Fatigue condition from cold exposure

[Commander315]

Hello everyone,

My question is very simple, really.
Does the Fatigue condition given by the frostbite in the Environmental Rules, jump to the Exhausted condition if the characters fails more than 1 save per hour?
Normally, i would say yes, and I played this as a yes. So, if one of my PCs doesn't dress properly in winter, he will fall for exhaustion frostbite or Hypothermia. This is because the fatigue condition "stacks" with itself, becoming exhausted condition normally.

My game life was fine, until I read the Frostbite spell. Now I know that it is just a spell, not a rule, but still the claws of doubt clutched my mind. The spell recites:
"[...]This spell cannot make a creature exhausted even if it is already fatigued."

And so I thought: there's nothing written in the books about fatigue from frostbite becoming exhaustion. When there's no explicit rule, I apply the general rule, where fatigue becomes exhaustion.

What do you say? Am I ruling this correctly?

Thanks in advance to whoever will help me with this silly doubt.
Have a nice day!

[Rysky]

Um, what exactly are you asking?

Conditions that cause fatigue can become Exhaustion, whereas the Frostbite spell has that specific callout that that specific spell cannot make someone exhausted.

[Cevah]

SRD

Cold-Dangers wrote:

A character who takes any nonlethal damage from cold or exposure is beset by frostbite or hypothermia (treat her as fatigued). These penalties end when the character recovers the nonlethal damage she took from the cold and exposure.

There is no increase for additional damage, so no Exhaustion.

SRD

Fatigued wrote:

Doing anything that would normally cause fatigue causes the fatigued character to become exhausted.

This is where Exhaustion comes into play. However, while many cold based spells can impose Fatigued, most [if not all] add a caveat that they cannot make you Exhausted by repeated use. You generally need a second cold effect to do that.

/cevah