Painful Stare Damage Question

[Duskblade]

Okay, I have a quick question about the 'painful stare' ability for the Mesmerist:

When an attack that deals damage hits the target of a mesmerist's hypnotic stare, the mesmerist can cause the target to take an amount of additional damage equal to 1/2 the mesmerist's class level (minimum 1).

The mesmerist can use this ability as a free action, and can use it even if it isn't his turn. If the mesmerist uses this ability to increase his own damage, the additional damage increases by 1d6 points for every 3 class levels the mesmerist possesses. This damage is precision damage and is not multiplied on a critical hit. A mesmerist can trigger this ability only once per round, but a single creature can take damage from multiple mesmerists' painful stares in a round.

Alright, for this example, let's assume that the mesmerist is 20th level: which of the following options represents how much damage the 'painful stare' ability would do if the mesmerist used it on himself...

a) 6d6 + 10 extra damage

or

b) 6d6 extra damage

I only ask because the wording almost seems to imply that the 'd6' precision damage replaces the previous 'flat bonus' to damage.

[dragonhunterq]

Quote:

the additional damage increases by

that doesn't sound like it replaces the flat damage to me.

b) 10+6d6

[Kyaol]

The fact that it says "the additional damage increases" kind of gives it away I think. It sounds like everyone receives the +10, but the mesmerist gets bonus damage ontop of it.