Arabian Fire is a potion available through Alchemy.
| Description | ||
|---|---|---|
| A sticky, burning substance that clings to flesh and flows through armor. | ||
| Formulas | ||
| 25q | 35q | 45q |
| Geber's | Zadith's | Hugh's |
| 160 mn | 165 mn | 170 mn |
| High Risk | High Risk | High Risk |
| 25q | 35q | 45q |
| 1 Manganes | 2 Naptha | 2 Naptha |
| 2 Naptha | 1 Zincblende | 1 Gum |
| 1 Gum | 1 Gum | 1 Pitchblende |
| 4 Choleric Base | 3 Choleric Base | 3 Choleric Base |
| 1 Sanguine Base | 1 Sanguine Base | 1 Sanguine Base |
Comments[]
This is a battle potion, a firebomb, with some additional situational uses when the party wants to commit arson. Some foes are immune to fire, and therefore immune to this potion. For foes without immunity, however, Arabian Fire penetrates all armor, effectively ignoring armor thickness in calculating damage (though armor quality is still taken into account). Arabian Fire also decreases each foe's armor quality by one-quarter of the damage received by that foe.
In practice, immediately adjacent foes can be observed to receive similar damage and armor quality loss as the target, while foes at the edges of the area-of-effect range do seem to receive 25% damage, making the Clue Book description of the potion incorrect. That observation is still consistent with the potion descriptions in the manual, which simply state that Arabian Fire's damage "varies with the distance from the burst" (compare to the similar Thunderbolt's description, where its 3t dropoff in armor penetration beyond the target is described as "decreases quickly with distance"). Whether Arabian Fire's decrease in damage is gradual over the range, or whether there is a sudden dropoff past a certain level of "adjacency," is still unclear. (If there is a sudden dropoff, the likely boundary is one-quarter of the total area-of-effect distance, since that is a boundary Thunderbolt uses as well.)
While Arabian Fire ignores armor thickness, its damage is still adjusted by armor quality just like with most attacks. This means that whenever it meets its armor-piercing thresholds, Thunderbolt can deal higher damage than Arabian Fire, as Thunderbolt's damage ignores armor quality and is reduced only by armor thickness (if it merely matches or fails to penetrate the foe's armor). Thunderbolt can also cause more armor quality damage to foes at further range because of this, with the caveat that it can only practically do so for foes with armor thickness low enough to be penetrated by Thunderbolt's low ranged penetration stats in the first place.
Acquisition[]
The Arabian Fire formulas are rare, being learned only by chance when a city's Alchemist agrees to swap a recipe with the player. The potion is very challenging to mix. Its active ingredients, Naptha and possibly Manganes, are rare. After serious training, there is good profit in producing even small batches of it.