activating alchemical ammunition

[i26c2]

Could one of the designers pelase anwser my question I posted here?

https://paizo.com/threads/rzs43spq?alchemical-ammunition-and-activation#1

I flagged the thread to be moved here days ago but I think its faster just to link it. I got lots of interesting perspectives from forum users on both sides of the argument but would like to hear from an actual designer. Mainly I would like to know design intent. Was alchemical ammunition intended to require seperate activation actions like magic ammunition, or since its not magical, was the intent for it to activate on load or strike (load makes sense as that is an interact action)? Was it intended that activated alchemical ammo only reamin activated for the round same as magical, or can you just activate a bunch ahead of time and just use actions in combat loading and firing as you can with other non-magical ammo? This has a big impact on how useful alchemical ammo is for gunslingers, as they are already at an action handicap, so hitting them further with requiring activation for these ammos seems unecessiraly harsh.

[Cordell Kintner]

i26c2 wrote:

Could one of the designers pelase anwser my question I posted here?

They unfortunately will not. The community however can help.

If it doesn't have an Activate entry, it will apply when shot. If it has an Activate entry, use the same rules as "Activated Ammunition". I know the rules refer to "magical ammunition" but it's reasonable to apply it to Alchemical ammo in the same way.

i26c2 wrote:

This has a big impact on how useful alchemical ammo is for gunslingers, as they are already at an action handicap, so hitting them further with requiring activation for these ammos seems unecessiraly harsh.

Firing once per round with additional benefits is fine. The reason you use alchemical ammo isn't for damage, it's for the extra stuff, like healing an ally or covering an enemy in glue.

[breithauptclan]

i26c2 wrote:

Could one of the designers pelase anwser my question I posted here?

There are a lot of people who play this game. And most of them have questions about something or another.

There are not all that many game developers.

And if a question was answered in a random forum thread, it would get buried in short order - so someone else would ask the same question.

So a better place to answer questions like this is in the official errata and clarifications on the FAQ page.

Otherwise the game designers and developers would be spending all of their time answering questions on these forums instead of creating new content for us to play with.

[Cordell Kintner]

And to anyone referencing the Black Powder's entry needing an activation, that's refering to a Black Powder Horn or Keg, not firing standard firearm ammunition.

[breithauptclan]

breithauptclan wrote:

And if a question was answered in a random forum thread, it would get buried in short order - so someone else would ask the same question.

For example: the answer to why game developers don't respond very often to forum questions here ... was answered almost six months ago. But has since dropped off of the top threads listed on the forum. I had to search for quite a while to find it again.

[i26c2]

breithauptclan wrote:

i26c2 wrote:

Could one of the designers pelase anwser my question I posted here?

There are a lot of people who play this game. And most of them have questions about something or another.

There are not all that many game developers.

And if a question was answered in a random forum thread, it would get buried in short order - so someone else would ask the same question.

So a better place to answer questions like this is in the official errata and clarifications on the FAQ page.

Otherwise the game designers and developers would be spending all of their time answering questions on these forums instead of creating new content for us to play with.

being as guns and gears doesn't have an errata yet, and firearms and alchemical ammo was introduced in guns and gears, its not going to be on an FAQ. Intersting that that FAQ says if something is not anwsered there to check this forum and links me right back here, LMAO. Almsot like this is the correct palce to ask these questions and I have seen game developers have anwsered other rules based questions on this rules forum. This would be the best forum to hope for an anwser from one based on what I've seen. The problem with "communitty" anwsers is they tend to be all over the place, especially when rules are unclear. Getting an anwser specifically about designer intent from Paizo itself or a designer is always prefered. This is horribly worded and absolutely needs errata and/or clarification one way or another.

[breithauptclan]

i26c2 wrote:

being as guns and gears doesn't have an errata yet, and firearms and alchemical ammo was introduced in guns and gears, its not going to be on an FAQ.

Yes. We are all still waiting on anything official for this particular question.

i26c2 wrote:

Intersting that that FAQ says if something is not anwsered there to check this forum and links me right back here, LMAO. Almsot like thsi is the correct palce to ask these questions

This is the correct place to ask such questions. There are many people on here who can give very reasonable and playable answers.

i26c2 wrote:

and I have seen game developers have anwsered other rules based questions on this rules forum. This would be the best forum to hope for an anwser from one based on what I've seen.

Yes. Every once in a great while we do have a developer on here answering something. It isn't something to expect though. And it wouldn't be the best place for such an answer to be given. The FAQ page would actually be better.

i26c2 wrote:

The problem with "communitty" anwsers is they tend to eb all voer the place, especially when rules are unclear. Getting an anwser specifically about designer intent from Paizo itself or a designer is always prefered.

I will certainly agree with that. But that is the nature of unclear rules rather than any failing of the community.

i26c2 wrote:

This is horribly worded and absolutely needs errata and/or clarification one way or another.

Probably. Paizo did announce a faster and more regular turnaround time on errata though. So hopefully we will get another batch of it in a month or three. There are more than a few things that I am hoping to see on that list too.

[i26c2]

Sorry your answer seemed very dismissive I know tone is a difficult thing to interpret through text so clearly I failed there. I don't care where it is answered but you are right about it getting buried and errata would be ideal. I just saw a thread in general about guns and gears errata and someone actually did mention it there too, so that is good. Looking through that thread I see what you mean about many other things that need to make it there too. Some I think are much more obvious than this like does fake out shoot your shot (nope, clearly never says it does and would be useless if it did), and does alchemical shot work on two handed guns (of course it does, it doesn't specify 1H and is recommended for snipers) but those clarifications should also probably make it just to get rid of any ambiguity