Fires started with Incendiary 4 (PU4 p19) - extremely hot when igniting iron?

[Extrarius]

A burning attack with incendiary 4 (Power-Ups 4, page 19) can ignite "metal" with 1 point of burning damage. Many metals require extremely high temperatures to ignite and burn extremely hot [1]. Would an iron bar ignited by such a burning attack create a fire that is much more damaging than an "ordinary fire" (B433 doing damage of "1d-1 per second"), or would it somehow be a 'magical' fire that can somehow burn things a low-temperature flame never could without doing more damage?

[1] See Thermal Lance

[Anthony]

It's pretty magical to ignite steel with 1 point of damage, so I wouldn't expect realistic results. I'd go with the normal 1d-1

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by Extrarius

... or would it somehow be a 'magical' fire that can somehow burn things a low-temperature flame never could without doing more damage?

Considering that Cosmic modifiers usually imply magic or super-science, I'd say yes.


The Cosmic isn't increasing the damage done, it's modifying the property of the material being lit on fire (or just supplying fire somehow).

[Kax]

Some of it depends on the description explaining Incend 4. It can easily be something like, "this heat attack also feeds pure oxygen or fluorine to be able to ignite anything touched" I'd rule the higher damage as it is actually a special fire now.

Or think of the attack being 'a squirt of clorine trifluoride'; the attack is burning acid, and the fire is special and super-hot. Also gives off toxic and corrosive smoke, but that's a secondary aura effect.

Note: do not use a chlorine trifluoride attack on a water elemental....

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Kax

Some of it depends on the description explaining Incend 4. It can easily be something like, "this heat attack also feeds pure oxygen or fluorine to be able to ignite anything touched" I'd rule the higher damage as it is actually a special fire now.

It's also not a 1 point burning attack.

[Kax]

Originally Posted by Anthony

It's also not a 1 point burning attack.

? I'm basing this on the original question. He's after wa way to get the effect described. Adding an environmental modifier (added oxygen) doesn't change the stated 1 pt damage to start the fire.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Kax

? I'm basing this on the original question. He's after wa way to get the effect described. Adding an environmental modifier (added oxygen) doesn't change the stated 1 pt damage to start the fire.

A jet of pure fluorine will directly kill people and destroy objects. That's not an environmental effect, that's an attack.

Realistically, all methods of setting bulk metal on fire with small amounts of energy involve the attack having other components that are themselves worth points, often quite a few points. Given that incendiary 4 is already a magical effect, the question is what's a reasonable benefit for the points spent, and comparing the cost to Cyclic, the answer is 'not very much damage'.

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by Anthony

... the question is what's a reasonable benefit for the points spent...

And the answer "It can now set anything on fire with only 1 point of damage".

Not "Now it sets anything on fire that then does as much damage as would have been required to set it on fire without this special attack".

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by evileeyore

And the answer "It can now set anything on fire with only 1 point of damage".

Right, it's the standard 1d-1.

[Anaraxes]

Originally Posted by evileeyore

And the answer "It can now set anything on fire with only 1 point of damage".

Not "Now it sets anything on fire that then does as much damage as would have been required to set it on fire without this special attack".

Exactly. If you want higher damage, you buy higher damage. If you want to set fire to hard-to-ignite materials, you put Incendiary on your (already) Burning Innate Attack.

The description of the modifier seems pretty clear.

Originally Posted by PU4 p19

Higher levels make targets more flammable, as described above; they do not improve the amount of burning damage done.

In general, a good guideline is to buy effects, not names. Mechanically, abilities just do what they say they do.

Trying to extrapolate everything that might "logically" happen from real-world chemistry and physics is just going to be a trail of tears -- and most likely invalidate your magical/super-power anyway, if you actually followed all the threads to their logical conclusion and applied the same rigor to being able to generate the effect to start with. Selective "realism" isn't realism.