Phoenix Arcana Questions

[Isaac Zephyr]

"When casting any spell that deals fire damage, you can instead heal your targets. The spell deals no damage, and living creatures affected by the spell instead regain a number of hit points equal to half the fire damage the spell would normally deal."

This seems to read as all targets of the spell, you can't be selective about who gets heals and who gets burned. So Fireball example, cannot drop it on top of your Fighter without either burning him to ash, or healing all the enemies around him. Other example Scorching Ray, firing multiple rays one can't be a healing ray while the others are burn rays.

Now stupid questions, are there any ways around this limitation? It's still a useful bloodline arcana either way with a tonne of utility, so no big deal if not, but I am curious.

Stupid question two, Blood Havoc for +1 damage per die. The spell now deals no damage, but heals for half the fire damage it would have normally dealt. So does the +1 per die apply as it would have been part of the spell's normal damage?

Question three, Elemental Spell metamagic and other partially fire damage spells. You can make a spell half fire damage, so how does that convoluted mess work if say Chain Lightning is dealing 50% elec, 50% fire, can you make the Fire portion heal? If anyone wonders why someone would ever do that, I counter that you never know what idea a player might come up with.

The fourth question, which I think is addressed by the ability but not sure, how are undead/constructs effected? It's not positive energy, and the definition of "living" as I've learned from Starfinder is kinda vague. If say a player in the party is a Dhampir would be a good grey area.

Question the last that popped into my head, saves. Since the spell no longer deals damage would it gain that "Harmless" keyword that lets you just tank it to the face?

EDIT: Another question: Fire Resistance. Damage it would have normally dealt. Does that mean before or after any fire resistance the target has?

Yet more, Crossblooded with the Solar bloodline. "Whenever you cast a spell with the fire descriptor, if it deals damage, it deals +1 point of damage per die rolled." same question as Blood Havoc.

[willuwontu]

1. No, also note that while not healed (they are not living), undead would still take no damage.

2. Bonuses (such as blood havoc, flume fire, arcanas, etc) to the amount healed.

3. As long as some portion of it is fire damage it can deal no damage and heal for half instead.

4. Undead/constructs aren't living creatures, a good rules of thumb is things without con scores are not living. Dhampir are living creatures, and phoenix bloodline isn't positive energy, so they heal normally.

5. You can choose to fail any spell.

Quote:

Voluntarily Giving up a Saving Throw

A creature can voluntarily forgo a saving throw and willingly accept a spell’s result. Even a character with a special resistance to magic can suppress this quality.

6. See #2

[Jeff Morse]

where is this from?

[willuwontu]

willuwontu wrote:

2. Bonuses (such as blood havoc, flume fire, arcanas, etc) to the amount healed.

Notice I derped on my sentence, it should say

willuwontu wrote:

2. Bonuses (such as blood havoc, flume fire, arcanas, etc) apply to the amount healed.

To clarify, this is because it's part of the damage your would normally deal.

[willuwontu]

Jeff Morse wrote:

where is this from?

This is from the new book, Heroes of Golarion.

[OmniMage]

A phoenix fireball sounds like an efficient healing option if you have multiple players and NPCs injured. It would certainly beat cure serious wounds, mass (a 6th level spell vs 3rd). I shall go look it up.

As for the fighter, maybe you should ditch them and invest in an Iron Golem. That way you could heal your tank and burn those around it with a single fireball.

Edit: Is this it?
https://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/sorcerer/bloodlines/bloodline s-from-paizo/phoenix-sorcerer-bloodline/

[Ninjamancer]

Further questions involving this fun Arcana:

With the Campaign Clarification of "This only works on instantaneous spells of level 1 and higher" what does that mean for fire spells that catch people on fire, or have other riders with the spell like entangle/etc?

like
Spontaneous Immolation

or
Tar Ball

The 4 main rulings I could see coming up off of this would be:

1) nothing but the initial fire damage happens, they get 1/2 as a heal

2) any fire damage applied with the spell as the source works, but nothing else (meaning burning would be 1d3 hp/round)

3) Initial Fire damage heals, then anything other than that acts as normal, meaning friendlies could be set on fire/entangled/etc

4) any fire damage applied from the spell as the source works, (meaning burning would be 1d3 hp/round) but anything non-damage would still happen (entangle/etc)

I feel like 1 or 3 would be the most likely...

edit: formatting