Shooting arrows through a Wall of Fire

[kolikeos]

Do the arrows take the indicated damage just like a creature passing through the wall, in which case they will burn before they reach their target?
Thanks in advance.

 

[phindar]

I've never had it come up, but I think thats a very good way to handle it. I can't think of a reason why the arrows wouldn't take the damage, unless the spell specifically mentions it doesn't damage objects. Though fire does half damage to objects, so I don't know if that would let arrows get through (I guess it depends on how much damage the spell does and how much arrows can take ).

 

[kolikeos]

O heck, I was under the impression that an arrow can't possibly survive 2d6+8 fire damage, but now that you mention that objects take only half damage from fire (wood too?) I started looking for arrow hit points. Where can I find that?

 

[MarkB]

O heck, I was under the impression that an arrow can't possibly survive 2d6+8 fire damage, but now that you mention that objects take only half damage from fire (wood too?) I started looking for arrow hit points. Where can I find that?

Smashing Objects

Well, wood has hardness 5, and a light weapon with a wooden haft has 2 hit points. I'd tend to assume an arrow is even less sturdy, so make it 1 hit point.

By the book, that means that if you happen to roll minimum damage for that Wall of Fire - (1 + 1 + 8) / 2 = 5 - then the arrow would take zero damage, since the damage doesn't exceed its hardness, and would sail through undamaged - but any higher roll would toast it.

However, there's also this rule:

Vulnerability to Certain Attacks

Certain attacks are especially successful against some objects. In such cases, attacks deal double their normal damage and may ignore the object’s hardness.​

Although no examples are given, I'd consider a thin wooden stick to be particularly vulnerable to fire, and wouldn't halve the fire damage, in which case the arrow is definitely toast.

 

[ChimericDream]

Well, I'd say that the damage is also dealt per round, and since an arrow spends an extremely small amount of time in the wall, there's probably not enough time for it to burn.

Now, I'd probably give some sort of miss chance to the target on the other side, but that's another story.

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

Well, I'd say that the damage is also dealt per round,

Yet someone running or jumping through the wall as part of movement still takes the full damage and they're only in the fire momentarily.

I think it's a novel idea to use a wall of fire as an anti-arrow shield. Props!

 

[Aust Diamondew]

This came up for our group once, we came to the same conclusion, wall of fire destroys arrows.

 

[ThirdWizard]

Remember the extra hardness and hit points from enhancement bonuses.

 

[MarkB]

Remember the extra hardness and hit points from enhancement bonuses.

Good point. A +1 arrow is a lot hardier than a normal arrow, and a +2 arrow would probably survive even a max-damage roll from the Wall (assuming that enhancement bonuses to ammo boost their hit points the same way they do individual weapons).

 

[frankthedm]

Good point. A +1 arrow is a lot hardier than a normal arrow, and a +2 arrow would probably survive even a max-damage roll from the Wall (assuming that enhancement bonuses to ammo boost their hit points the same way they do individual weapons).

Nothing is said otherwise so it is +2 hardness and +10 HP per plus. But it needs it considering wood is vulnerable to fire.

2d6+8 is about 15 damage, doubled due to fire vulnerability is 30. if fire ignores an arrows hardness a +2 arrow's 21 HP has a small chance to save the arrow as it goes trough. A +3 arrow has about a 50%/50% shot.