letting you throw at 20ft increment, bean them with your acid flask for sneak attack with concentrated splash dealing 1.5 times damage.

If you can get surprise, underhanded gives you a max damage sneak attack x1.5 with concentrated splash.

Now, it's still nothing amazing as you're only getting one attack off per round, but it's a ranged touch attack dealing energy damage (effectively 30 ft range, 40ft if you take deadly range via ninja trick). Level 9 you're looking at something like (6d6+4)x1.5 for an average of 37 damage. Not wining any dpr races, but respectable for a 3.33gp acid flask, and probably good enough to be a viable build.