Concussive weapons and Alchemical Shot

[Dubious Scholar]

While this question first came up for me with the Kineticist playtest, Alchemical Shot also raises the issue.

Concussive says that the lower of B or P resistance is applied to strikes with the weapon. But it doesn't require the weapon to actually be doing B or P damage. If I use Alchemical Shot to convert my entire attack to Fire, it appears that this does fire damage... and checks against B and P resistance still.

Am I missing something, or is this just something that gets swept under the rug as "that interaction is nonsense"?

[Ascalaphus]

It's a wonderful rug.

If you're replacing the normal physical damage with something else entirely, I don't think concussive applies/should apply anymore.

[Jingling]

Here is a direct quote from Guns & Gears: "... The Strike deals damage of the same type as the bomb (for instance, fire damage for alchemist's fire), and it deals an additional 1d6 persistent damage of the same type as the bomb..."

Alchemical Shot alters the type of damage from Concussive to whatever type of damage the bomb does. B/P are no longer on the table.

[Cordell Kintner]

Who even cares how much resistance or immunity to B/P the target has when you're doing elemental damage? It's a non-issue, regardless of how it works.

[Pixel Popper]

I think the ambiguity lies in the Concussive weapon trait, not with the Alchemical Shot

Concussive: "When determining a creature's resistance or immunity to damage from this weapon, use the weaker of the target's resistance or immunity to piercing or to bludgeoning."

Taken on its own, that sentence could be read as applying the weaker of the target's immunity to piercing or bludgeoning instead of any other weaknesses. So, a Concussive weapon dealing fire damage against a creature with resistance to fire but not anything else, it could be argued, would deal full damage since the weaker resistance of piercing or bludgeoning are both 0.