Are Alchemist Bombs a Supernatural Ability or Weapons?

[Onestep]

Background: The party has recovered two rings belonging to a legendary Magic Knight. The first grants an additional 2D6 Force Damage to weapon attacks. The second grants 3d6 additional Force Damage to Spells and Special Abilities. After some discussion, the party decided to split these among the primary damage dealers of the party, a Magus and the Alchemist.

Only we're not sure who get's which, as there's some debate as to what exactly a bomb is. Per RAW, a bomb seems to be a weapon. But it exists almost entirely outside normal weapon rules. Until generated by a supernatural ability, it's just a vial of fluid. It has more in common with Ray attacks than a genuine weapon. Indeed, it is the ability that affects every aspect of the 'bomb' weapon. So would an increase to the abilities damage affect the damage of the produced weapon, if we treat it as such?

Basically, my question is, should the damage of the bomb be increased by the ring that increases weapon damage, the ring that increases ability damage or both?

[Nyerkh]

You actually guessed it.

The Alchemist wrote:

Bombs (Su) :

The Alchemist also wrote:

Bombs are considered weapons [...]

So : weapons or Su ? Why not both ? Both is the answer. (Not an entirely unique case, even.)

That said, this is all homebrew so your GM will be the one to decide whether them there rings apply here or not.
Just check with them.

"Special Abilities" is, after all, one of those half-defined things that may or may not apply. And some weapon affecting effects don't combine well with weapons that exist no longer than a fraction of a round, depending on how they're written.

[Chell Raighn]

Both rings would affect bomb damage… they are both a weapon and a supernatural ability… similarly both rings would work for the magus as well since they are both attacking with weapons and using spells…

I would opt to split the rings based on who needs the greater boost… Some key factors to consider with that though…

Magus:
- attacks with a weapon more often than they use spells. They can only spell strike once per round, so on a full attack with spellstrike they have at minimum 2 weapon attacks and 1 spell.
- several of the magus’ spells are also considered as weapons, thus allowing them to effectively double dip on the weapon damage bonus if they spellstrike with those spells. (All Rays, and various touch spells are counted as weapons)
- touch cantrips can be used for spellstrike. Depending on what cantrip they use that could be an extra 2d6 (weapon damage: Ray of Frost) or 3d6 (spell damage: any touch cantrip) with no limit.

Alchemist:
- bombs are a limited resource… when they run out the spells and abilities ring would likely serve no more benefit until they rest again.
- mutagens are also supernatural abilities, if they have feral mutagen then they could technically benefit from either ring with their claws and bite as well.
- alchemical splash weapons are counted as weapons but NOT spells or supernatural abilities… most alchemists who use bombs will also have a stockpile of splash weapons on hand to stretch their bomb uses out over a longer period of time.
- unless they take the fast bombs discovery an alchemist will only throw bombs as standard actions. As such they will not full attack with bombs without the discovery.

Overall:
- Magus can always benefit from either ring, but gains the most benefit out of the weapon damage ring
- _Alchemist can always benefit from the weapon damage ring, but potentially gains the most benefit out of the spell damage ring (depending on build).