The flames! They burn!

[TheGogmagog]

Quote:
The fireball sets fire to combustibles and damages objects in the area. It can melt metals with low melting points, such as lead, gold, copper, silver, and bronze.

However, on perusing the DMG we find this under The Environment section:
Quote:
Characters exposed to burning oil, bonfires, and noninstantaneous magic fires might find their clothes, hair, or equipment on fire. Spells with an instantaneous duration don’t normally set a character on fire, since the heat and flame from these come and go in a flash.

If you read carefully these are not opposing statements. Deset Gled is correct, The descriptive text of fireball applies to unattended objects. the DMG quote applies to Characters and attended objects. Even the 1 rolled on the saving throw only threatens to destroy the outermost items. There is even a suggested order to check for destruction iirc it started with weapon, shield, armor..... all of which have a good shot of surviving a fireball.

 

[0-hr]

If the PC wants a Fire Ball to burn enemy equipment, say that is fine.

Then have the next encounter be a couple of enemy NPCs throwing fireballs at the party.

Point being, not even Disintegrate and Destruction destroy attendend items. It's not likely that Fireballs are meant too.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Point being, not even Disintegrate and Destruction destroy attendend items.

"Little does he realise...!"



-Hyp.

 

[JDowling]

so if the pyromaniac PC were to say throw a fireball into a room with a wooden foor with sawdust on it, would the floor light on fire? Or is a floor considored to be "attended" because people are standing on it? (AFAIK - attended means it's on someone, yes?).

So, what are the rules to light on fire if you're standing on a burning floor?

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

"Little does he realise...!"



-Hyp.

ROFL!

 

[werk]

so if the pyromaniac PC were to say throw a fireball into a room with a wooden foor with sawdust on it, would the floor light on fire? Or is a floor considored to be "attended" because people are standing on it? (AFAIK - attended means it's on someone, yes?).

So, what are the rules to light on fire if you're standing on a burning floor?

This is probably why the sage said it was descriptive text.

Add to your ramblings Energy Substitution...acid or sonic fireballs, fire lightning bolts...what about the residual effects of these spells? I mean, an acid fireball...that's a lot of acid...why doesn't it eat away at everything after the spell goes off? Can I bottle it up afterwards, or coat my arrows in it? Does it eat through the floor of The Iron Fortress?

Knock yourselves out...I think it's a can of worms.

 

[billd91]

so if the pyromaniac PC were to say throw a fireball into a room with a wooden foor with sawdust on it, would the floor light on fire? Or is a floor considored to be "attended" because people are standing on it? (AFAIK - attended means it's on someone, yes?).

So, what are the rules to light on fire if you're standing on a burning floor?

You could always argue that the sawdust incinerates instantly (which it probably would). Same for blasting away with fireballs in a mill (flour dust burns VERY rapidly, creating nice fireballs on its own if enough of it is floating in the air).
I supposed that declaring anything definite really is opening a can of worms, but I think it can be dealt with on a case by case basis. If you wanted to hang the answer on some principle, maybe compare the damage rolled by the spell-caster to the hp of the objects subjected to the fire. Maybe declare anything that has lost all its hit point as not immediately obliterated or destroyed, but effectively unsaveable from the fire now consuming it.