Does the feat "Splash Weapon Mastery" work with the alchemist discovery "Healing Bomb"?

Question

The feat Splash Weapon Mastery gives alchemists the following effect:

When you hit with a splash weapon, select one additional square adjacent to the splash area; creatures in this area also take splash damage.

When an alchemist with the Healing Bomb discovery hits his target with a healing bomb, would that part of the feat work?

Since a healing bomb is supposedly a splash weapon, and this feat seems to affect the splash range of splash weapons, I would assume the healing bomb could also use this effect.

But the feat specifically notes that the creatures in the area take the splash damage, and the feat doesn't seem to have any information concerning the subject of healing bombs.

Is there any official statement made on this subject or will this just be up to the GM's interpretation?

Answer 1

It doesn't work in a strict rules-as-written reading of the rules:

Healing Bomb(emphasis mine):

Benefit: When the alchemist creates a bomb, he can choose to have it heal damage instead of dealing it. Creating a healing bomb requires the alchemist to expend an infused extract or potion containing a cure spell. A creature that takes a direct hit from a healing bomb is healed as if she had imbibed the infusion or potion used to create the bomb. Creatures in the splash radius are healed for the minimum amount of damage the cure spell is capable of healing. A healing bomb damages undead instead of healing them.

But strictly speaking Splash Weapon Mastery doesn't increase the splash radius: it only makes creatures on an other case suffer the splash damages.

However ruling that "creatures in the splash radius" should be read as "creatures in a case affected by the splash damages" works fine. There is no official statement on this topic that I know of.