After playing Divinity: Original Sin, I have a strong desire for RPG play with the same level of interactivity between abilities.
Example 1: Target is on fire, taking damage over time.
Water attack makes target wet. This removes the burning condition.
Cold attack would make target slow, but target is wet, so is frozen instead!
Example 2: Targets 1 and 2 are standing in water.
Lightning attack hits target 1 and propagates through water to target 2.
Example 3: Target is taking acid damage over time.
Fire attack hits target, igniting the flammable acid and doing extra damage.
Example 4: Target is wet.
Fire attack hits target, doing reduced damage due to wetness and drying the target. A small cloud of steam obscures the target for a short time.
I feel like building an alternate system for PF magic and abilities would take a lot of work and rebalance, though. D:
Umbral Reaver,
I love the idea of taking into account previous effects, and current effects to make things interesting.
Fortunately, with a bit of practise, you can pratically free-form this without making a complicated system for it. GM it up and say what happens.
Reasons:
1. More control over what players can and can't do
2. Players get to express their creative tactics
3. Players are not restricted by a complex set of rules
The only downside is that you would need to rethink the dynamics between your monster's weaknesses, the PC's abilities/gear and the terrain they are fighting in.
Otherwise, go for it. I do it and it proves to be really fun.(Having the wizard cover the floor in water, then cast lightning bolt to hit anyone standing in the water)
Hope this helps
Warboss666
Unless the GM is a dullard that outright forbids anything not written in the rules, you should be able to do this stuff anyway. My players used a flask of liquid ice to freeze a gelatinous cube, which disabled its paralysis, acid, and engulf attacks. In fact, Divinity advertises as having the freedom of creatively solving problems like a tabletop RPG as a major selling point.
Also fun in Divinity: When you hit zombies, acid spills out. Hitting them with fire weapons makes it ignite immediately, causing extra damage and burning. :D
It's also nice that the environment plays into effects as well. When it's raining, cold effects are brilliant. Everyone is already wet, so they make freezing easy. However, fire is always going to do less damage and burning won't last.
In warm places, freeze only lasts a single turn but saves vs burning are penalised.