Akashic question - Circlet Of Brass

[thecrimsondawn]

Im playtesting the new Rajah class, and I ran into a question. 2 In fact!

he wearer increases the save DC of any of
his spells or abilities which deal fire damage by 1, and gains a
+2 insight bonus to damage rolls with those abilities

Does this apply for every instance of fire damage, even if there are multiple in a round? For example - Mongrel from Bloodforge has the option of doing elemental damage on their attacks. If I am in an elemental flux stance (with fire as the active element of course) would the bonus damage from the veil apply twice (once for the stance and again from the class feature)?
Second, would this apply to the flaming weapon enchant, and if it does NOT apply to the flaming weapon enchant, would it apply if you gained flaming through the use of a class ability that gave your weapon flaming?


I was thinking about posting this in the playtest but I decided to make its own thread since this is an issue anyone could run into and is not directly related to the Rajah.

[bahamut920]

The wording says "any of [your] spells and abilities which deal fire damage", which means as written, you deal an additional +2 fire damage every single time you deal fire damage using an ability that originates from you. You get the bonus damage from Weapon Specialization every time you deal damage with the weapon you're specialized in; this doesn't seem any different. And "double-dipping" by, for example, being in Elemental Flux Stance, using the Shatter Resistance boost, and using the Cascade of Elemental Wrath strike seems to work fine.

I don't think it applies to the fire damage dealt by any ordinary flaming sword, however, because the sword's fire damage is not one of your spells or abilities, it's a bonus granted by your equipment. Similarly, it wouldn't affect any [Fire] spells cast through scrolls or wands, because they are not one of "your" spells. A weapon granted the flaming property through one of your class features or a [Fire] spell cast from a staff are a bit of a gray area and would require a DM ruling.

[thecrimsondawn]

Ya, that is about what I was thinking too, however the reason I asked is its typed as an insight bonus, and I was not sure if that would impose a limitation or not.

[bahamut920]

No. AFAIK, there aren't any "hard" limitations on what bonuses can be applied to what statistics; simply bonuses which are "weighted" towards specific statistics and bonuses that haven't been used on certain statistics. Insight bonuses can be applied to whatever you want, and in fact I've seen them applied to almost everything; attacks, damage, AC, saves, skill checks, etc. If you were buying a magic item that provided an insight bonus to something, you'd most likely have to pay more for it, due to insight not being a "common" bonus for any statistic, but that's about it for limitations.

That said, some bonuses do seem tailored to certain statistics and wouldn't make much sense if applied elsewhere; this mostly applies to AC-specific bonuses. You're unlikely to ever see an armor, shield, natural armor, or deflection bonus to attacks or skill checks, for example, although I could see a dodge bonus applying to Reflex saves.

[Ssalarn]

Was coming in to answer, but it looks like bahamut920 has this covered!

The one thing I will note is that the bonus damage does apply to e.g. a flaming weapon as long as the flaming property is granted by a veil, spell, or other class ability. So you would add the damage to the Hand Cannons veil if you've given them the flaming property through investing essence in the veil. Same thing if you were using a paladin's divine bond to add the flaming property to the weapon, since that would also be one of your abilities creating the effect.

[bahamut920]

OK, since we've apparently got the author in here, what if you cast a fireball through a staff? Since a staff uses your casting stat to set the DC and your caster level for level-dependent variables (including SR checks and dispel DC), it's a bit different than activating a scroll or wand. And does the bonus stick around if the ability or spell is no longer under your control? For example, if you cast a flaming sphere and an Arcanist uses the Redirect Spell exploit to steal control from you, does the flaming sphere still count as one of your spells?

[Ssalarn]

OK, since we've apparently got the author in here, what if you cast a fireball through a staff? Since a staff uses your casting stat to set the DC and your caster level for level-dependent variables (including SR checks and dispel DC), it's a bit different than activating a scroll or wand. And does the bonus stick around if the ability or spell is no longer under your control? For example, if you cast a flaming sphere and an Arcanist uses the Redirect Spell exploit to steal control from you, does the flaming sphere still count as one of your spells?

The effect needs to be generated by one of your spells or abilities; with most staves this would mean they don't count since the fireball is an effect created by the staff that gets modified by your abilities, rather than an ability or effect you created. Flipside, if one of your spells gets hijacked and turned against you, it would still retain the bonus damage and DC bump it had when you created it.

[thecrimsondawn]

Thanks as always Ssalarn :)

Im sure I will run into another question for ya at some point :D

and of course thanks to everyone who replied too :).