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Burn it (page 31)

Fire fascinates you. Your spells and alchemical items that deal fire damage gain a conditional bonus to damage equal to half the spell’s level or the item’s level (minimum 1). You also gain a +1 conditional bonus to any persistent fire damage you deal, whether it’s from a spell or not.

Alchemist Fire (page 360)

Alchemist’s fire is combination of several volatile liquids that ignite when exposed to air, typically stored in a sealed flask. Alchemist’s fire deals 1d8 fire damage, 1 persistent fire damage, and 1 fire splash damage. The target can end this persistent damage by spending an Interact action or by becoming submerged in water or otherwise entering an area deprived of air. A creature adjacent to the target can also end the persistent damage by spending an Interact action.

I was talking with another member of my group and I mentioned that alchemists can eventually hit 15 persistent fire damage on alchemist fire (level 19 bomb from empower bombs + 1/2 level from burn it; 6+9).

They said that I was calculating it wrong and that burn it only gives the +1 persistent damage. To this I pointed out that the persistent damage is from alchemist fire and thus the 1/2 level should apply, we left it alone after that.

Is was my interpretation correct?

willuwontu
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1 Answers1

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You apply the conditional bonus later

The Burn It increase the item's persistent damage by +1, but that's +1 on top of what is the item's base persistent damage. You can't apply the conditional bonus first because that bonus is on top of whatever is the item's persistent damage already. So, you can't apply that before the item is even created.

The Empower Bomb ability (p. 46) allows the alchemist to create bombs of higher level, instead of creating the lv1 bombs presented in the book. Those higher level bombs will multiply the item's damage and persistent damage based on the new level (lv3 x2, lv7 x3, lv11 x4, lv15 x5 and lv19 x6).

Example:

  • lv1 alchemist fire (x1) will do 1d8+1 (1d8 + 1/2), and 2 persistent damage (1 + 1);
  • lv3 alchemist fire (x2) will do 2d8+1 (1d8 * 2 + 3/2), and 3 persistent damage (1*2 + 1);
  • lv7 alchemist fire (x3) will do 3d8+3 (1d8 * 3 + 7/2), and 4 persistent damage (1*3 + 1);
  • lv11 alchemist fire (x4) will do 4d8+5 (1d8 * 4 + 11/2), and 5 persistent damage (1*4 + 1);
  • lv15 alchemist fire (x5) will do 5d8+7 (1d8 * 5 + 15/2), and 6 persistent damage (1*5 + 1);
  • lv19 alchemist fire (x6) will do 6d8+9 (1d8 * 6 + 19/2), and 7 persistent damage (1*6 + 1);

On the hands of another character, it will deal the item's normal damage.

ShadowKras
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  • Ah, however burn it also has "Your spells and alchemical items that deal fire damage gain a conditional bonus to damage equal to half the spell’s level or the item’s level (minimum 1).", so since the alchemist fire is level 19, it seems like it should deal 15 damage (1*6 + 19/2). – willuwontu Aug 17 '18 at 00:19
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    That's an increase on the base damage (1d8 at lv1, 6d8 at lv19). Otherwise there would be no need to separate damage and persistent damage on the wording of so many spells, abilities and items. – ShadowKras Aug 17 '18 at 00:25