Flaming skull and Air Jet

[geppo_68]

Does the Air Jet spell inflict normal damage or knockback only to a Flaming Skull, who has the trait "diffuse"?

More in general can we consider all the "diffuse" beings as swarms or vaporous beings?

Thanks
Giuseppe

[Imbicatus]

Not all things that are diffuse are vaporous or swarms. The example on Exploits p. 55 states Creatures of air, fire, or water; slimes; swarms; partially materialized spirits.. Of those, I think only creatures of air and swarms would count.

[WhiteLily]

Yeah, I think RAW the flaming skull is not a creature of fire. But I would certainly see using some GM discretion here to score half damage.

[Kromm]

Diffuse doesn't mean you're vapor. It means that most damage passes harmlessly through you, for whatever reason. Roughly:

Living: Lots of vital spots, nothing is a "safe" target; it's just that some targets are less not-safe than others.
Unliving: Fewer vital spots, some targets are "safe" in that the scarier damage types don't do much if they hit there.
Homogenous: No vital spots. You're one big chunk of something. That chunk still gets damaged.
Diffuse: No vital spots, and you aren't even a chunk. Much of you never gets damaged because the damage just goes between or through whatever you're made of.

The only beings that take actual damage from Air Jet are swarms (including spore clouds) and things that are explicitly made up of vapors, like air elementals and toxifiers (both of which explicitly take double damage). If you're looking for telltale traits: All three of Aerial, Diffuse, and Flight (Lighter Than Air), or explicit Vulnerability to air attacks.

[geppo_68]

Many thanks for the definition!

Nevertheless I like the suggestion of whitelily, as from the description we can consider the Flaming Skull similar to a partially materialized spirit and in the same time made of flame: so half crushing damage from air jet.

What do you think?

[WhiteLily]

Originally Posted by geppo_68

Many thanks for the definition!

Nevertheless I like the suggestion of whitelily, as from the description we can consider the Flaming Skull similar to a partially materialized spirit and in the same time made of flame: so half crushing damage from air jet.

What do you think?

I think it is no one's place to question the DMs discretion about how they believe their world should function.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by geppo_68

Many thanks for the definition!

Nevertheless I like the suggestion of whitelily, as from the description we can consider the Flaming Skull similar to a partially materialized spirit and in the same time made of flame: so half crushing damage from air jet.

What do you think?

Depends on how mean the GM feels like being. "You blow on the flame and it turns into a massive inferno; the flameskull is now doing double damage with all its attacks" is well within the general feel of the genre DF emulates.