In other news, I've discovered that the sneak attack dice for thrown splash flasks (fire, acid, holy water, you know, those useless things) that the Underground Chemist gets actually work on the Arcane Bomber's bomb, though NOT on the Alchemist's bombs (however any DC bumps the Arcane Bomber gets do work on Alchemists' bombs). Even 1 AB dip gives you one bomb of your choice that you can ascended element, and it levels with you.
I'm trying to work out a build of 1AB/4UC/15 Incense Synthesizer (using just the CC/dispel bombs from Alchemist, not damage, which is pathetic), but while I like it thematically, I'm thinking that the incense just comes online too late relatively speaking (starting with +1 attack/damage at lvl 5 or 6 is a bit meh, you wanted that back at lvl 1 - however the 20% concealment from Thick Fog somewhat compensates). So instead of that a 4UC/16AB should work, and then you could use the "sacrifice a spell to bump damage" trick the AB has.
(I wish the Incense had a graphic - could be lovely, kind of a faint wispy cloud.)
Added coolness from UC is that you get weapon finesse for free at lvl 1 and the DEX to damage finesse for free (at lvl 4), as well as INT to the splash sneak damage at lvl 4. It's quite good fun in the first 5 levels, as you're a bit of a jack of all trades (build high DEX and INT, equip the fire shortsword jistka's whatsit, and you can sneak attack melee, sneak attack ranged with a crossbow, and sneak attack with the flasks. It's how to develop the 16AB version further that's the question. 16 lvls of Wizard is ok, but what to do with them?
(Playing Core btw, best balance between breezing through the story and still having to be a little bit careful in the combat.)
