Wall of Fire and 9/10th cover

[Lord Thurham]

Got a situation that will probably come up in the next session that we play and wanted to confirm if this is right.

One of the players is planning to put a wall of fire 10' away from a row of barracks that have wooden shutters on the windows. The shutters have an arrow slit on each shutter. There is basically an army of Orcs in the barracks firing arrows from these arrow slits.

Pages 135 and 136 in the PB detail how the shutters would or would not be damaged from the Wall of Fire (does 2d4). If I am reading this right, the shutters have a hardness of 5 and 10 hit points. The Wall of Fire cast from a 9th level Wizard would do 2d4 divide by 2 and then subtract 5 for the hardness. The shutters would not take any damage from the Wall of Fire after all of the math is done (each round).

Next, the Orcs on the other side of the shutters have Improved Evasion (page 133 PB) because of 9/10 coverage. However, there is no saving throw if you remain in the area. So, the orcs will take half damage if they remain in the area. (or do they take full damage since there is no saving throw for remaining in the area?)

If the Orcs try to fire arrows through the Wall of Fire, the arrows burn up from the 2d6+9 damage. Again hardness of 5, but only 1 hit point. Use the same math as above (divide the damage by 2, subtract the 5 hardness= damage)

Just making sure I got all of the factors in right. Did I miss anything?

LT

 

[Mr Fidgit]

i think i would have ruled that the orcs would have taken full damage since they chose to give up their saves by staying in position to fire their arrows. that's IMO, though....

 

[0-hr]

I think that it would be resonable to rule that wood is suceptible to fire, and therefore does not divide the energy damage in half.

Improved Evasion only reduces damage where a Reflex save is allowed. A Wall of Fire does not allow a reflex save (unless it is cast ON you) and so Improved Evasion does not apply. Seems like 9/10th cover should do something for you here though.

Only thing that I can think of is that maybe the arrow slits do not have a 1ft surface area and therefor block the line of effect (at least until the shutters burn away).

 

[Lord Thurham]

Re: Re: Wall of Fire and 9/10th cover

Improved Evasion only reduces damage where a Reflex save is allowed. A Wall of Fire does not allow a reflex save (unless it is cast ON you) and so Improved Evasion does not apply. Seems like 9/10th cover should do something for you here though.

Only thing that I can think of is that maybe the arrow slits do not have a 1ft surface area and therefor block the line of effect (at least until the shutters burn away).

I was thinking the same thing, it only seems logical that 9/10ths cover would give so sort of protection from the heat. Does anyone have any reference to printed material that might indicate this? SRD? FAQ? Heck, I might just house rule this. Imagine heating your oven in your kitchen at the broiler setting, then open the oven door a crack with your face near by. The initial blast of 500 degree heat will hurt a little. But if you were standing back only a foot or so, it's not going to hurt you.

As for the arrow slits, they do not have a 1' by 1' surface area. This has already been determined from a previous session. So you would not be able to cast a spell from within the barracks unless you opened a shutter to do so and you couldn't cast a spell into the barracks unless you opened one of the shutters. But in this case, the spell is outside of the barracks, it's the constant heat that does the damage.

LT

 

[0-hr]

from the SRD

An otherwise solid barrier with a hole of at least 1 square
foot through it does not block a spell's line of effect.

So can you cast a spell through a 2 inch by 6 inch slit? That opening is is 12 square inches, which is 1 square foot...

Do you think that maybe they meant to say "one foot square" rather than "one square foot"?

 

[mkletch]

I would keep the 'objects take half damage from energy attacks', but would rule that the hardness of the wood is not applicable. Acid often ignores the hardness of objects, and I think that would work well in this case. You might even allow the wall to do full damage after the first round, since it is not an instantaneous effect like a fireball.

A piece of architecture would be an unattended object, so the shutters would get no save.

-Fletch!

 

[mkletch]

from the SRD

So can you cast a spell through a 2 inch by 6 inch slit? That opening is is 12 square inches, which is 1 square foot...

Do you think that maybe they meant to say "one foot square" rather than "one square foot"?

Both are 144 square inches...

-Fletch!