| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
For the sake of your own sanity don't try to compare in-real-life physics with game mechanics.
The ability to shove a bunch of energy into one place doesn't guarantee the ability to remove a bunch of energy from one place. It's the opposite skill.
In Pathfinder, "energy" is a game mechanics term, with its own meaning within the game. It's not an attempt to describe how these effects work in the real world.
To understand why acid, cold, fire, electricity, and sonic damage are all referred to as "energy," it helps to know a little about the history and design philosophy of the game. Pathfinder was derived from the D&D Third Edition rules. In that system, many game terms were precisely defined so that they would interact with other rules in predictable ways. (This approach also saved a lot of space in a rulebook that was already massive!)
For example, the "dazzled" condition has a very specific game effect. An attack's text will simply state that it makes the subject dazzled, instead of repeating the full text of that condition. You're expected to look it up in the glossary if you forget what it does.
Similarly, most attacks do a specific type of damage, which determines how they interact with other rules like damage resistance and energy resistance. The game uses the same rules for acid, cold, fire, electricity, and sonic damage, so the designers chose to call them all "energy." It's not realistic, but it's simple, and that makes the game play faster.
Regarding elemental wizard specializations: The opposition of fire and ice/cold is a common theme in fantasy. Also, Pathfinder associates one "energy" type with each of the four classical elements. Cold is associated with water, which is also traditionally opposed to fire. Therefore, it's harder for a fire wizard to control water or ice than it is for any other elemental wizard.
Because of that association of energy types with the elements, it might help to think of acid, cold, fire, and electricity damage as "elemental" rather than "energy" damage. (Note that sonic energy isn't associated with any element--and can't be chosen as an energy type for the Elemental Fist, Elemental Focus, or Elemental Spell feats.)
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
But the one who control the fire should able to control ice perfectly (wizard specialization, since controlling fire must spend 2 slot to control ice).
Strange... my winter tires are too soft at warm temperatures and wear out quickly while my summer tires are too hard at cold temperatures and don't provide grip.
Point being that even in real life, "things" are often designed for specific tolerances and environments. A wizard who has specialized and learned how to handle high temperatures doesn't locally need to be any good at handling low temperatures.
Put another way, high-altitude (low-pressure) acclimatization doesn't benefit a person who then tries deep-ocean (high-pressure) diving.
Dead catgirls. Dead catgirls everywhere. *sob* Oh, the felinity!