You are giving a perfect damage output of the firebolt cantrip. Character's don't always set on fire, may not move thus not take fire damage, etc.
I have personally witnessed a Firebolt doing 13 damage onto two targets, because of the floor splash, and then one of them took another 1d4 from the floor effect. (I forgot how much it was.) If the other person hadn't been killed by something different, that'd be another 1d4. From a 1d10 cantrip. This is not a hypothetical, it's actually happening.
It's overpowered for who and under what conditions?
Everyone, and all conditions, because the game's AC system was not designed around a -2 AC status effect on a cantrip which makes permanent puddles of -2 AC acid on the ground. Hope that helps!
I don't know why he made such a brain dead comparison.
But it's actually far worse because, lol, you can factor in elemental damage from dipping your weapon (or poisoning your weapon) which cantrips, currently, don't get access to so when you're scaling rogue / thief damage it goes up even higher. Also 1d4 damage matters less and less the higher level you go and it's some times the only way for lower level creatures to compete or offer a remote challenge; kobolds who use liberal amounts of oil and alchemist fire to take on level 20 adventurers etc.
I don't think he understands what 'unbalanced' means, but in an act of good faith if I were to play the devil's advocate I would say stuff like creating ice could be a bit troublesome when looking at balance due to being knocked prone for such a low price (one action).
You are an idiot. This is not a hypothetical, hyperbolic exaggeration. It is how the system is literally working right now.
Dipping weapons in fire requires being next to a fire source, which is not always available. Poison is a consumable resource.
Yes, higher levels the extra effects mean less. But low levels are what we have. There are no level 20 adventurers in BG3. Don't talk about them, they're irrelevant. There's a reason why most D&D games around the tabletop don't drench players in Alchemist's Fire at level 2.
