[3.5] Alchemist's Dragonfire

[Twilightwyrm]

So say you have an enterprising Bard that enters combat with his/her allies. This Bard has the dragonblood subtype, and as such has taken Dragonfire Inspiration, and elects to use it on the first round of combat. When the next round comes, the Bard notices that there is a large ground of enemies clustered together a little ways away. Hoping to get them all at once, he/she pulls a flask of Alchemist's Fire, throws it and hits the center of the ground. Now he/she is effected by his/her own Dragonfire Inspiration. What, exactly, happens? We have the text of Dragonfire Inspiration, which reads:


When you use your bardic music to inspire courage, you can choose to imbue your allies with dragonfire. This choice is made when first activating the ability, and the choice applies to all allies affected.

Each ally so inspired loses the standard morale bonus on weapon attack rolls and damage rolls. Instead, he deals an extra 1d6 points of fire damage with his weapons for every point of morale bonus that your inspire courage ability would normally add to the attack roll. For example, an 8th-level bard using this ability would add 2d6 points of fire damage to his allies' attacks.

But what exactly qualifies as "deals...with his weapon" in this case. Would only the 1d6 to the initial target get the bonus? Would the 1 point of damage dealt to all surrounding creatures? The damage is being dealt with the weapon. Such creatures wouldn't take Sneak Attack Damage, but that is (from what I understand) due to it not being dealt with an attack role. But Dragonfire Inspiration, and I believe Inspire Courage in general, do not make such a distinction to the best of my knowledge. It need be delt with a weapon, so that rules out AoE spells (though of course, not weapon-like ones), but Alchemist's Fire...well is a weapon. Or is there a rule with grenade-like weapons that I have missed? Any help on this would be much appreciated.

[Twilightwyrm]

Dang, I was hoping someone would be able to provide some insight here.

[Seclora]

To the best of my non-expert knowledge, the extra damage would apply only to the primary target, since both Inspire Courage and Dragonfire Inspiration specify Damage Rolls as the recipient of the bonus. No dice, no bonus damage. The first target though, that poor guy is going to wonder what was in that bottle.

[Twilightwyrm]

To the best of my non-expert knowledge, the extra damage would apply only to the primary target, since both Inspire Courage and Dragonfire Inspiration specify Damage Rolls as the recipient of the bonus. No dice, no bonus damage. The first target though, that poor guy is going to wonder what was in that bottle.

That's the weird thing though; it replaces the bonus on attack and damage rolls, but then goes on only say that you deal the extra damage "with his weapon". Though I am now imagining a guy seeing the flask coming towards him, trying to block his face, and BOOM. Mushroom cloud with the people around him taking only a single point of damage.

[Deadline]

I'm in the same boat as Seclora, the initial target bears the full wrath of your attack, all others receive normal splash damage (unmodified by DFI). If you could find a grenade-like weapon that let you attack multiple squares (as in, make an attack roll against each creature in the affected area), then you'd be in business.

[Twilightwyrm]

I'm in the same boat as Seclora, the initial target bears the full wrath of your attack, all others receive normal splash damage (unmodified by DFI). If you could find a grenade-like weapon that let you attack multiple squares (as in, make an attack roll against each creature in the affected area), then you'd be in business.

Well, that would not be strictly possible, given the nature of a splash weapon, but...would one of the fragmentation grenades from the DMG work? (Not that I would ever actually find these, or dynamite for that matter, in an actual campaign. This is purely hypothetical)

[Seclora]

Well, that would not be strictly possible, given the nature of a splash weapon, but...would one of the fragmentation grenades from the DMG work? (Not that I would ever actually find these, or dynamite for that matter, in an actual campaign. This is purely hypothetical)
I'd say that Dragonfire Inspiration would work with either of those weapons, since they are rolling damage dice for the whole burst.

[Hecuba]

Well, that would not be strictly possible, given the nature of a splash weapon

Shaped splash from Races of Eberron will let you hit a 2nd target with an atcualy splash weapon, but you have to be a Halfling.

You might also look at Sparkstone from A&EG: it does 1/2 damage to a secondary target rather than a fixed amount. I'd have to check the wording to be sure on the specific interactions here, and I'm away from my books.

[Twilightwyrm]

Shaped splash from Races of Eberron will let you hit a 2nd target with an atcualy splash weapon, but you have to be a Halfling.

You might also look at Sparkstone from A&EG: it does 1/2 damage to a secondary target rather than a fixed amount. I'd have to check the wording to be sure on the specific interactions here, and I'm away from my books.

Yes, that might just work. Thank you for that, that could be quite helpful.