Destroying items with spells [Archive] - Wizards Community

Destroying items with spells [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
_m_
12-18-06, 06:58 PM so fireball and lightning bolt:

both spell descriptions actually specifically say they doestroy things / burn things / melt things.

in all my lgw experience, ive never once seenanyone even indicate it might actually happen.

rulling anyone?
Britt
12-18-06, 07:02 PM It happens to me in NWN2 and it sucks! I hate it when that damned sorcerer NPC blows up chests, breaking my loot!
copper_wyrmling
12-18-06, 07:27 PM so fireball and lightning bolt:

both spell descriptions actually specifically say they doestroy things / burn things / melt things.

in all my lgw experience, ive never once seenanyone even indicate it might actually happen.

rulling anyone?

Well, they can harm unattended objects. You roll damage, check the rules for applying energy damage to objects (for example, I believe for fire it's divide by two and then apply hardness, but I could be wrong), and then determine whether the object is destroyed. If it's unattended and nonmagical, it doesn't get a saving throw. Most big objects have enough HP / hardness to be unaffected, but if for example a PC was hanging off a cliff on a rope when they got fireballed, then it might become important.

Attended objects are not harmed by area effects unless the owner rolls a natural 1 on their saving throw. In the event of a natural 1, items can be damaged or destroyed: there's a table in the PHB which describes how to determine which items are harmed.

My sorcerer got a lecture in a Perrenland mod for fireballing some bandits who were hiding in a cornfield (because she destroyed the crop), and in one interactive she almost got arrested when another fireball set a house on fire (there was a horde of nasty undead in the street, the street wasn't quite wide enough to fit a fireball, she figured the owners of the house would prefer a quickly extinguished fire to having their brains eaten). Those are the only times the destructive effect of fireball has really come up, though.
Madfox11
12-19-06, 04:23 AM In most cases the destructive properties of such a spell are not overly important. Although NPCs have lectured and even fined PCs several times when they cast area of effect spells in the middle of a city. More often than not though the PCs I know avoid casting them under such circumstances. I remember one situation though where a PC took full cover, but that cover was blown to smithereens so he got the full brunt of the spell as well. It was a rather funny situation, since the player rolled an average of 5 on those d6s. So that group now has a tendency to shout: quick, target a PC, we do more damage that way. The fact that he did make the save and hence did not die, did help in that regards ;)

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
_m_ 12-18-06, 06:58 PM	so fireball and lightning bolt: both spell descriptions actually specifically say they doestroy things / burn things / melt things. in all my lgw experience, ive never once seenanyone even indicate it might actually happen. rulling anyone?
Britt 12-18-06, 07:02 PM	It happens to me in NWN2 and it sucks! I hate it when that damned sorcerer NPC blows up chests, breaking my loot!
copper_wyrmling 12-18-06, 07:27 PM	so fireball and lightning bolt: both spell descriptions actually specifically say they doestroy things / burn things / melt things. in all my lgw experience, ive never once seenanyone even indicate it might actually happen. rulling anyone? Well, they can harm unattended objects. You roll damage, check the rules for applying energy damage to objects (for example, I believe for fire it's divide by two and then apply hardness, but I could be wrong), and then determine whether the object is destroyed. If it's unattended and nonmagical, it doesn't get a saving throw. Most big objects have enough HP / hardness to be unaffected, but if for example a PC was hanging off a cliff on a rope when they got fireballed, then it might become important. Attended objects are not harmed by area effects unless the owner rolls a natural 1 on their saving throw. In the event of a natural 1, items can be damaged or destroyed: there's a table in the PHB which describes how to determine which items are harmed. My sorcerer got a lecture in a Perrenland mod for fireballing some bandits who were hiding in a cornfield (because she destroyed the crop), and in one interactive she almost got arrested when another fireball set a house on fire (there was a horde of nasty undead in the street, the street wasn't quite wide enough to fit a fireball, she figured the owners of the house would prefer a quickly extinguished fire to having their brains eaten). Those are the only times the destructive effect of fireball has really come up, though.
Madfox11 12-19-06, 04:23 AM	In most cases the destructive properties of such a spell are not overly important. Although NPCs have lectured and even fined PCs several times when they cast area of effect spells in the middle of a city. More often than not though the PCs I know avoid casting them under such circumstances. I remember one situation though where a PC took full cover, but that cover was blown to smithereens so he got the full brunt of the spell as well. It was a rather funny situation, since the player rolled an average of 5 on those d6s. So that group now has a tendency to shout: quick, target a PC, we do more damage that way. The fact that he did make the save and hence did not die, did help in that regards ;)