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Community
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*Dungeons & Dragons
Oil+Alchemist's Fire
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<blockquote data-quote="Ruin Explorer" data-source="post: 7992313" data-attributes="member: 18"><p>Your strategy (oil+alch) isn't broken, I agree. If you limited it to that, maybe its fine, but I think in that case +DEX to alch damage as JC suggests is simpler and doesn't open exploits but has similar effect.</p><p></p><p>+5 Fire damage for a minute to <em>every single</em> instance of fire damage, even without Proficiency to hit (which is only +2 at low levels, note), for basically no monetary cost absolutely is BANANAS BROKEN. Not just powerful, but broken. You can literally almost double the damage you're doing with a lot of abilities, and all it takes a single attack to succeed. Yes, you could miss, wasting an action, but at low levels an action is often averaging around 5 damage anyway, so its not at all a bad deal, given you can then go full "The Crazy World of Arthur Brown" on the target. 20' range doesn't really matter. If you had to enter melee it might, but 20' nah? You only need to get even that close to throw it anyway. Plus don't you get two throws if you two-weapon with it? You could off-hand it. Maybe it doesn't have the Light property though? Still...</p><p></p><p>And at higher levels its still really valid in a lot of situations. Plus the big issue for me is there's absolutely no countermeasure short of one specific cantrip (arguably) or spells almost no-one has (particularly not monsters). That is what pushes it far into broken. You're just condemned once its applied. You can't even Dispel Magic or something. Plus it stacks with Fire Vulnerability! So if you can apply that as well somehow, or they naturally have it, its worth +10 damage/instance of Fire damage.</p><p></p><p>I mean, if Alchemist's Fire is worth 50G for 1d4+DEX damage/round with a DC10 DEX save allowed to end it at the cost of an Action (i.e. a strong, universally-accessible countermeasure), then this is worth easily ten or twenty times that, in terms of potential power. You might get 5.5 DPR out of Alch Fire, for a round or two, if the monster doesn't put it out. With this? Wow. Your DPR bonus is just 5 times however many instances of fire-damage you can get, until the monster is dead or 10 rounds. With twin+quick on Firebolt (or Chromatic Orb+Firebolt or whatever) that's potentially +15 right there, and as more people pile on, your one action becomes more and more valuable.</p><p></p><p>Compare it to Hunters Mark or Hex. They add +1d6 damage, which is significantly less than +5. They're automatic (no save/hit etc.), but they also require Concentration. Most importantly, they apply <em>only to the person who casts them</em>. So there is a very hard limit to the bonus damage they can do. They also cost a spell slot. Whereas you can have any amount of oil for next-to-nothing.</p><p></p><p>But the main thing is they only apply to one person and only add +3.5/damage. This applies to everyone and adds +5. It's force multiplier. The more people can do fire damage, the better it gets, and its very easy to use. Yeah sometimes it'll go wrong, same for any plan, but +5 damage/hit? Uhhhh that's going to make up for a lot of failings real fast.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ruin Explorer, post: 7992313, member: 18"] Your strategy (oil+alch) isn't broken, I agree. If you limited it to that, maybe its fine, but I think in that case +DEX to alch damage as JC suggests is simpler and doesn't open exploits but has similar effect. +5 Fire damage for a minute to [I]every single[/I] instance of fire damage, even without Proficiency to hit (which is only +2 at low levels, note), for basically no monetary cost absolutely is BANANAS BROKEN. Not just powerful, but broken. You can literally almost double the damage you're doing with a lot of abilities, and all it takes a single attack to succeed. Yes, you could miss, wasting an action, but at low levels an action is often averaging around 5 damage anyway, so its not at all a bad deal, given you can then go full "The Crazy World of Arthur Brown" on the target. 20' range doesn't really matter. If you had to enter melee it might, but 20' nah? You only need to get even that close to throw it anyway. Plus don't you get two throws if you two-weapon with it? You could off-hand it. Maybe it doesn't have the Light property though? Still... And at higher levels its still really valid in a lot of situations. Plus the big issue for me is there's absolutely no countermeasure short of one specific cantrip (arguably) or spells almost no-one has (particularly not monsters). That is what pushes it far into broken. You're just condemned once its applied. You can't even Dispel Magic or something. Plus it stacks with Fire Vulnerability! So if you can apply that as well somehow, or they naturally have it, its worth +10 damage/instance of Fire damage. I mean, if Alchemist's Fire is worth 50G for 1d4+DEX damage/round with a DC10 DEX save allowed to end it at the cost of an Action (i.e. a strong, universally-accessible countermeasure), then this is worth easily ten or twenty times that, in terms of potential power. You might get 5.5 DPR out of Alch Fire, for a round or two, if the monster doesn't put it out. With this? Wow. Your DPR bonus is just 5 times however many instances of fire-damage you can get, until the monster is dead or 10 rounds. With twin+quick on Firebolt (or Chromatic Orb+Firebolt or whatever) that's potentially +15 right there, and as more people pile on, your one action becomes more and more valuable. Compare it to Hunters Mark or Hex. They add +1d6 damage, which is significantly less than +5. They're automatic (no save/hit etc.), but they also require Concentration. Most importantly, they apply [I]only to the person who casts them[/I]. So there is a very hard limit to the bonus damage they can do. They also cost a spell slot. Whereas you can have any amount of oil for next-to-nothing. But the main thing is they only apply to one person and only add +3.5/damage. This applies to everyone and adds +5. It's force multiplier. The more people can do fire damage, the better it gets, and its very easy to use. Yeah sometimes it'll go wrong, same for any plan, but +5 damage/hit? Uhhhh that's going to make up for a lot of failings real fast. [/QUOTE]
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