[Drop Dead Studios] Spheres of Might Open Playtest

[Ssalarn]

So this might be a bit obtuse but for the Improved Alchemist's Fire of the Alchemy Sphere, why is it always a full round action to extinguish, and why has the bonus from stopping, dropping, and rolling been reduced to a +2 from a +4 from all other instances in Pathfinder of being set on fire?

I'm not actually sure what happened there, since originally the catching fire rules were a direct copy/paste included for the sole purpose of making it so that you don't need to look up the catching on fire rules in the CRB. I'm unclear when/why that was changed so I'll need to double-check with the team and see if it's logged in our update files.

It seems like with no duration, no reflex to avoid being initially set on fire (even and especially in the splash radius), and requiring a full round action regardless of what you're doing (other than drenching yourself) that the alchemists fire is inherently a bit stronger than just about anything else in that sphere, and a little over powered in general.

Even with the nerf to the save bonus, it's 1d6 fire damage each round if you're caught on fire. Any creature with fire resistance or immunity simply won't care, and many other creatures will simply be able to ignore the miniscule amount of damage until combat is over and they're either dead or have time to properly extinguish the flames. The catch on fire effect is largely a small bonus that's nice when it kicks in since it can provide that small tilt in the party's favor during a drawn out fight and makes for some entertaining visuals, but is unlikely to have any significant impact after the first two or three levels of play. Compared to the higher base damage and less resisted effects of Improved Bottled Lightning, the blindness imposed by Improved Flash Powder, or even the recurring effect from Improved Acid Flask (which can't be avoided, scales much higher, and is generally less resisted than fire) it's pretty equitable, maybe even a tad weaker.

How does the DC work for Death of a Thousand Cuts, Conscript Duelist Specialization work with variable bleed, from say Open Vein?

Death by a Thousand Cuts is determined by the amount of bleed damage the target is currently taking. So if you're a +4 BAB Duelist using Open Vein, you dealt 2d4+2 bleed damage. Assuming you had an average roll, that means the target needs to make a DC 17 save to avoid becoming fatigued (2.5+2.5+2).