Splash damage is back with the psychic and we still don’t know what it is

[Unicore]

The psychic added the oscillating wave conscious mind which gives us a psychic produce flame that does 1 fire splash damage when amped. The problem is that “splash” exists in PF2 as only a weapon trait and a type of damage. So what does this mean for this spell? (As well as acid splash, and scatter weapons)

It seems like the insinuation is that the spell acts like a weapon with the splash trait, but this is not well defined. Is it supposed to trigger on a miss? Does it affect an area? I will probably run it as yes to both, but splash as a damage type really needs to be clarified because I know numerous GMs who run scatter guns and the acid splash cantrip differently, and this makes me hestitant to play an oscillating wave psychic in many games.

[aobst128]

There really aught to be a new definition of the splash trait since we have more examples of splash damage from things that aren't bombs.

[Unicore]

aobst128 wrote:

There really aught to be a new definition of the splash trait since we have more examples of splash damage from things that aren't bombs.

The issue is that none of the things I mentioned above have the splash trait. They just do some splash damage. Some of them seem to try to specify that they only do splash damage on a hit, others do not. The description of produce flame for the psychic is the first that references not damaging the caster (really making it sound like the splash trait is being referenced, but this puts acid splash and weapons with the scatter trait in even weirder waters.

[CaffeinatedNinja]

Agreed. I THINK it is only on a hit since the spell does specify that, but it is a bit odd that splash damager is never defined.

I just run it as bombs (5 foot damage emanation from target)

[Ediwir]

CaffeinatedNinja wrote:

Agreed. I THINK it is only on a hit since the spell does specify that, but it is a bit odd that splash damager is never defined.

I just run it as bombs (5 foot damage emanation from target)

Fun fact: We also recently started getting bombs with splash damage which is NOT a 5 foot emanation.

[Unicore]

Maybe it is too late for PF2, but splash effects should be explained in the same place as area of effect effects. If every instance of "splash" is supposed to act the same way, then it can be clarified there. If there are supposed to be different kinds of splash effects (some that trigger only on a successful hit with an attack roll, that needs clarification within the same place that splash is defined. Is splash damage always supposed to have another type of damage (Scatter confuses this)?

I recognize that the reason this has not yet been addressed in Errata is because it is probably difficult to figure out where to fit the text for something that really does only affect edge cases outside of bombs, but if it is going to continue to be used in new books that really should get clarified. It would not be surprising if it is going to show up again with the Kineticist.

[Deriven Firelion]

I'm going to keep running it like bomb splash damage until they define it better.

[CaffeinatedNinja]

I was just looking at psychic's amped produce flame.

It says you do splash damage "on a hit" ok fair. But produce flame also says it double all damage on a crit. So presumably the splash damage, which is damage, doubles as well.

Does it only double on the target or also on all nearby enemies?

Who knows.

[YogoZuno]

The Splash damage type by itself doesn't do anything special. However, some creatures interact with splash damage (i.e. swarms).

I agree this could have been much clearer...I've seen a few cases where authors thought splash damage did something different.