What are the mechanics for use of alchemical items as foci for arcane spells? I was running a game and had made the ruling that since most are splash weapons and bulky they needed to be held in the non-casting hand.
The counterargument was that the way I ruled would prevent magus from using focus items, rods etc. to enhance there spell casting.
As counter-intuitive as it is, I have less issue with additional material components since it doesn't leave you with a weapon in hand for free.
So the questions are:
1) Does an arcane focus item take an additional hand?
2) What kind of action is it to draw?
3) Why aren't PFS VOs backing up judges on table rulings about vague rules?
necro bump
my gm is on the fence with using
Alchemical Power Components .......
has anyone played in a game that allowed them? problems? the money spent and the benefits seem small, but my gm thinks they will turn the casters into walking spice racks.
thoughts appreciated
My understanding is that there is no action economy required to use an alchemical power component to boost one of your spells (just as there is no action economy to taking something out of your ordinary spell component pouch to cast a spell - it's just part of the action to cast the spell. Therefore the only "cost" of using alchemical power components is their gold cost, not an action cost.
This is kind of clunky, since it means that if you want to throw an acid flask, you need to use a move action to draw it and a standard to throw it, but if you want to add it to your fireball, it's just a matter of having spent the gold on it.
As for your GM's concerns about whether they are worth it or not, depends on lot on which ones and how they are used. For example: alchemist's fire added to a fireball is pretty sweet because you effect a number of targets up to your caster level, all for just one alchemist's fire. Tanglefoot bags added to Black Tentacles are nasty (and the wording of this effect seems to confirm that there's no action economy involved, since it explicitly mentions how many different tanglefoot bags you are adding to the casting).