Healer and Camp Fire vs. Cold Damage


Rules Questions


So my players are about to go up into the mountains, and I've been reading about mountains and cold weather. In the cold weather section of the Core Rulebook, it states "A character cannot recover from the damage dealt by a cold environment until she gets out of the cold and warms up again." A couple questions about this sentence:

1.) If a character takes lethal damage from the cold (either by taking too much nonlethal damage or by being in extreme cold, aka -20 degrees F), can a character regain hit points through a cure light wounds spell or some other source of magical healing, or does she need to be "out of the cold" in order for the spell to be effective?

2.) Does a camp fire provide enough heat for a character to be considered "out of the cold" and warm for the purposes of recovering from damage?


Not srue about 1, but for 2, you need to raise the environmental heat up to normal levels. You couldn't do this with a campfire alone, but a camp fire and an enclosed space (like an igloo or something) should work.

I am not sure how the rules cover this though...

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 16

JDCAce wrote:
1.) If a character takes lethal damage from the cold (either by taking too much nonlethal damage or by being in extreme cold, aka -20 degrees F), can a character regain hit points through a cure light wounds spell or some other source of magical healing, or does she need to be "out of the cold" in order for the spell to be effective?

He needs to be "out of the cold".

JDCAce wrote:
2.) Does a camp fire provide enough heat for a character to be considered "out of the cold" and warm for the purposes of recovering from damage?

It does depend on the fire, but an adequately large fire can provide adequate heat for recovery. Under extreme circumstances, they may need additional shelter: Someone on a windswept mountain slope or arctic plain would need an adequate windblock or similar shelter.

An igloo, tent or other shelter would substantially reduce the size of the fire needed.


For #1, my group plays that you can't recover naturally without getting out of the cold, but magic heals you as per normal. In a world where the gods can basically effect any change on the natural world that you desire, seems a little crazy that they can't overcome some mild frostbite.

I can't imagine the Heal spell should read:

Heal wrote:
Heal enables you to channel positive energy into a creature to wipe away injury and afflictions. It immediately ends any and all of the following adverse conditions affecting the target: ability damage, blinded, confused, dazed, dazzled, deafened, diseased, exhausted, fatigued, feebleminded, insanity, nauseated, poisoned, sickened, and stunned. It also cures 10 hit points of damage per level of the caster, to a maximum of 150 points at 15th level. Except if you're cold.


Wasn't this an episode of House? Maybe it's just JDCAce's Hugh Laurie-esque avatar that's got me thinking along those lines.

"RULES-AS-WRITTEN, Wilson, we've got to get this man out of the cold or else CLW won't do any good!"

So as not to be completely off-topic: It says the character cannot "recover," which I take to mean natural healing. Precedent: Mummy Rot specifies the character cannot "recover naturally"; cure light wounds uses the word "cure" rather than "recover"; under the description of "rest" the term "HP recovery" is used for the hp recovered from normal daily rest rather than from magic.


Re: the fire, I'd allow a campfire to be sufficient in almost any situation in which such a fire would stay lit without crazy magical help.


Cleric needs to memorize Endure Elements next time, I'd say.

Silver Crusade

Kaisoku wrote:
Cleric needs to memorize Endure Elements next time, I'd say.

Cleric needs to leave an open 1st level spell slot. If it's needed for something else, great. If not, cleric can cast 24 hour Endure Elements on someone a bit before recovering spells.

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