Energy Damage to Objects

[frankthedm]

bah, cold should damage the hardness / structural integrity of objects Making objects really cold won't hurt them directly, but it is the one of the One-two punch.

 

[Storyteller01]

I just guess I'm not sure why they crippled Cold. 1d6/lvl Fire spell is at 3rd level. 1d6/lvl Cold spell is at 5th. Fire does 1/2 damage to objects. Cold does 1/4 damage to objects. See where I'm going with this?

More fire based threats than cold? Can't have you facing those Great Wyrm Reds too soon.

 

[Thaniel]

Most cold spells offer fort saves, not reflex. No evasion.

In the SRD, I can find no cold spells that offer Fort saves. 3 offer Reflex, 5 offer no save (attacks rolls necessary for most).

With Fire, 9 offer Reflex, and 6 offer no save.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

In the SRD, I can find no cold spells that offer Fort saves.

He's probably thinking of the Psionics system, wherein a cold energy X requires a Fort save rather than a Reflex save.

 

[andargor]

Take levels of Archmage, and take Mastery of Elements. You can now use Sonic... BTW, Mastery of Shaping is cool too, for those AoE spells...

Andargor

 

[Thaniel]

Yeah, so Cold psionics require Fort save instead of Ref save (thus no evasion) but they also do +1 damage per die on top of that. That's a double whammy. Though, more creatures have high Fort than high Ref (at least that I've seen).

All off the topic though.

 

[Thaniel]

Take levels of Archmage, and take Mastery of Elements. You can now use Sonic... BTW, Mastery of Shaping is cool too, for those AoE spells...

Andargor

I don't want to do Sonic damage. I want to freeze things and have it actually hurt them. I guess that's too much to ask for.

 

[Krelios]

Okay, here's an experiment. Put your PHB in the freezer overnight. Does it explode? No? Why not? Doesn't cold destroy objects? Oh wait, that's right, it doesn't--unless it is extreme or unnatural cold. Liquid Nitrogen is one example, but that's like saying Fireball should be deal damage like plasma or a hydrogen bomb.

 

[Thaniel]

Okay, here's an experiment. Put your PHB in the freezer overnight. Does it explode? No? Why not? Doesn't cold destroy objects? Oh wait, that's right, it doesn't--unless it is extreme or unnatural cold. Liquid Nitrogen is one example, but that's like saying Fireball should be deal damage like plasma or a hydrogen bomb.

Unnatural Cold.. like, say.. MAGIC? Any cold that does 7d6 damage (Cold-substituted Fireball) is what I'd call Unnatural. No natural source of cold is ever going to do that kind of damage in an instant. Yet even if it did max damage, It still would not touch a set of iron manacles (hardness 10. 42 damage /4 = 10, hardness takes care of the rest). I find that odd.

P.S. I use 7d6 because that's what my PC currently does with his Iceballs (not to be confused with blueballs).

 

[Hypersmurf]

Acid and Sonic both do full damage to objects, Sonic just ignores hardness too.

Interesting interpretation.

Energy Attacks: Acid and sonic attacks deal damage to most objects just as they do to creatures; roll damage and apply it normally after a successful hit. Electricity and fire attacks deal half damage to most objects; divide the damage dealt by 2 before applying the hardness. Cold attacks deal one-quarter damage to most objects; divide the damage dealt by 4 before applying the hardness.

I've seen it ruled, based on this passage, that Acid and Sonic both ignore hardness (like in the 3.5 Main FAQ).

I've seen it ruled, based on this passage, that hardness applies to both Acid and Sonic (like in the 3.5 Main FAQ).

But I haven't seen it ruled that it applies to Acid and not to Sonic!

-Hyp.