Hello, one of my players dropped his magic (+1) sword and (+1) shield inside a burning building to save a dying woman. The burning building collapsed just after he exited. In no way am i trying to be a jerk, because i already gave him extra XP and a permanent Achievement: Firefighter (+1 Fire Resistance), but i am wondering what the rules state for magical items inside a tremendous fire. In any case i do not penalize heroic acts and plan to drop more weapons down the line, but at the same time keep the balance for everyone.
The weapons would take damage from the fire just like a player would. If I recall (this is 3.5 knowledge talking), items take 1/2 damage from fire, so you would deal half damage to the weapon and then have to apply hardness. This means that you would need to be able to deal more than 20pts of damage to harm any metal weapons, more if it is magical. The sword in the OP would be hardness 11 or 12 (I forget how much hardness magical enhancement adds).
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There used to be and likely still are tables with the chances of an item taking damage based on what it's made of and what the damage was from. In any case, the rules for damage to items are on Page 459.
You can look them up and roll on them to see if the item resisted the damage and may be salvaged.
The other thing to remember is that the Make Whole spell will fix any magic item that isn't completely destroyed. Basically if the sword or shield has the Broken condition after being in the fire, a Make Whole by a suitably high level caster can make that go away.
As for what the rules state about the tremendous fire and what to do about them, basically it's Rule 0--it's your game and you play it the way you want to. If it would ruin verisimilitude for the sword and shield to be miraculously untouched, go ahead and incinerate them. If it would hose you player too much and punish him unfairly for having made a noble decision in character, have them miraculously survive the fire.
Personally, I'd strike the middle ground and have them both be damaged but salvageable--the building collapsed just after he got out, so the fire would have been snuffed, even if it would keep smoldering. Let tales of his brave deed spread, and let those looking through the ruins for salvage bring the hero his damaged items, which can either be repaired with a Make Whole dispensed by some benevolent cleric who's doing it to be nice and as PR for their god, or else is paid for from one of the moneygrubbing clerics of Abadar after a collection is taken up among the townsfolk. Or it's paid for by some relative of the saved woman.
Or maybe the woman who was saved wasn't that poor so rewards her rescuer with replacements as good or better than what he lost.
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Hell, I'd be tempted to add flaming to it for free after some mending work, with possible permanently scarred patterns and etchings of possible celestial origin that might essentially translate into "gg mang"
Players caring more about NPCs than their gear is something to be fostered, so kudos on the thought behind the achievement. :)
edit-the shield too? Forget the flaming! Put some sort of phoenix'/peri's blessing on that thing! :D
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Hello, one of my players dropped his magic (+1) sword and (+1) shield inside a burning building to save a dying woman. The burning building collapsed just after he exited. In no way am i trying to be a jerk, because i already gave him extra XP and a permanent Achievement: Firefighter (+1 Fire Resistance), but i am wondering what the rules state for magical items inside a tremendous fire. In any case i do not penalize heroic acts and plan to drop more weapons down the line, but at the same time keep the balance for everyone.
They are probably fine, although digging them out might be a problem. Objects take half damage from fire attacks, and a +1 sword has hardness 12 and 15 hit points. The fire would have to do 26 points of damage per round to even harm it, which would take a base damage per round of 8d6 to get on average. That seems a bit high for a house fire.
Hey, where in the rule book does it say that fire deals half damage to objects, I was looking for it and couldn't find it.
Bah, I found it. Page 173, bottom right.
Thanks a lot for your input guys, i think i will have it destroyed (0HP), but since they had cleared the name of an old wizard 3 days ago, he will be glad to make it whole once again! Indeed i am lucky to have this player at my table, and through this example i am trying to encourage the rest of my group to roleplay insted of rollplaying.
Sadly i do not have access to UE yet, what does Fire-Forged Steel do?
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in an effort to make forge-friendly tools. It didn’t take them long
to adapt its unique properties to arms and armor. Fire-forged
steel channels heat in one direction to protect its wearer or
wielder. When it is crafted into armor, heat is channeled away
from the wearer, offering some limited protection. Armor
crafted from fire-forged steel grants the wearer fire resistance 2.
Weapons crafted from fire-forged steel similarly channel
heat away from the wearer; this does not grant the wielder
energy resistance. Instead, the blade absorbs and channels
heat to the parts of the weapon that contact enemies. If the
weapon is exposed to 10 points or more of fire damage (such
as from an opponent’s fireball or by holding it in a campfire
for 1 full round), the weapon adds +1d4 points of fire damage
to its attacks for the next 2 rounds. If the wielder is wearing
fire-forged armor and using a fire-forged weapon, this bonus
damage increases to 1d6 points of fire damage and lasts for
4 rounds. This bonus damage does not stack with fire damage
from weapon enhancements such as flaming.
Armor or weapons made from fire-forged steel are always
considered masterwork, and the masterwork costs are
included in the listed prices.
Fire-forged steel has the same hit points and hardness as steel.
Ammunition +15 gp per item
Light armor +1,000 gp
Medium armor +2,500 gp
Heavy armor +3,000 gp
Weapon +600 gp
Fire-forged steel weapons, if they are subjected to 10 or more points of fire damage, deal an additional 1d4 points of fire damage to all of their attacks for 2 rounds. Fire-forged steel armor grants the wearer fire resistance 2. If both fire-forged armor and weapons are used together, the weapon deals 1d6 damage instead and lasts for 4 rounds.
Fire-forged steel weapons cost 600 gold and are automatically masterwork; you can't make a shield out of fire-forged steel.