Mechanics of a box full of Alchemist Fire

[RithTheAwakener]

Heres the scenario: A PC is on the roof of a 30ft tall building, with a box/crate full of alchemist fire in hand. 30ft below him, is a Dire Bear. The PC dumps out the box of Fire onto the large Dire Bear.

How should the mechanics of this scenario work? Would you roll to hit with each Fire (unlikely)? Or do a 'blanket' roll to see if they all hit/miss/splash?

 

[Jhaelen]

How should the mechanics of this scenario work? Would you roll to hit with each Fire (unlikely)? Or do a 'blanket' roll to see if they all hit/miss/splash?

depending on the number of flasks in the box, I'd either make several rolls or use the calculated percentage. E.g. if the dire bear was hit on a 15+, I'd roll damage for 30% of the flasks and distribute the splashes as evenly as possible around the bear's space.

 

[RithTheAwakener]

Using the PC's ranged touch for each one? I don't know what else to use for that roll, but it seems like a overturning a box would be much less accurate (per flask)than overturning a single flask.

 

[frankthedm]

Under no circumstance should each flask apply full damage. I say compare alchemist fire to acid and Lava damage for large scale applications such as this, Telekineticaly hurling scads of flasks and other tricks people try when they see one flask does 1d6 and think that should scale ad nausium.

Corrosive acids deals 1d6 points of damage per round of exposure except in the case of total immersion (such as into a vat of acid), which deals 10d6 points of damage per round. An attack with acid, such as from a hurled vial or a monster’s spittle, counts as a round of exposure.

Lava or magma deals 2d6 points of damage per round of exposure, except in the case of total immersion (such as when a character falls into the crater of an active volcano), which deals 20d6 points of damage per round.

Damage from magma continues for 1d3 rounds after exposure ceases, but this additional damage is only half of that dealt during actual contact (that is, 1d6 or 10d6 points per round).

Since alchemist fire is a 1d6 exposure, full bodily immersion in it ought to top out at 10d6. Since a cratefull isn't sufficient to submerse the bear, i think 5d6 [reflex save 1/2 DC15] should be plenty of damage. I say save for half sine the crate is being haphazardly dumped out.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Dumping the crate isn't going to be as accurate as throwing individual objects. Hitting the bear is going to be iffy. I'm inclined to say crits hit, everything else is treated as a ranged touch against the bear's square, probably at -4. Misses hit adjoining squares. Resolve splashes.

Now, to cap the damage: Full immersion caps at 10d6. I disagree with limiting it to 5d6, though--the bear is going to be mostly immersed in fire, whether the stuff is actually on him or not doesn't matter except for whether he can run away from it or not. I'd cap it at 8d6 as his underside is going to be reasonably shielded from the fire.

I'm also inclined to say that 1 flask does 1d6, 3 does 2d6, 6 does 3d6, 10 does 4d6 and so on.

 

[CAFargo]

I'm also inclined to say that 1 flask does 1d6, 3 does 2d6, 6 does 3d6, 10 does 4d6 and so on.

I know my gamer's would never let me get away with this huge scale. Cap it out at 15d6 (slap any gamer who disagrees over the head, then explain that the creature will be shielded underneath) as if mostly (3/4) immersed in lava, then roll five attacks, each at 3d6 damage, 3 on a miss.

Do not, however, have it catch on fire for more damage than 1 flask, but don't give it any save to avoid.

 

[RithTheAwakener]

Ahha! I believe the immersion rules will work very well for this situation, thank you all for the responses!