i have been unable to find a satisfactory answer on this topic so i thought i'd pose it to the boards.
the first question. is there any information regarding dragon breath weapons in detail? i know they are either cone or lines and are considered bursts. i also know there are alternate breath weapons that are labeled as "gas", but is there any more information on them?
the second question. can wind wall deflect breath weapons like "cold" or "fire"? or even partially deflect breath weapons like acid?
we house ruled a cold breath attack would be dispersed, but only after a fair bit of debate and no concrete evidence to the contrary.
the logic is as follows: the wind wall is 2 ft. thick and of "considerable strength" and strong enough to completely deflect arrows and bolts which are designed to pierce materials (air included). it's hard not to divorce "real world" from "fantasy", but it would seem to me that a magical wind strong enough to completely deflect an arrow or bolt would be strong enough to deflect frosty or fiery breath and (to a lesser degree) disperse more corporeal breath weapons like acid.
thoughts??
The wind wall spell specifies that gaseous breath weapons can't pass through. Other breath weapons work normally.
not to get too complicated here, but if the wind is powerful enough to deflect an arrow designed to pierce steel and travelling at 300 fps how does cold air or fire get through? how would acid being spewed not be scattered all over the map?
it seems that only things with substantial mass are able to pass through it ie hand thrown weapons, ballista, walking/running creatures. there is no mass or matter in a breath weapon. even if the cold or heat were felt on the other side of the wall wouldn't it be greatly dispersed by that point?
The rules are clear. If the only satisfactory answer for you is that wind wall blocks breath weapons, you should run a game with a house-rule where that is the case.
As for "scattering" a breath weapon - it's not a spear strike, it's already at least a 5' wide blast of whatever (acid, fire, pure cold), shooting forward with the power of a dragon behind it. That's not going to be deflected... Heck... the wind could fuel a fiery breath weapon.
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Breath weapons are just as magical in nature as the wind (all breath weapons are supernatural), so trying to apply logic to them wouldn't really work :)
no i'm not lookin for a "yes choir", but based on how the spell is described it seemed perfectly logical/possible for cold breath to be turned away. the issuing party was a young adult which made for an even more plausible defense even though in regards to the game and this spell there is no differentiation b/t a wyrmling's breath weapon and an ancient dragon's.
also, the only reason i mentioned fire or acid breath is b/c of the direction of the winds. i would agree wind would strengthen fire, but with the winds blowing at roughly a 90 degree angle from the floor it would still seem to me that it would be much less effective if at all.
honestly, i was hoping for a reference page or book to address this with since the description just says "gaseous breath weapons" but then doesn't describe the regular breath weapons as anything other than "fire" or "cold". if we were talking fire and brimstone or cold and hail that would be a different story, but it's just cold air and fire.
i guess what im hearing is it doesn't matter how "gas-like" a breath weapon is, it must have "gas" in the description for it to be affected by this spell. if that's all we have to go on then i guess i have the same info i started with, but i appreciate the input folks! :)