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This situation came up last week in my game with an alchemist pc, and a recent thread on grab/constrict reminded me.
Question: if someone catches on fire, and then takes damage every round unless they spend actions to put themselves out, when do they start taking damage from being on fire? Do they take damage as soon as they catch fire, or do they start taking damage on their turn after they catch fire?
And on subsequent turns, do they take damage before or after getting the chance to extinguish themselves?
We ruled that the fire damage started the turn following being set alight, and that the bad guy got an opportunity to try to extinguish himself before he took the damage. This worked well for us, but after reading James Jacobs' ruling on grab/constrict (constrict damage happens immediately), I thought I'd check to see if maybe we were doing it incorrectly.
This situation came up last week in my game with an alchemist pc, and a recent thread on grab/constrict reminded me.
Question: if someone catches on fire, and then takes damage every round unless they spend actions to put themselves out, when do they start taking damage from being on fire? Do they take damage as soon as they catch fire, or do they start taking damage on their turn after they catch fire?
And on subsequent turns, do they take damage before or after getting the chance to extinguish themselves?
We ruled that the fire damage started the turn following being set alight, and that the bad guy got an opportunity to try to extinguish himself before he took the damage. This worked well for us, but after reading James Jacobs' ruling on grab/constrict (constrict damage happens immediately), I thought I'd check to see if maybe we were doing it incorrectly.
I've always played it that if a character fails the DC 15 reflex save to avoid catching on fire, they take initial fire damage when they fail the save, and then have the option to attempt another save on their next turn (which may be next in the initiative count) to put themselves out - if they fail that save or elect not to bother, they take recurring fire damage. Of course, if the character is affected by fire damage with a specific associated DC (such as Fireball), I apply the results of that save to the initial fire damage and waive the "on fire" damage for the failed save, as my view is that this damage is subsumed in the effects of whatever caused the fire damage with the specific DC.