The paper walls, despite all your efforts, remain steadfast.

[Jeph]

Go to the DMG, page 107, the table about walls. Now, two entries from this table:

Paper - Thickness: paper thin, Break DC: 1, Hardness: --, HP: 1, Climb DC: 30.
Magically Treated - Break DC: +20, HP: x2 or 50, whichever is greater.

Now, combine the two:

Magically Treated Paper: Thickness: paper thin, Break DC: 21, Hardness: --, HP: 50, Climb DC: 30.

It's almost as tough as a half a foot of wood.

 

[Spatzimaus]

Set it on fire. It may take 50 times as long to burn, but it'll still go.

Ooh, now THERE'S an idea: buying magically-treated logs for the fireplace. Each has a minimum of 50 HP, so lasts far longer than normal logs. The size of the log wouldn't matter; wood is 10 HP per inch, right? So instead of a big hunk of wood, you'd just take an enchanted twig and set it on fire.
Of course, you could just have someone cast continuous flame on a normal log, but it wouldn't give off any heat.

 

[PowerWordDumb]

Well, by the same logic since the wood takes 50x as long to burn, in a given chunk of time only 1/50th as much wood burns, so only 1/50th as much heat is produced. Don't try warming your hands by that magical fire!

You'd need 50 of these magical paper logs to produce the equivalent heat of one normal log... although the duration would be 50x as long you could just as easily accomplish that with 50 normal logs burned successively.

This assumes heat production is the reason behind your fire-lighting, of course. A more interesting question would be whether 1/50th the light is produced as well - could you even read by one of those things?

 

[Hypersmurf]

Well, by the same logic since the wood takes 50x as long to burn,

True.

in a given chunk of time only 1/50th as much wood burns,

True.

so only 1/50th as much heat is produced.

Aha. But that 1/50th chunk of wood had as many hit points as a normal log. So the act of burning it produces as much energy as burning a normal log.

It's like Wood Concentrate.

-Hyp.

 

[HeavyG]

Paper - Thickness: paper thin, Break DC: 1, Hardness: --, HP: 1, Climb DC: 30.
Magically Treated - Break DC: +20, HP: x2 or 50, whichever is greater.

But does it say how you can "magically treat" materials ? I hate it when games do that.

 

[Spatzimaus]

Well, by the same logic since the wood takes 50x as long to burn, in a given chunk of time only 1/50th as much wood burns, so only 1/50th as much heat is produced.

First, it's not 50x, it's 2x or 50 HP, whichever is larger. Paper is just 1 HP. But let's say you're burning a piece of magical paper.
For it to put out only 1/50th as much heat, you have to assume that the amount of energy released by burning has nothing to do with the HP of the material. I wasn't assuming that; I was going the other way, that since it can take 50 times as much damage before being destroyed, and fire does a set amount of damage by the DMG (1d6 per round minus 5/2 hardness), the log would put out energy at the same rate but last 50 times as long.

Now, here's a better question: if I cast endure elements on the log in a fireplace, will it burn? Will it be on fire but resist the damage? By the book, that's what'd happen to a person who catches on fire; they'd take 1d6 damage each turn until they make a Reflex save (DC 15) to put themselves out, and since I'd be immune to the damage I could choose to fail the save to stay on fire. So, isn't a log just a person who chooses to fail all his reflex saves?

For that matter, wouldn't the ideal fireplace be one where I put some creature with the Fire Subtype, which I then set on fire? It could sit there for hours.

 

[kreynolds]

For that matter, wouldn't the ideal fireplace be one where I put some creature with the Fire Subtype, which I then set on fire? It could sit there for hours.

Nah. If you're gonna do it, do it right. The Stronghold Builder's Guidebook has a most excellent recommendation for centralized heating in your home. Basically, a large underground stone room with several wall of fire spells and a network of ducts. I'm diggin' it.

 

[Saeviomagy]

Nah. If you're gonna do it, do it right. The Stronghold Builder's Guidebook has a most excellent recommendation for centralized heating in your home. Basically, a large underground stone room with several wall of fire spells and a network of ducts. I'm diggin' it.

I'd suggest that using planar binding (or just summon monster IV) to get a magmin to just sit somewhere would be more effective (it does 1d6 fire damage/round to all within 30 ft).

 

[PowerWordDumb]

Well, fire as I understand it chemically converts matter from one form to another, thereby creating heat as a by-product. Converting a set amount of mass (of a particular type and caloric value) creates a set amount of heat.

Explanation 1:
The paper is now a different type of matter which has a higher caloric value. Not sure how reasonable this is, but perhaps the burrning stuff of magic itself can fill in the gap. If magic has an inherent caloric value, maybe you could add it to donuts so that you could live off of one Krispy Kreme a week?

Explanation 2:
The paper log is the same matter as before. Unless this magical paper log is gaining mass at the same time as it's gaining hitpoints... I can't see how it can produce a consistent amount of heat. Since it converts mass more slowly per the slower burning, thereby it creates less heat. UNLESS: Maybe fire is smart enough to open a gate to the elemental plane of fire when it can't legitimately consume enough material to keep itself going? That could account for consistent heat production despite lowered burning. Maybe the fire in our own world has simply forgotten this useful trick...

Yes, I need to think about more useful things.

 

[Darklone]

Thanks, that explained to me why I fight since several days with the wallpaper in the new appartment.