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Message: <blockquote data-quote="bpauls" data-source="post: 5989371" data-attributes="member: 6676720">How does everyone handle ordinary, non-magical fire as hindering terrain?In the next session of my campaign, the characters may encounter a trap which has the ability to set alight the building in which they are fighting.I intend to create an in-combat skill challenge which will allow the characters to extinguish the flames. While the fire burns, however, I want to have a solid mechanic in place for treating it as hindering terrain.I was surprised to find that there are no hard-and-fast rules for this in the DMG, the DMG2 or the Essentials DM Book. "Hindering terrain" wasn't even a separate category of terrain until Essentials, and while "fire" is mentioned as a form of hindering terrain, there are no guidelines for determining exactly when it deals damage, and how much.There are several examples of "fantastic terrain" in the two DMGs, but no examples of something as simple as getting caught in a normal fire.This is an important question for me, because the first time I used fire as hindering terrain, one of the other players took issue with my ruling. I reasoned that characters should take damage if they enter or start their turn in any square that is on fire.So if a character wants to cross a region of flames that is three squares wide, he will take damage for entering each of the three squares.My player disagreed, in essence claiming that the rules treat any contiguous area of fire as a zone, and you only take damage for entering, or starting your turn in the zone.Under this interpretation, the character would take damage for entering the first square, but could then move about freely, taking no further damage as long as he is safely out of the zone by the start of his next turn.I feel this interpretation is too lax. It significantly reduces the penalty for entering an area of the battlefield that is on fire, thereby impairing the effectiveness of fire as hindering terrain.Perhaps there is a more detailed treatment of fire as hindering terrain in one of the WotC adventures. I can't seem to find adequate guidelines in the DM books.For the upcoming adventure, I am considering the following mechanic:"Any character entering, or starting his turn in a square that is on fire takes damage equivalent to that found in the 'Damage By Level' table on page 108 of the Essentials DM Book."This seems reasonable, since "a character stumbles into the campfire" is specifically given as an example of the sort of situation that the Damage By Level table is designed to handle.The party in my game is currently at third level, so this ruling would mean that any character entering, or starting his turn in a square that is on fire would take 1d8+6 damage.Does everyone feel this would be a fair way to adjudicate the situation?</blockquote>

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