Cold Damage and Cold Descriptor


Rules Questions

Sczarni

Question: Does cold damage, from say, a +1 Frost Crossbow, contain the [cold] descriptor?

Context: A monster that is slowed when damaged by anything with cold descriptor.


Probably. Sometimes the specific wording of a vulnerability or quality is really important, and the ability only applies to cold SPELLS. In most cases, however, cold damage/effects is cold damage/effects, be they from (ex) bombs, (su) cold breath, or (sp) cold spells.


Context : is the monster some kind of golem that has magic immunity against any spell allowing SR, except some spells that work differently ?

If the answer is YES, remember that a +1 Frost Crossbow is NOT a spell, and thus not affected by the Magic immunity of the monster. (Don't hesitate to drop the monster name around here)


No. Descriptors are explicitly spelled out in all cases. Unless Frost says "this is a cold effect" it is not. You can see this on things like the mummy aura that says "This is a paralysis and a mind-affecting fear affect." There are things that can cause cold damage without having the cold descriptor. Any spell that Elemental metamagic is used on, for instance.

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