Iron Golems and Fire

[Gweldorf]

I have a set of related questions that I'm hoping to understand better.

All of these questions involve a wizard with a wall of fire and an iron golem he commands.

1) Can the golem do a double move and walk back and forth in the wall of fire to heal 8 * (2d6+caster level) / 3 hp in a round? What if it just stood in the wall?

2) Can the golem do the same to gain an equivalent amount of temporary hp?

3) I can't find a duration on the temporary hp in the golem entry. How long do they last?

I hope I haven't missed obvious answers to these questions somewhere, and thanks for your help.

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

By a highly literal reading of the RAW such tactics should presumably work.

A while back we had this big discussion about a Huge Air Elemental picking up an enemy while in whirlwind form, and then moving him back and forth through a single Blade Barrier many times in a single round to multiply the damage up to a couple hundred d6s. There was no consensus on what the correct ruling would be. Yours is a similar issue.

I would not allow it if I were DM. At least I would not allow the "damage" to stack up so linearly.

IMHO the rules were not written to handle these cases -- something that seems like it should be interpreted as a single event get artificially broken up in many discrete independent events by the rules, then multiplied out very mechanically.

It would seem to me that it is completely stupid that one can sustian astronomically more damage by wandering back and forth through a Wall of Fire, than just standing perfectly still within it. More damage? Maybe. 10X, 20X, 100X as much damage within 6 seconds? I do not think so -- my suspension of disbelief would simply collapse.

It is extremely easy to cook up oddball scenarios like "The Dragon uses Snatch to pick up a PC, then waves the PC's head in and out of a Wall of Fire 20 times for 40d6+200 damage."

 

[Solarious]

I'll rule, in such cases, each long-lasting effect only triggers once per round.

Back to the original topic, RBDMs who like to challenge (or scare the bejeesus out therof) PCs enjoy mixing Iron Golems with lava and Red Dragons. That, or they throw Advanced, Feral, Fire-elemental Trolls and Fire-elemental Beholders at them in a lava environment. Whichever causes more soiling.

 

[Henrix]

Considering that if somebody stopped in the middle of the wall they would only sustain the damage once, I dare say the golem should be healed only once per round.

 

[Delta]

Rules don't directly cover it. I rule: once per round.

 

[lukelightning]

I think it's funny that magical fire heals an iron golem, but regular fire damages it.

 

[Gweldorf]

Thanks for the responses.

It seems that a clear consensus points to limiting the damage to once per round.

What about the temporary hit point questions?
Can these stack over multiple rounds and how long do they last?

 

[Hypersmurf]

What about the temporary hit point questions?
Can these stack over multiple rounds and how long do they last?

For what it's worth, the 3.5 Main FAQ has this to say:
Do temporary hit points from two applications of the
same effect stack? What about from different effects? If I
have temporary hit points from multiple sources, how
should I apply damage?

Temporary hit points from two applications of the same
effect don’t stack; instead, the highest number of temporary hit
points applies in place of all others. Temporary hit points from
different sources stack, but you must keep track of them
separately.

For example, imagine a character who gained 15 temporary
hit points from an aid spell. After taking 8 points of damage,
she has 7 temporary hit points left from the spell. If another aid
spell were cast on the same character granting 12 temporary hit
points, this total would replace the other spell’s total, meaning
the character would now have 12 temporary hit points (rather
than 19). If the character then cast false life on herself, she
would add the full benefit of that spell to the temporary hit
points from the aid spell.

This also applies to temporary hit points gained from
energy drain and similar special abilities. Each successful
attack counts as one application of the effect (meaning that an
attack that bestows 2 or more negative levels still counts as
only one application of the effect). For example, a wight gains
5 temporary hit points each time it bestows a negative level
with its slam attack. If it bestows another negative level while it
has 2 temporary hit points remaining from the first attack, the
new temporary hit points would replace the old ones.

Temporary hit points are “first-in, first-out.” Damage
should be taken off the oldest temporary-hit-point-granting
effect first; when that effect is exhausted, apply damage to the
next oldest effect. For this reason, you must track each supply
of temporary hit points separately.

As far as I can tell, the THP last indefinitely, but according to the FAQ entry, a 30 point fireball and a 40 point flame strike would yield a total of 40 THP, not 70.

-Hyp.

 

[Gweldorf]

Wouldn't this part

'If the character then cast false life on herself, she
would add the full benefit of that spell to the temporary hit
points from the aid spell.'

imply that a fireball and a flamestrike would be counted as two different effects?

 

[Hypersmurf]

Wouldn't this part imply that a fireball and a flamestrike would be counted as two different effects?

I'd say no - the source of the THP is not the fireball, the source is Immunity to Magic (Ex).

In the same way that an orc and a goblin are not two separate sources of THP to a wight; the source of the THP is Energy Drain (Su).

-Hyp.