Ignition, Splash, and Unleash Psyche
I posted this in the quick questions thread and the Pathfinder on Foundry discord, but I can't fall on a conclusive answer. Two questions follow, with my thoughts following.
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When you cast an amped Ignition and miss, does the target still take the splash damage?
As far as I understand, spells with splash use the splash rules - even if those are only meant for bombs. While this isn't clarified at all in the rules, it is really the only way it makes sense, and in prior discussions around acid splash, people noted that Director of Game Design at Paizo in his streamed sessions treated it like acid bombs. This means, in my view, the target would still take the splash damage.
I believe there was some confusion in some threads I have seen around whether Acid Splash actually did splash damage to enemies near the target (not that I understand this argument, because if it didn't, there would be no need to call it splash damage, it would just be a flat +1 damage). Corrosive body expanding the splash damage to creatures "within 15 feet instead of the normal 5 feet" clarifies that this is not the case.
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Does the bonus damage from unleash psyche apply to the splash damage to: i) creatures caught in splash, and ii) the target if you miss and they do receive splash damage
This is where things are getting a bit more confusing in our group, especially since Foundry VTT does not rule it this way. Unleash Psyche's bonus damage has three requirements: (1) there is a damaging spell; (2) that spell has no duration; and (3) that spell is cast using psychic spellcasting. If all three conditions are met, then you gain a status bonus to its damage equal to double the spell's level. Tangentially, but potentially relevant, this applies to the damage received over an area - case in point if you were to cash fireball, all in the radius woudl receive an extra 6 damage.
Amped Ignition states "the initial damage chnages to 1d10 fire damage plus 1 fire splash damage." Therefore, to me, it is clear that the spell deals 1d10 damage to the target, plus 1 fire splash damage to the target and, as per the splash rules, everything within 5ft. That is the damage that the spell deals.
The question is...does Unleash's bonus damage also apply to the splash damage? Now, this would not apply to the target, so you can't double dip, as the splash trait does say "add splash damage together with the initial damage...". However, this could have quite a significant impact on everyone around that enemy (other enemies and allies included). At level 1, each creature takes 1 splash damage. However, if you were to then add unleash, they take 3 splash damage. Extrapolate this to level 20, and creatures will either be taking 10 splash damage (if unleash does not apply) or 30 splash damage (if unleash does apply). As an aside, Entropic Wheel specifically says that it only gives bonus damage to "the target", whereas Unleash Psyche does not make this distinction (and thank god, because you could potentially have a splash of 40 if it did not say target).
I personally feel like this could fall under the rule of "too good to be true" (or "too bad to the true" from the POV of allied melee characters), but, other than that, I cannot see any reason why the splash damage would not receive this bonus unleash damage. Again, a spell with no duration has been cast using psychic spellcasting. Therefore, the damage the spell delivers is increased by double the spell level. The spell deals damage in the form of splash damage. QED that splash damage should receive the bonus damage.