Time bomb vs Plastique (maybe dynamite too)

Which is better Time bomb vs Plastique? In which situations would you use them?

I think people use dynamite outside of combat. It is good to open doors. However if another NPC sees you planting it, they become hostile. Of course using prowl+dynamite remedies that.

An alterntive is Time bomb and Plastique. NPCs wont notice you planting them. But both has proand cons.

Time Bomb
Pro, it is easier to make. You need high mechanical (use tech manuals). Also if you plant it NPCs cant pick it up. However it is big, 6 slots. Thats a big con.

Plastique
Starting with con: you need more discipline to make plastique and detonator (electrical, mechanical, chemistry and explosives). Thus intial starting cost (manuals) is expensive. Another con, NPCs can pick it up.
Pro - thats a big one - it takes less space than Time bomb. (One space).

I havent tried to use plastique for assassinating hostile NPC (throw and detonate at distance, will NPC react?). Also i haven't tried to detonate multiple plastique yet.

So considering this what do you prefer? What will you use them for, except opening door and chest? Also if you have prowl and dynamite or lock picking, would you still use time bomb or plastique?

 

I guess with tech manuals the only real thing you need to put points into is Explosives for either, and if you put points into Explosives you can sell explosive grenades (plus others) to gunsmiths so money stops being an issue and you can buy all the tech manuals you want. In that way, I don't really consider one being more of a ball-ache to make than the other.

Honestly I just used weapons to destroy containers/doors (especially as most explosives characters usually have some points in throwing and throwing weapons don't get damaged when you try and destroy stuff with them), it seems like Prowl + Explosives is a rather unusual way to break into things but I guess if you can't put points into lockpick and you want to get into places unseen it might be a nice alternative, particularly if you want to play a tech thief.

I always thought plastique was more fun because you could lay multiple explosives and detonate them at will, with time bombs it becomes much harder to set down multiple bombs before the first goes off. I also liked that people tried to pick them up, it allows for shenanigans like leading people into a large patch of them then blowing them to pieces. I guess neither time bombs or plastique are overly practical; they're both tricky to make so it's very time consuming to amass an amount that you could clear a dungeon out with.

I made a character once that used Temporal and explosives - they were quite fun. It was nice to be able to paralyse people and then take your time laying plastique all around them, I guess it was more than a bit sadistic too.

 

I would like to notice that you don't get any EXP for killing with any of the subj. devices. That was pretty disapointing.

 

Yeah plantable explosives aren't practical in combat. However, it was freaking fun to blow up those mages in Tarant.