I've been trying to find a reference to how cold resistance interacts with the nonlethal damage from cold weather & environmental effects. I seem to recall that cold resistance of 2 or 5, for example, makes one "immune" to nonlethal damage of that type, but may be remembering incorrectly.
Can anyone verify this, and cite book and page number if this is the case?
Certainly cold resistance of 6 or more renders one immune to the effects of a cold environment and the rider effect of fatigue.
In the CRB in the cold section under environment it states:
An unprotected character in cold weather (below 40° F) must make a Fortitude save each hour (DC 15, +1 per previous check) or take 1d6 points of nonlethal damage. A character who has the Survival skill may receive a bonus on this saving throw and might be able to apply this bonus to other characters as well (see the skill description).
In conditions of severe cold or exposure (below 0° F), an unprotected character must make a Fortitude save once every 10 minutes (DC 15, +1 per previous check), taking 1d6 points of nonlethal damage on each failed save. A character who has the Survival skill may receive a bonus on this saving throw and might be able to apply this bonus to other characters as well. Characters wearing a cold weather outfit only need check once per hour for cold and exposure damage.
Bold emphasis is mine.
An argument could be made that energy resistance protects a character from the effects of the cold whether.
If your GM is willing to look to 3.5 for guidance there is some clarification in FROSTBURN as to what these protections meant.
The FROSTBURN clarifications take up a couple of pages but a having a cold resistance of 5 or more and wearing cold weather gear would protect you even in unearthly cold (-50F). Cold resistance of less than five but at least 1 would probably fall into cold tolerant creatures, who when wearing cold weather gear are protected in extreme cold, (-50F to -20F)
Certainly cold resistance of 6 or more renders one immune to the effects of a cold environment and the rider effect of fatigue.
[...]
Cold resistance of less than five but at least 1 would probably fall into cold tolerant creatures, who when wearing cold weather gear are protected in extreme cold, (-50F to -20F)
I appreciate the response. I actually found what gave me my mistaken impression in an older edition of the game, but your comments help a ton - specifically, the unprotected bolded sections. I believe that wearing a winter outfit (+5 untyped Fort saves vs environmental) and Furs (+2 untyped Fort saves vs environmental) will actually cover me for the protected part in all but the most extreme of circumstances - at the very least, it gives me a foundation for arguing that one wearing such clothing should count as "protected" for cold weather and take the less severe option for extreme cold. Thanks!
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Here are James Jacob's thoughts on the matter
James,
Can you make a ruling about the effectiveness of cold/fire resistance and evironmental dangers of heat and cold? Does cold/fire resistance negate the dangers of cold/heat? Does it reduce the lethal damage one would take if the fail the associated save? Does one get a bonus to fortitude save for their resistance? Inquiring minds would like to know.
Damage from cold temperatures is cold damage. Damage from hot temperatures is fire damage.
(Sits back and waits for someone to run with this post and cause a big scene over in the rules forums.)
My thoughts are this. You're taking 1d6 damage over an hour because you're in the cold. Cold resist 5 shaves off 5 damage per round--that's 50 damage per minute--that's 3000 damage per hour (and that's assuming only one source, if you get hit by two "cold" attacks it's even more). Even cold resist 1 shaves off 600 damage per hour. There's no way environmental cold is going to damage anyone that has cold resist.
The pathfinder module Witchwar Legacy has an area that is extreme cold. It says this: "A simple endure elements spell will negate these dangers, as will any amount of cold resistance."
Thanks, both of you!
I'm really trying to avoid that whole die by the elements bit in Reign of Winter, without having to sacrifice my character concept.=)
Be aware that some people work environmental damage as your fine and toasty warm until the last round of the hour then mother nature comes around and makes you SO cold that round that you take all the damage that round.
So make sure your DM doesn't run it like that before you go in relying on it.
Be aware that some people work environmental damage as your fine and toasty warm until the last round of the hour then mother nature comes around and makes you SO cold that round that you take all the damage that round.
So make sure your DM doesn't run it like that before you go in relying on it.
Thankfully, she's a very reasonable person and GM, but I will double check with her on how she intends to handle it.
Okie dokie then. Happy gaming. :)
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Endure Elements is the way to go here. I'd get a wand for 750 GP, good for 50 person-days of inadequate clothing in cold temperatures. Even if you can't use it, someone in the group can.
A 1st level cleric can easily maintain Endure Elements 24x7 without sacrificing a prepared spell. Do this by always leaving an open spell slot. Your routine then becomes 'Right before sleeping for the night I meditate 15 minutes and prepare Endure Elements in my open spell slot. I cast Endure Elements, good for 24 hours. In the morning, when I prepare spells, I leave an open 1st level spell slot.' You only lack the 'free' Endure Elements if you must prepare some other spell in that open slot. That's when you use the wand.
The above trick, obviously, is only useful for a PC who prepares divine spells. Perhaps suggest it to any allies capable of benefitting from it.
Another trick is to have Endure Elements handy, but only cast it (or use the wand) when someone fails a check against the cold.
Note that Communal Endure Elements is generally a useless, stupid, inferior spell.
Hey lookie there, I was just about to quote myself and James Jacobs again on this topic and it's already been done for me.
That said, the worst case scenario is that the damage somehow occurs all at once and you take 1d6 cold damage mitigated by whatever cold resist you have. Almost any method of cold resistance I can think of involves having a minimum of ER 5, so at most you risk 1 point of non-lethal damage. Here's hoping you get lucky.
The more reasonable interpretation is that the check is done at the end of every hour (or whatever the time grame is) and represent a cummulative exposure over that time frame. Which effectively means that any cold energy resistance should completely negate hazardous weather effects of cold. Same for hot weath and fire resistance.
Claxon: I'm thinking he's talking about Northern Ancestry Campaign trait that grants Cold Resist 2. That'd be a bad time if you took the damage as a block as 2/3rds of the time you are damaged and get frostbite/hypothermia (fatigued).
Da'ath: On the off chance your DM is going to do the block damage, if you can get a cold resist of 5 and then take the Unscathed magic trait that adds +2 to your resistances. You end up with a 7 resist and that covers the damage no matter how you figure it out.
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I have a winter witch in a RoW campaign who happily walks barefoot through the snow in a light sun dress.
My original plan was to play a sorcerer/wizard/arcanist/witch. However, I've been playing nothing but straight spellcasters for decades at this point and decided to try magus instead (either a spelldancer/kampenia, kensai/blade bound, or just straight magus - haven't decided).
Endure elements is off the table for me at the moment, and I'm not sure I want to spend an arcana to get 2 1st level spells, so I'm probably going to take my chances and just use furs & a winter outfit for a +7 on Fort saves vs environment, all things considered.