Smokesticks: How does the smoke dissipate?

[Magus Coeruleus]

Salutations,

How do you handle the dissipation of smokestick smoke, especially in areas with little or no ventilation, such as certain dungeon rooms?

Smokestick: This alchemically treated wooden stick instantly creates thick, opaque smoke when ignited. The smoke fills a 10-foot cube. The stick is consumed after 1 round, and the smoke dissipates naturally.

"Naturally" is nice but a number of rounds, minutes, or hours, would be much more helpful. Perhaps the rules on smokebombs can help...

Smokebomb: This cylindrical bomb must be lit before it is thrown. Lighting it is a standard action. One round after it is lit, this nondamaging explosive emits a cloud of smoke in a 20-foot radius that persists in still conditions for 1d3+6 rounds and in windy conditions for 1d3+1 rounds. Visibility within the smoke is limited to 2 feet. Everything within the cloud has 90% concealment.

I imagine smokesticks work in a similar way, but of course there are differences. For instance, smokebombs take a round to start emitting, whereas smokesticks work instantly. More importantly, the smokebomb covers a much greater area (20' radius vs. 10' cube). If using the dissipation time for smokebomb as a guideline, how should that be modified given the total amount of smoke created? Note that 'natural dissipation' would seem to take longer than just a few rounds in still conditions. This might suggest a much longer time for smokesticks. On the other hand, this is a game, and there is balance to consider, so I imagine you can't just fill a room with smoke and expect it to cloud it for hours or days just because there's nowhere else for the smoke to go but to settle eventually?

Thanks,

 

[Artoomis]

No, I don't think they are all that similar. Imagine a smokestick to be like fireworks or something (without the "boom"), whereas a smokebomb is more like a military smoke pot or something.

The smokestick burns up instantly, creating a quick smoke that dissipates quickly because the source is gone.

The smokepot creates a slower generating smoke that sticks around because its source keeps buring for a bit (even if the description doesn't quite read this way - I'm talking conceptual here, not strict rules).

So how about this for smokestick dissipation:

Still conditions: 1d4 rounds

Windy: 1d3 -1 rounds rounds

Wing it for indoors - how about:

+1d3 if in a 10x10 room with the doors/windows open - use the "still conditions" with no modifer if there is a cross-breeze through the room.

+1d3+6 if in a 10x10 room with doors/windows closed. (Assuming there is some sort of ventilation - cracks around the door, etc. If not, well then, you'd suffocate in the room, anyway - the smoke would just speed that up as it filled the air with poison (carbon monoxide, etc.).

??How's that??

 

[Crothian]

IT would really depend on conditions. In a dungeon with lousy circulation of air, the smoke will reamin a long time. But outdoors, it should leave with in a few rounds, even on a still day.

 

[Magus Coeruleus]

Thanks for the suggestions, Artoomis. Any other thoughts? (bump)