Precise bombs is always a good choice and should probably be your first choice.
^^This…. you’re party members will thank you for it! As far as feats go weapon finesse might help if you ever wind up in melee.
i find splash weapon mastery better then precise bombs. get both if you can, but if you only got one feat open that you were going to use for the extra discovery of precise bombs id go with mastery.
1: it increase the area you splash, giving a chance to hit far off targets.
2: if you miss with precise you might hit your friends. if you miss with the mastery you can move it +1/-1 in the direction grid to adjust right.
3: it effectively give you far shot with bombs and splash weapons and those have very bad range to start with.
4: as it's name it also effect other splash weapons, not just bombs. sometimes you are better off with normal splash weapons. (they have no save for half in the splash area for example so anyone there automatically take minimum weapon damage +int bonus with no chance for save)
just noticed that we all replayed about bomb use to a post about an archtype that remove bombs...
well splash weapon mastery is still is important with other splash weapons. as well as if the op take 2 levels of rogue to be able to take the bomber rogue talent.
Duh…. Never post after midnight. Okay here is some advice you can use:
Discoveries: tumor familiar (still useful); infusion; any potions discovery,
Feats: weapon finesse; toughnesses,
Also, the beast morph archetype stacks with your archetype. Finally, I’ve found the alchemical allocation spell very useful.
Unless you are going for a ranged sneak attack build you are going to need weapon finesse cuz you strength is only 10 and your dex is 14. Piranha Strike is basically Power Attack for characters that don’t have the 13 str prerequisite.
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Tumor familiar with the mauler archetype will give you a flanking buddy to make better use of your sneak attack. If u go that route ur gonna want the Maulers Endurance feat to give it 2 extra hp per level to help keep it alive, and toughness feat and FCB into HP also help. The king crab familiar makes a good mauler with decent strength and 2 attacks with grab and constrict as well as a decent dex and natural armor. You’ll want an aquarium ball to keep ur little buddy from drying out tho.
For discoveries you'll probaboy want Infusion reasonably early. It doesn't have to be right now since you'll only have 4 first-level extracts at level 3 , but I'd be looking to get it by level 7 at the latest. You also don't have to get it, but it does make a big difference in what you can do.
The other thing I'll add is that you might be better off swapping your INT and DEX. For the regular Alchemist they get more bombs per day and higher save-DCs based off INT, but you don't get either of those. The main advantage of a high INT for you is just more Extracts per day.
I'd go 17-DEX, 15-INT to start with, bump DEX at level 4 and INT at level 8 . Then you'll eventually want an INT-headband. Tbis will give you 1 extra extract of your highest level at basically all points in the game, and will give you better physicial stats which will likely be better for your character, especially in the early game.
HEIGHTENED AWARENESS is one of my favourite 1st level spells. Long duration bonuses to Knowledge and Perception checks or you can dismiss the spell for a +4 to Initiative that stacks with basically everything . Bonus points at later levels you can hand this to the Martial characters who normally can't use it . This Extract will never go out of style.
MONKEY FISH is a good one to have in your back pocket. Remember that Alchemist Extracts don't use the normal spell-preperation rules. It takes 1 minute to prepare 1 Extract, so if you leave an Extract-slot un-prepared it only takes a minute to pull something out of your formula book. Monkey Fish is a prime target for this kind of on-the-fly preperation.
RECHARGE INNATE MAGIC could be useful on a Tiefling? You should know if this is worth an Extract slot.
REDUCE PERSON could make a decent combat buff for a DEX-based alchemist. +2 to hit and +2 AC , and since bombs don't change damage with size there's almost no downside.
SHIELD is a good defensive combat buff. If you're playing on the back-line you may not need it so much though, depends how good your front-line is. Stacking this with a DEX-Mutagen might give you a high enough AC to be an AC-tank at low levels though, so it can sometimes be worth using just to take some attacks and help the team out.
TRUE STRIKE ... I probably wouldn't use this as a combat buff often enough to really be worth preparing at lower levels, but it could be a roleplaying tool. "Watcsh thish, I bet I can get a Bullsheye on my firsht try ... Lemme finish my drink!"
Oh also I'd definitely take the Tiefling Favoured Class Bonus as a bomb-throwing alchemist. +1/2 damage per level isn't huge, but the way splash damage is calculated is that it deals the minimum damage, so the Tiefling FCB is giving a small boost to direct bomb damage but a reasonable boost to splash damage.
Eg. At level 10 with 22 INT you're dealing 5d6+6 damage with a bomb and 11 Splash damage. With the Tiefling FCB that goes up to 5d6+11 damage and 16 splash damage. That's a ~21% increase in regular bomb damage, and a ~45% increase in splash damage.
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max out perception and disable device
get a tumor familiar, specifically a rhampalomamdingdongarooni that flies and gives you alertness and +4 init
take trapfinding The spell and then some and accute senses
see everything, go first, let familiar scout
I mean the main one is Fast Bombs at level 8.
You don't necessarily want to use it every round because you'll run out of bombs, but you always want to use it in the first round .
Here's why:
Without Fast Bombs you can throw 1 bomb per round. If a fight goes for 3 rounds that's 3 bombs. You've done nothing but throw bombs.
With fast bombs you can throw 3 bombs in the first round. Then you pull out a crossbow/sword/whatever and wade into combat. You've thrown the same number of bombs and also hit stuff with a sword or whatever.
Now it doesn't actually have to be round 1 when you throw your bombs, maybe round 1 you drink an extract of TARGETED BOMB ADMIXTURE because the combat is against a single huge enemy, then round 2 you throw your 3 bombs and round 3 you go for the crossbow. The point is that Fast Bombs lets you do more with your actions, so it's basically always worth taking.
Then if you want you could take the TWF feats and Rapid Shot, so by level 15 you can throw 8 bombs in round 1 . I don't think you Need all of that, but you can do it if you want. It might be worth some of those feats, even if not all of them.
You may also want to take a 2 lvl dip in Underground Chemist Rogue. This would allow you to draw mundane alchemical splash weapons as if they were weapons, allowing you to make full attacks with them. If you use a Hybridization Funnel you can combine splash weapons so you can effectively throw 2 simultaneously. The Concentrated Splash feat let’s you forgo splash damage to increase the damage to the primary target by 50%. Splash Weapon Mastery and Thuvian Grenadier also compliment this. Using mundane splash weapons like this allows you to do some significant damage while preserving your bombs for tougher fights or larger groups of enemies.
You may also want to take a 2 lvl dip in Underground Chemist Rogue.
It seems like you've looked into this a lot deeper than I have,but that really doesn't seem worthwhile to me.
Losing 2 levels of Alchemist means: 1 less bomb per day, 1 lower DC on all bombs, 1d6 less damage on all bombs, later access to Discoveries, shortened durations on Mutagens , lower BAB, reduced Fort and Will saves at most levels and a -2 on all casting related stuff for your extracts .
If you're that worried about running out of bombs I'd just take the EXTRA BOMBS feat, or play a Gnome for their FCB , or the best option is probably to just have a backup combat style .
One thing that’s good about mundane splash weapons is that there is no reflex save for half damage which means that if ur in the splash zone you take guaranteed damage. Evasion does nothing to prevent it. Also there are so many types of splash weapons if your target does have a resistance it’s fairly easy to find another that will work. A stingchuck for example does straight physical damage not energy. I’m not saying mundane splash weapons are better or anything just a backup option if ur really into a mad bomber kinda style. Another option if u don’t care about extracts is to go all underground chemist rogue with the bomber talent and go VMC alchemist to get more bombs. U can even take bomb discoveries as rogue talents. And u can do sneak attack damage with ur bombs if u can catch them flat footed. Not necessarily a better build just a different one.
The same full attack that would allow you to throw 8 bombs in a round would also allow u to throw 8 hybridized splash weapons for a minimum of 16 times INT damage. Not too shabby.