Pit filled with burning oil. Damage?

[Mrakvampire]

Hello All!

Let's assume that we have a pit 10x10 and 10 feet deep.
Bottom of this pit is filled with lamp oil (let's assume oil is 3 feet deep). Character falls into this trap, and evil NPC throws a torch to the pit.

Question - how much damage would this amount of burning oil deal per round? DC to catch fire? Would you increase ongoing damage from catched fire due to fact that PCs is probably drenched in oil?

[derpdidruid]

Being on fire or in nonmagical fire is typically 1d6 every round if I remember correctly.

[dragonhunterq]

One thing to consider is that you can submerge yourself in 3' of oil and as I understand it only the surface of the oil is afire. You can probably put yourself out by dunking under the surface I would have thought.

I would treat it as an automatic direct hit as they try to get out and I would probably just increase the DC to catch fire or put it out by 2-4 to reflect the unfavourable conditions rather than increase the damage.

[Oddman80]

If the PC is smart - he will take a deep breath and go down fully into the oil where he won't be in immediate danger. Then - if there is a way for him to teleport to a safe location, he should do so... Otherwise, it gives the other party members time to extinguish the fire.

That said - if he tries to climb out of pit and he is covered in flaming oil then Ido t think there is a saving thrown- he is just on fire - once he gets out, he can take a full round action to put out the fire (stop drop and roll). But until then, 1d6 fire damage/round.

[Rostam]

I'd probably go with 2d6 per rounds standing in the pit(somewhat like the submerged in lava thing), 1d6 for being on fire as normal and increase the DC for the reflex save to avoid catching on fire to 20. I would use the same DC 20 save to put themselves out for the rounds they are still in the oil and the first 5 rounds after they leave the oil, after 5 rounds it would swap back to the normal DC 15 save, basically due to the oil burning off. (remember that unless theres water, even just stop-drop and roll only gives a +4 tot he save)

I would also give them the option, via a wisdom/int check if they didn't think of it themselves, to hold their breath and stay submerged in the oil, which would burn from the top down, giving them like 10 rounds of no damage, but they are out of the fight until their allies can find a way to put out the oil.

[Mrakvampire]

Thanks, guys! :)

[Anguish]

I'd use lava as a guideline, only halve 8t because only the surface is hot/on fire. That puts it in line with the above recommendations at 1d6, but adds that it should do half damage afterward for 1d3 rounds. Or do the "catch on fire", which I wouldn't give an initial save against.

[Oddman80]

Don't use lava as a guide - lava is so hot it MELTS ROCK. Molten lava is hot all the way through its mass. But this situation would only be burning hot at the surface.

This is lamp oil - it has a very low burn temperature - normal wood burning fire is actually far hotter.
1d6 is more than sufficient each round