Anyone know about the rules for burning stuff?
Are there such rules? My players will likely start tossing fireballs at some war galleys manned by minitours next session and I can't seem to locate any kind of rules for dealing with this.
Any suggestions?
Anyone know about the rules for burning stuff?
Are there such rules? My players will likely start tossing fireballs at some war galleys manned by minitours next session and I can't seem to locate any kind of rules for dealing with this.
Any suggestions?
Those rules aren't easy to find or force to work for you. (Especially diggin' in the srd)
For creatures:
Catching on Fire.
Look here for Wall table of hardness, hp (the table for doors if further down) Between those two, you can figure out how tough the galleys are:
Dungeon Terrain.
Now, remember that fire does 1/2 damage before you apply hardness.
That will give you when things are destroyed.
As for catching on fire from a fireball, unless they prep it with oil or something, I consider the "flash" of the fireball to fast to actually catch items on fire.
Hope that helps!
-c
well; a fireball wont due much to a ship in most cases unless it catches the sails on fire or other flamable items; cast inside the ship you could assume that the concussive force might blow out doors or hatches, burst windows and the like. Not sure where the rules for this are in 3.5, but I know the 1st ed rules by heart and use this as my guide.
well; a fireball wont due much to a ship in most cases unless it catches the sails on fire or other flamable items; cast inside the ship you could assume that the concussive force might blow out doors or hatches, burst windows and the like. Not sure where the rules for this are in 3.5, but I know the 1st ed rules by heart and use this as my guide.
Ahh, I did love the 1st edition rules.. you'd have filled the whole ship practically with one fireball.
However, in d20, a fireball goes no further than its 20' radius burst, and it *does not have* concussive force.
On the other hand, it does explicitly state that it sets flammables on fire.
In lieu of anything else, give the walls a save bonus equal to their hardness.
In lieu of anything else, give the walls a save bonus equal to their hardness.
Unless you consider the ship an unattended object, in which case it automatically fails the save. If it were an attended object, it would use the highest save of the sailors on board, I suppose, but that just seems wrong.
My true preference would be to have the ship roll a saving throw, as proposed above, but it may be quicker and easier on you, as DM, and more satisfying for the players, if the thing just automatically catches on fire (especially since ships are typically made of very dense wood, are very large and wet, making them very slow to burn, which, when coupled with the crews [presumed] ability to put the fire out themseves, makes any flames that actually do catch more of a long-term threat [than the mage hurling the spells], and probably an extremely minor advantage to the players overall; of course, it also depends on where they set the ship on fire, since a flame inside the cargo hold or like area will certainly be a more serious threat than one struggling for life high on the side of the hull).
This game sometimes strikes me as so odd. I mean there are rules for so many things and then all of a sudden I find myself down some blind alley searching for a rule I would presume exists but apparently does not.
I'm not really sure whether I want them to be able to light ships on fire easily or not. One the one hand the fact that they can do it does not really unbalance anything particularly - at the moment at least. On the other hand I have to wonder a little at a magical world where the boats are so easily destroyed. Something in that idea seems somehow unworkable. Boats can't be just this easy to trash or - well there would be no boat trade or something.
Also if there are no rules for starting fires then presumably there are no rules for putting them out (unless you personally happen to be on fire - there are rules for that). This leaves me in a bit of a conundrum in terms of figuring out how the crew goes about extinguishing the fire.
