Quote Originally Posted by Selinia View Post
That is a bit of an oversight, I admit. Bombs have been tweaked to clarify the lack of multiplying damage. However, creatures surrounded by explosions do now face a much more difficult saving throw (bordering on impossible if they are completely surrounded), preserving the choice of "Stay still and eat the explosions, or run for it and handle a much more manageable blast?".
You can still eat multiplied blast damage by triggering multiple bundles separately (ex: move through multiple bundles, move into a bundles then sit next to others that detonate). A particularly nasty combo would be to lay down lots of bomb bundles adjacent to an opponent with the Tactics component, and then trigger them all by moving through them yourself (or asking one or more allies to do it for you).

If you wanted, you could further restrict it to one time getting damaged, period, with something like this:
Spoiler
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"The first time a creature would be affected by a given evoking of a bomb illumination, it must make a Reflex saving throw. On a failure, it takes damage normally. On a success, it takes only half damage. Additional detonations within the same round from the same evoking of the illumination do not directly cause additional damage or effects. However, the energy of a bomb lingers for a moment. For every 2 points by which the subject succeeded on its saving throw, it is protected from the additional effects of one additional detonation. A creature that automatically succeeded on its saving throw (such as from rolling a natural 20) is instead protected from all additional detonations. If the creature would be affected by more detonations than this limit, the creature immediately takes the remaining damage that was prevented by its initial saving throw. This damage is not considered to be from the same source as the initial damage, so effects that reduce damage or otherwise mitigate the illumination's effects do not separately apply to this new damage. Only the parts that would have applied had the saving throw been failed in the first place affect the additional damage, and any changes to the creature's defensive abilities after the initial detonation do not affect the additional damage. For example, if an Animated Object with hardness 8 were to succeed by 3 on a saving throw for half damage of a 10 point bomb, it would take 5 damage initially, all of which is prevented by its hardness. If, later in the round, it was affected by 2 additional bomb detonations, it would immediately take the remaining 5 damage, of which only 3 (the remainder of its hardness from the initial damage) would be prevented. Any subsequent detonations would cause no additional harm to the Animated Object."

... but that's horrendously complex.

Thanks for pointing these out - they were oversights, mostly, though the concentration ranks one was a legitimate typo.

As for the Stargazer being able to sneak in with fewer levels on a late entry, yes, that is intentional. As much as the 'obvious' way in is Champion/Crusader, there are actually quite a few ways into the Valkyrie, and I like to think that most of them have their own merits. Fast-tracking your evoker pre-reqs with Stargazer will obviously result in weaker illumination capabilities by the end of your build, but it's a solid option if you're looking to focus as a martial adept who only dabbles in the channeling of light.
Coolio.