Indeed, some of us don't really find that sort of thing awesome in the context of something we're trying to take seriously.
Now, one of my favourite movies is The Fifth Element, which has a ton of utterly ridiculous stuff in it, which in the context of the movie is awesome. But it's not a serious movie, at all. It's more serious than, say, Spaceballs, but it's definitely not trying to be anything but what it is. In the movie, Leeloo's fight scenes are plausible, that Diva Plavalaguna can actually sing like that with the stones inside her presumably wreaking all sorts of havoc on her diaphragm if it's anywhere near where it is on humans is perfectly OK, etc. That's the genre they're going for there, comedic sci-fi. In the context of *that* I would possibly almost be willing to accept a fight five feet above lava. We've already established that this is That Kind Of World.
Now, D&D with the group I'm in tends to be more Serious Business. The campaign with the lava especially so, since the DM had a story he was beating into us whether we liked it or not. It was a serious campaign with serious elements, frequent and important NPC interaction, and a world that was apparently mostly low-magic and gritty. So to run into that, in that context, ugh. It's a serious campaign with a serious world, so a sudden cartoon element is massively jarring, plus it's one of my bugaboos at that, so it's very disconnecting and offputting and leaves me going 'well what the hell do I assume now'. Which is why I asked the DM what he was even allowing to be possible there instead of just assuming I could jump onto/through things. My assumptions about what is normal are suddenly useless, because suddenly the world has taken a turn for the non-normal.
In a campaign in a setting more like The Fifth Element, high magic and manliness and not taking it seriously, that I've been told in advance is this way and where similar stuff has happened? I'm still going to roll my eyes, but I'm not going to be utterly thrown out of things. I knew something like this was coming sooner or later when I joined.
Now even in a realistic setting with lava that works like real lava, I'm not saying you can't have your epic fight five feet above a rising column of lava - As long as it is *plausible*. The BBEG has his lair in an active volcano, or even on the Paraelemental Plane of Magma. He's a high-level wizard easily capable of protecting himself and creating items to protect himself and his minions there from the lava. Just the location itself is going to keep most people out. The PCs, though, are a resourceful, capable lot who have after much investigation and preparation been able to find his lair and how to get there, and been able to procure or produce items for themselves to use that will protect them. Thus protected, they may happily charge right into the heart of that volcano or the PEPoM and have an epic, awesome fight with him there. This *is* awesome, because there's a *reason* for it and it is the direct reflection of an accomplishment on the part of the PCs that they are able to have this crowning moment of awesome in which the rules of reality simply do not apply to them - Because they've been able to come into the ability to make it not apply. Lava is still generally deadly. It just isn't right now, for you, because you came prepared.
By the time you can, say, make that DC90 Balance check to stand on liquid, you're generally so soaked in magic items and possibly your own magical abilities that it stops throwing anyone for a loop. You know what's possible and what isn't, but your ability and your magic simply don't care anymore. At that point it's perfectly acceptable. I *expect* that in certain settings and levels of PC competence.
My original point that has been lost here that I was making in the other thread with the example of 'running around a half-full magma chamber' was "Don't use totally unbelievable obstacles." In the situation I was facing, the lava was totally unbelievable. In another situation with plenty of magic and preparation for just exactly that where lava is trivial? Sure. Bring it on.
But I don't believe in selective or even worse inconsistent application of reality just for the sake of 'cool' if that isn't what the tone of the campaign is *about*. There is plenty, plenty of opportunity in D&D for cool that doesn't necessitate things like selectively hot lava. Cool that makes the players feel great because their good thinking and ingenuity allowed them to spit on reality.
And a question must be asked: What about fighting on a narrow catwalk over a flow of lava is so much cooler than, say, fighting on a narrow bridge over a roaring, swollen river filled with jagged rocks, rapids and whirlpools? Either way if you go off the side you're going to be in a world of hurt and trouble and probably dead. But the river is a lot more believable as a setting for characters who are not quite utterly heat-resistant badasses.
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