Hellfire and Fire Vulnerability

[Cuup]

Half the damage from Hellfire is fire damage, but the other half is unholy damage, which let's Hellfire bypass Fire immunities and Resistances to an extent. Does this also mean that Hellfire will wind up dealing less damage to a creature with vulnerability to Fire than regular fire that deals the same damage?

So let's take Hellfire dealing 8d6 damage. 4d6 would be Fire damage, and 4d6 would be Unholy damage. A creature with vulnerability to fire would take on average 21 damage from the fire portion, and 14 damage from the unholy portion, for a total of 35 damage. Compare that to say a Fireball spell that deals 8d6 damage, and a creature with vulnerability to fire is taking 42 damage.

Am I understanding this right? Should Hellfire just be treated as normal fire for creatures with vulnerability to fire?

[Val'bryn2]

Half is fire, which is increased by vulnerability to fire, half is unholy energy, which is not. It really is that simple.

[Pax Miles]

Cuup wrote:

Half the damage from Hellfire is fire damage, but the other half is unholy damage, which let's Hellfire bypass Fire immunities and Resistances to an extent. Does this also mean that Hellfire will wind up dealing less damage to a creature with vulnerability to Fire than regular fire that deals the same damage?

So let's take Hellfire dealing 8d6 damage. 4d6 would be Fire damage, and 4d6 would be Unholy damage. A creature with vulnerability to fire would take on average 21 damage from the fire portion, and 14 damage from the unholy portion, for a total of 35 damage. Compare that to say a Fireball spell that deals 8d6 damage, and a creature with vulnerability to fire is taking 42 damage.

Am I understanding this right? Should Hellfire just be treated as normal fire for creatures with vulnerability to fire?

Up to the GM on how they want to halve it. Your way works, but I'd prefer doing the total 8d6 and halving after the total rolled (35) was reached, 17 damage of each type, so 17 unholy and 25 fire after vulnerabilities.

That said, beware that the term, "hellfire," doesn't always do this half and half thing, and is sometimes just fire damage. For example, CRB Infernal Bloodline Sorcerer deals a column of hellfire, but it's just fire damage.

Anyway, yes, against targets vulnerable to fire, dealing half fire damage is less impressive than dealing full fire damage. Pick your targets.