New Prestige Race (and new format!) - Flame Freak

[Terramotus]

Originally posted by kreynolds
Fire genasi do not become immune to fire. They don't even get Fire Resistance (though tieflings do, strangely enough). The only thing they get is a maximum of +5 to saves against fire spells and effects. That's certainly not immunity. There are ways around it.

That's not actually what I meant - I meant that the genasi save bonus is superceded by the prestige race's eventual immunity to fire.

Originally posted by kreynolds
Also, the burn DC isn't low at all. Because it is a warrior type prestige race, characters most likely to enter this prestige race will have good Constitution scores. The higher your constitution score, the higher the save DC. Take a 14th level fighter/flame freak (4 fighter/10 flame freak - ECL 15) with a Constitution of 18. The save DC would be 21 (10 + 7 + 4). Now, compare that to a 15th level wizard with an Intelligence of 18. The highest level spell he can cast is 8th level. The save DC for a 8th level spell from that wizard would be 22 (10 + 8 + 4). You also need to take into account that any increase to Constitution will result in a higher save DC, just like any increase to Intelligence will result in a higher save DC for a wizard.

How is that low?

I think I'm misunderstanding the way that save DC is determined. I went by what was in the MM for a medium sized fire elemental - DC 14. I looked around under monster advancement and didn't see anything about the DCs scaling other than that I'd follow the chart on page 84 of the MM if a size change was involved. Where does that formula come from, and what does the middle number (7) represent?

I see your point about the rest of it, though. This is definitely going into my gaming files.

 

[kreynolds]

That's not actually what I meant - I meant that the genasi save bonus is superceded by the prestige race's eventual immunity to fire.

Ah. I misunderstood you. May bad.

Still, I disagree wwith your assessment. The save bonus is definately superceded by eventual fire immunity, but no more so than a wizard's 1st level spells when he's 20th. They are superceded. In the end, its not a waste. As the fire genasi flame freak gains levels, he'll have a bonus to saves vs fire spells and effects, and even if he fails that save, he'll have fire resistance to protect him even further. As written in the fire genasi, the saves improve over time. As written in the flame freak, the fire resistance improves over time. Fire immunity is merely the last step between the two.

I think I'm misunderstanding the way that save DC is determined. I went by what was in the MM for a medium sized fire elemental - DC 14. I looked around under monster advancement and didn't see anything about the DCs scaling other than that I'd follow the chart on page 84 of the MM if a size change was involved. Where does that formula come from, and what does the middle number (7) represent?

The 7 represents "half hit die". The formula is how dragon breath weapon save DCs are calcuated, and its also the same for the fire elemental's burn ability.

Take a look at a medium-size fire elemental with a Burn DC of 14. First, we have the base DC of 10. A medium-size fire elemental has 4 hit die, so there's +2 to the DC, and it has a Constitution of 14 with a +2 modifier, so there's the last +2 to our DC. Here's the breakdown of the formula...

DC 10 + half hit die + Constitution modifier

...here's how the medium-size fire elemental's looks...

DC 10 (base) + 2 (half hit die) + 2 (Constitution modifier)

See? (By the way, you can find the formula on page 13 of MMII under Breath Weapon (Su). Many monster special abilities can be reversed engineered with this formula. You'll also find that a few DCs are incorrect as well.

I see your point about the rest of it, though. This is definitely going into my gaming files.

Thanks.