You've got physics in my D&D!

[reddist]

This was the same campaign where diarhettic monkey feces deals 1d4 damage per hit.

I don't normally snort coffee out of my nose at work, but I did today.

Aside from physical and biological oddites in D&D games, I also find the sociologial interactions a bit odd, too.

Villager NPC: "Oh woe! No one can help us! We can't help ourselves! Hey you, you in the tavern there! We don't know you from Adam, but let us bare our souls to you and maybe you can help us slay/solve this (fill in the blank)? If you can, you can keep anything you find, we'll forgive you any property damage, and you can marry our daughters."

PC #1: "Sure, we'll get right on that."

-Reddist

 

[francisca]

teh funny story

Whoah!!!!! You actually *know* Timmy Jackson!?!?!?!

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

Like I said I'm all for the save further from the epi centre (due to rolling with the explosion etc) but most of the damage from a fireball at the centre is due to heat, not impact, and the impact is going to be so instant that a reflex save for half doesn't make much sense to me.

The Arcana Unearthed fireball equivalent, sorcerous blast, has the caster make a ranged touch attack against the person/object in the square they're aiming at. If the attack succeeds, the creature/object must make 2 saves or take full damage; if it fails, they get the normal 1 save.

 

[soulcat]

You see that makes more sense.

I'd be inclined to make one of the saves Fortitude (it could be for all I know), to reflect the fact that caught in the blast, the persons natural resilience will have an effect on how much damage s(he) takes.

I must admit I don't have AU or UA so I may have to buy them at some point. I am looking at a christmas present to myself being all the wizards books I don't have yet, so that'd be one of them covered.

 

[Soul]

You could always just allow the save and throw really high penalities at it for the circumstance. If by some strange odds they succed, it becomes one of those freak things that even seem to occur in real life.

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

I must admit I don't have AU or UA so I may have to buy them at some point. I am looking at a christmas present to myself being all the wizards books I don't have yet, so that'd be one of them covered.

AU is entirely unrelated to UA. AU is an alternate PHB, with completely different races, classes, magic, etc. It's by Monte Cook (Malhavoc Press), and published by Sword and Sorcery. It's a solid, interesting product; you should check out the previews and design diaries at montecook.com

 

[painandgreed]

Fox problem: The transformation doesn't preserve mass so why should it preserve momentum? Could be that the new mass enters at the same velocity as the stuff that's was there, even if there is more or less mass. Well, PCs will use the system to their advantage either way, so I'd just make a desicion and go with it. Of course, NPCs and monsters can take the same advantage of such tactics. That's what keeps my PCs in line. they start doing questionable stuff and then there is a higher chance the NPCs will do questionable stuff.

Fireball issue: I'm all for the save to check that you don't inhale and keep yor eyes from getting burned. If your lungs get seared and you can't breathe, you're good as dead. Other than that, it's just heroic fantasy and I don't worry about it. People with more hit points simply can take more physical damage than those with less. It's the easiest way to explain phenominon such as the 1st level commoner and the 20th level fighter getting hit with a fireball.

 

[jmucchiello]

Like I said I'm all for the save further from the epi centre (due to rolling with the explosion etc) but most of the damage from a fireball at the centre is due to heat, not impact, and the impact is going to be so instant that a reflex save for half doesn't make much sense to me.

What are you basing this on? Spells are magic, there is no physics involved. But as the spell says:

A fireball spell is an explosion of flame that detonates with a low roar and deals .... damage. The explosion creates almost no pressure.

So being at the center or being at the edge of a fireball has both the same heat and pressure (Lots and none respectively). There is no place within the area of effect except the very edges where a Reflex save seems like it should have an effect. Since the rules say a Reflex save does have an effect, "the abstraction that is hit points" and "it's magic" are the only viable explanations.

Nakedness has no bearing (bare-ing?), most monsters are naked. Do you deny them saving throws because of that?

 

[Saeviomagy]

I have one player who is a huge rules junky, and refuses to accept any changes to the rules (real or imagined) that I may try to implement, and he has a tendancy to sulk. Unfortunately he is one of my best friends, so I usually back off from arguments.

Well, with rulings like the one you've just mentioned, no wonder.

"Oh, by the way, I've changed the rules so you're just dead, no save."

Yeah, thanks GM.

Of course my next character would be a sorceror or wizard who specialises in denying foes their saves against spells.

After all - a lightning bolt moves faster than you could possibly anticipate, right (IIRC, it's near the speed of light...)? So noone gets a save against it?

 

[Judas]

Sorry, no physics problems come to mind for mine, but the Fox/Woman post made me remember about a group of nps villans camped in an anti magic field throwing a few pearls from a necklace of missles at our group (Not in the field). Our wizard reduced some large rocks (About the size of a 21" monitor) small enough for the halfing in our group to use in his sling... He did score a critical on one of them.... That guy never did stand back up.

Rules on damage by weight are nasty.