Holy Water Bomb for 4000 hp of Damage

One of my players emailed me a proposal for a Holy Water Bomb as detailed below.

One pint of Holy Water does 2d4 damage. There are 8 pints in a Gallon. One Dust of Dryness pellet can absorb up to 100 gallons of water. Therefore 1600 pints of Holy Water + 1 Dust of Dryness pellet = (1600x(2d4)) points of damage to Undead. Average damage: 4000 hp.

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/wondrousItems.htm#dustofDryness

Note that a Dust of Dryness pellet will destroy a Water Elemental or do 5d6 points of damage if it makes its saving throw. My ruling on the Holy Water bomb was that it would do 5d6 points of damage to anything affected by Holy Water on a ranged touch attack with no save allowed.

Thoughts? Are there any relevant rules of which I’m unaware?

TarionzCousin said:

Note that a Dust of Dryness pellet will destroy a Water Elemental or do 5d6 points of damage if it makes its saving throw. My ruling on the Holy Water bomb was that it would do 5d6 points of damage to anything affected by Holy Water on a ranged touch attack with no save allowed.

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I'd rule the same.

Since the description of Holy Water mentions that it works "almost as if it were acid", and acid deals 10d6 on total immersion I'd treat a giant holy water bomb (which isn't cheap) as total immersion for one round, dealing 10d6 no save. A smaller(read: realistic) quantity would deal around 5d6, like your ruling.

The dust of dryness dries up the water and leaves the holy behind.

blargney the second said:

The dust of dryness dries up the water and leaves the holy behind.

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Isn't there some sort of rule about talking about your holy behind on these forums?

Later
silver

Michael Silverbane said:

Isn't there some sort of rule about talking about your holy behind on these forums?

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Mine's Half-Celestial...which is, of course, better than Celestial, capisce?

In other news, getting hit with 100 gallons of normal water would hurt quite a bit by itself--say, 2d6. Since the average commoner has 3 hp, it would kill them most of the time.

Cost: 1600 pints/flasks of holy water would cost 40,000 gp and weigh 1600 pounds.

I would rule that the Dust of Dryness would absorb the water...not turn into some sort of magical water ballon. No damage dealt...

Sorry, a much better way to deal Holy Water damage is to summon a Holy-infused Water Elemental!

Primitive Screwhead said:

I would rule that the Dust of Dryness would absorb the water...not turn into some sort of magical water ballon. No damage dealt...

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Well, it would do no damage on absorbtion, but I've had players ask about the same tactic. The key is in what is left after the holy water is absorbed:

SRD said:

Dust of Dryness
This special dust has many uses. If it is thrown into water, a volume of as much as 100 gallons is instantly transformed to nothingness, and the dust becomes a marble-sized pellet, floating or resting where it was thrown. If this pellet is hurled down, it breaks and releases the same volume of water. The dust affects only water (fresh, salt, alkaline), not other liquids.

If the dust is employed against an elemental with the water subtype, the creature must make a DC 18 Fortitude save or be destroyed. The dust deals 5d6 points of damage to the creature even if its saving throw succeeds.

Moderate transmutation; CL 11th; Craft Wondrous Item, control water; Price 850 gp.

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(emphesis mine)
So the idea is to absorb 100 gallons of holy water, then throw the pellet at an undead, which will cause the pellet to break, releasing all 100 gallons of holy water on the undead.

I would rule no to this because of the "affects only water (fresh, salt, alkaline), not other liquids" clause. The act of converting water into holy water changes it into a new liquid, much like coffee are tea would not be affected even though they are made from and remain mostly water. The other thing that stopped my players was when I pointed out that many acids also contained substantial amounts of water, and asked if they would be okay with me as the DM using a pellet loaded with 100 gallons of acid.

chriton227 said:

I would rule no to this because of the "affects only water (fresh, salt, alkaline), not other liquids" clause. The act of converting water into holy water changes it into a new liquid, much like coffee are tea would not be affected even though they are made from and remain mostly water. The other thing that stopped my players was when I pointed out that many acids also contained substantial amounts of water, and asked if they would be okay with me as the DM using a pellet loaded with 100 gallons of acid.

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Yep I pretty much did the same thing, it was a cool idea but it's also game breaking and would force a PC vs DM arms race which always ends badly. I basically just told my players 'cool it'll finally give me an excuse to use the special notebook to re-balance things'

TarionzCousin said:

Thoughts? Are there any relevant rules of which I’m unaware?

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The main problem I see is that you are assuming a rule to exist, but which does not exist. There's no rule that says that the damage from multiple vials of holy water is cumulative. In fact, we have similar rules for acid which is quite different. If you're immersed in acid and add one more pint of acid on top, you will not take any additional damage. So, these vials are not strictly cumulative.

Then there's the caveat that chriton227 mentioned.