Splash damage point of origin?

[Torbyne]

So Alchemist... i keep thinking this will be a great class to play but i want to get my ducks in a row before i try rolling up to a group with one.

The question is this: If my splash weapons affect all squares within 5ft. of the point of impact but my point of impact is a large or greater creature does the splash damage get boosted to all 5ft. squares around the base of the creature hit? Assuming of course a hit against touch AC and not targeting a square at its feet. If not do i have to declare which individual square was hit in the attack and calculate splash from just that square?

Here is my logic leading to this. My first reading of lead me to believe i could target the intersection between a large creature's squares and hit with min. damage times squares occupied (save for half) but that seemed way to cheesy powerful. My second thought was well then the splash effect radiates out from the target and hit all those extra squares. But that still gives my attacks a boost when used against larger creatures. On the other hand, if i have to target a specific square of the enemy i only get to affect partial secondary squares. This seems like a slight nerf when attacking big BBEGs. Granted its only a slight nerf while the other options are all big boosts.

Thoughts?

[DM_Blake]

No.

You hit whatever square you aim at and splash to the adjacent squares that are either empty or at least not filled with the same monster. If the over-sized monster occupies some of those adjacent squares, that splash effect does no extra damage to it (you can't do 4d6 with alchemical fire just because the critter occupies 4 squares).

So, by your reasoning, the "slight nerf" is the correct answer. Yes, that means that you can do more damage throwing a splash weapon at a tightly packed mob of kobolds than you can by throwing it at a dragon, but that's how it works.

[Torbyne]

DM_Blake wrote:

No.

You hit whatever square you aim at and splash to the adjacent squares that are either empty or at least not filled with the same monster. If the over-sized monster occupies some of those adjacent squares, that splash effect does no extra damage to it (you can't do 4d6 with alchemical fire just because the critter occupies 4 squares).

So, by your reasoning, the "slight nerf" is the correct answer. Yes, that means that you can do more damage throwing a splash weapon at a tightly packed mob of kobolds than you can by throwing it at a dragon, but that's how it works.

Cool, i hadn't thought of it at the time but it also means i could hit a larger enemy without having to worry about splashing onto a friendly martial at the same time. Thanks for the response :)

[Cevah]

Torbyne wrote:

So Alchemist... i keep thinking this will be a great class to play but i want to get my ducks in a row before i try rolling up to a group with one.

The question is this: If my splash weapons affect all squares within 5ft. of the point of impact but my point of impact is a large or greater creature does the splash damage get boosted to all 5ft. squares around the base of the creature hit? Assuming of course a hit against touch AC and not targeting a square at its feet. If not do i have to declare which individual square was hit in the attack and calculate splash from just that square?

Here is my logic leading to this. My first reading of lead me to believe i could target the intersection between a large creature's squares and hit with min. damage times squares occupied (save for half) but that seemed way to cheesy powerful. My second thought was well then the splash effect radiates out from the target and hit all those extra squares. But that still gives my attacks a boost when used against larger creatures. On the other hand, if i have to target a specific square of the enemy i only get to affect partial secondary squares. This seems like a slight nerf when attacking big BBEGs. Granted its only a slight nerf while the other options are all big boosts.

Thoughts?

Bomb wrote:

Thrown bombs have a range of 20 feet and use the Throw Splash Weapon special attack.

Throw Splash Weapon wrote:

A hit deals direct hit damage to the target, and splash damage to all creatures within 5 feet of the target. If the target is Large or larger, you choose one of its squares and the splash damage affects creatures within 5 feet of that square.

Pretty clear the hit is on a single square of the target.

/cevah