alchemists fire

[DrDeth]

Is the central part, the part that gets D6 damage, a 'area effect' or is it single target? It seems ludicrous to assume all the squares around it are area attacks, but the central hit is not.

This comes into effect when fighting swarms. My DM is saying that AF does only a single point of damage vs a swarm. The central area is a single attack, the outlying areas do 1pt, which when multiplied by 1.5 is one point.

In other words AF does the same damage as a torch?

[sideswipe]

it is not an area attack. its a single attack with a special "splash damage" effect for 1 point in a set area.

think of it like that. the single attack hits the thing, but some small amounts of the liquid fire splash around in an area.

its like a water balloon made of fire. if you throw one, the guy next to your target will get small amounts of splash. but its a single attack.

[Erik Vale]

its like a water balloon made of fire.

Now as far as I'm concerned, alchemists fire is water balloons filled with fire. It has bee added to my head canon.

[sideswipe]

Now as far as I'm concerned, alchemists fire is water balloons filled with fire. It has bee added to my head canon.

picky. the point stands.

[KillianHawkeye]

Well the swarm subtype explicitly references splash weapons as something that works well on swarms, but the listing on splash weapons clearly splits the effect into a "direct damage" portion and a splash portion. Based on this distinction, I'd say that only the splash portion gets the bonus against swarms.

[DrDeth]

Well the swarm subtype explicitly references splash weapons as something that works well on swarms, but the listing on splash weapons clearly splits the effect into a "direct damage" portion and a splash portion. Based on this distinction, I'd say that only the splash portion gets the bonus against swarms.

Which it doesn't since 1 X 1.5 = 1.

Thus splash weapons dont work very well vs swarms, doing only 1 pt, same as a torch.

[137beth]

1 X 1.5 = 1
...check your math.

[nyjastul69]

...check your math.

What's wrong with the math?

[watchwood]

...check your math.

Everything rounds down in DnD.

[nyjastul69]

Everything rounds down in DnD.

This statement isn't strictly correct. There are corner cases where things round up. They are few though. See here (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/glossary&term=Glossary_dnd_rounding&alpha) for details.