How much damage does lava do?

[Nebten]

Yah in 3.x it was 2d6 if you come in contact with lava and 20d6 if you get submerged in it (been there, not fun).

So to translate it over I would say 2d10 contact, 20d10 if you get submerged.

 

[The Human Target]

I. . .agree. D&D is a game of near misses. The orc attacks with his battleaxe, and hits your armor, your shield, the ground. . .but never actually cleaves into you. HP's would be single digits if that is how things worked. You might get nicked or sliced, but nothing serious.

I have a hard time seeing a *normal* character fall into lava and not die from the damage it would do to him, inside and out. Explain away high level characters with their magic armor and blessings from bahamut or whatnot, but if a 1st level Warlord falls into lava, he is not just going to be able to rub some dirt on it and be fine.

If a 1st level character falls into 'lava', he should be falling onto cooled lava. Something hot enough to hurt, but not kill. Or, just be a ruthless DM and make them dead. As long as everyone is on the same page going in, it shouldn't be a huge problem.

Jay

I'm the kinda DM (for good or ill) thats says "Oh you got knocked over a cliff edge into lava? You hang onto the edge for a brief terrifying moment and manage to climb up. Lose a turn."

Losing a turn and looking like a punk is unfun enough for me.

Melting takes it to another level.

 

[Fkewl]

If you have DDI, get the Shadowrift of Umbraforge (Scales of War) and look into the Dark Foundry encounter (lv5 enc)

Basically : 1d10 falling dmg, then 2d12 dmg per round until you get out

In the Smoke and Shadow encounter (lv4 enc), 2d12dmg for entering the lava rift and 1d12 dmg for ending your turn next to it

 

[Turtlejay]

I'm the kinda DM (for good or ill) thats says "Oh you got knocked over a cliff edge into lava? You hang onto the edge for a brief terrifying moment and manage to climb up. Lose a turn."

Losing a turn and looking like a punk is unfun enough for me.

Melting takes it to another level.

I agree, and I would never have an encounter take place around *actual* lava at low level for that reason. I don't want to kill/melt my friends and ruin part of their evening. It might be a lake of supernatural fire (that does damage based on magic, not science!) or a tiger pit. . .or icy water. Actual, flowing, Gollum killing lava is reserved for levels where they can withstand it's majesty through magic or other means.

Jay

 

[ValhallaGH]

I agree, and I would never have an encounter take place around *actual* lava at low level for that reason. I don't want to kill/melt my friends and ruin part of their evening.

Dude. You have lava pits now!? I have got to get back to Tucson. It has obviously leveled up in my absence.

 

[xXElaDriNDrizZztXx]

I don't let my players wash their hands in the hot lava.

 

[unan oranis]

I roll damage for being near lava.

For being *in* lava, I use the fire and brimstone rules.

Especially in 4e, where insta-killz are hard to find, adhering to the fire and brimstone rules creates a special intensity.

Also it is a nod to the lord of the rings.

That being said, our first 4e permanent character death (18th level wizard) just occurred from this rule Saturday.

In Galindors honor I will print up the fire and brimstone pdf and keep it on hand... we only played a couple hours this weekend, and the fight started later on, so the battle was paused just as this event happened (round 4), could easily be the first of several character deaths.

 

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Here's a similr thread from a way back http://www.enworld.org/forum/d-d-4th-edition-rules/251559-lava.html#post4690992

I know that in the Chromatic Dragon book there is an epic level encounter verus an ancient red dragon in the blast cone of a volcano - falling into that does 20d6 damage and significant onoing damage (20? Can't remember exactly). For whatever that' worth.

 

[Camelot]

The thing with 4e is that you always encounter challenges that you can overcome. At level 1, you won't find a pit of lava that does 20d10 damage if you were to touch it because you might actually touch it. If you're fighting around lava at level 1 where you might often end up in the lava, it would probably only do 2d6 + 3 or something.

However, that doesn't mean that sometimes lava is more harmful than other times. It could be taken as a metaphor somehow, in which your character is always affected equally by environments (lava always does about 1/3 of your hp damage), but you get stronger than some monsters and try to reach the strength level of other monsters (don't ask me to explain this metaphor, I really don't know what I'm talking about here). But rather (now I do know what I'm talking about) it should be that at level 1, you don't come across something so deadly as pools of lava. You come across smoldering embers maybe, but the lava is reserved for paragon and then the antimatter shows up in epic tier.

So, to answer your question, the lava does however much damage it needs to do. There should not be one set number for all lava everywhere.

 

[Jhaelen]

The thing with 4e is that you always encounter challenges that you can overcome.

I beg to differ. This is a matter of playstyle.

I think it's entirely reasonable (and even important!) to create overpowering encounters from time to time. The important thing is to make it evident that the encounters are too tough for the pcs (yet), i.e. give them opportunities to get away, circumvent the encounters, or survive them with clever roleplaying.