Fire and lowtech questions.

[Jaware]

Is it just me, or am I doing something wrong?

Fire seems to be more of a hazard than something that can actually kill a character. Especially if they are wearing just about any armor.

I had a pc throw a alchemust fire at his feet while he was under a "walk on air" spell.

he then got hit and his leg was crippled and he fell into the fire. Stunned.

he has decent dr. Heavy leather.

And he's like, pretty much fine.

[Icelander]

If you jump through fire while wearing a full body suit of protective clothing, you will probably not die instantly.

Even napalm takes a few seconds of burning to actually kill people. But note that suffering even 'just' 1-2 HP of injury per second is going to kill a person really quickly.

Note also that armour which isn't Sealed should only protect at 1/5 DR against burning damage if the character is totally enveloped in fire, as opposed to jumping through it or getting a small quantity of burning material splashed on him.

[sir_pudding]

Leather is flammable. Your armor doesn't protect you from it being on fire.

[Ulzgoroth]

One of the nasty things about burns is that they're horrible to heal. I think the sourcebook you'd want for addressing this, if desired, is Bio Tech, but it's outside my current reach.

Originally Posted by Icelander

If you jump through fire while wearing a full body suit of protective clothing, you will probably not die instantly.

You probably won't even be significantly hurt.

Originally Posted by Icelander

Note also that armour which isn't Sealed should only protect at 1/5 DR against burning damage if the character is totally enveloped in fire, as opposed to jumping through it or getting a small quantity of burning material splashed on him.

Er, that only seems to be the case if by 'enveloped in fire' you mean 'soaked in burning fuel'. Nothing of the kind is asserted for standing in flames that I can see.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

Er, that only seems to be the case if by 'enveloped in fire' you mean 'soaked in burning fuel'. Nothing of the kind is asserted for standing in flames that I can see.

If you're breathing in the flames, as you would when immersed in an inferno, like a completely burning house, I think a breastplate and some leathers wouldn't be significant protection. Basically, when your entire hex, to a height greater than the character, is nothing but flames, not a quick burst of it, but sustained fire, that is entirely comparable to a situation of being soaked in burned fuel.

Kromm suggests applying the rule to thermobaric explosions:

Originally Posted by Kromm

Explosions are supposed to use Large-Area Injury (p. B400) if you're using that optional rule. Remember that everything in Chapter 13 is meant to be optional, which is why its contents aren't in the basic combat rules in Chapter 11. We tried not to make one optional rule depend too much on another.

Sealed has nothing to do with explosions. It protects against contact agents, water, and dust, and lets you justify Pressure Support or Vacuum Support for a suit. But being in a squishy foil suit that happens to be sealed won't do a lot for you in an explosion.

As for thermobarics, their main advantage is that the bursting charge spreads out the explosive before it's detonated. This lets them devastate a wider area. A totally realistic treatment would say that somebody caught in the cloud (a small area in the center of the blast) would be affected as if by a fluid incendiary (p. B411), with unsealed armor protecting at 1/5 DR.

I'd personally also apply it to actually spending a whole second inside the centre of an inferno, as opposed to jumping through fire or being splashed with burning materials. Basically, if you're inside a massive collection of burning fuel, you are immersed in a burning contact agent.

[RyanW]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

One of the nasty things about burns is that they're horrible to heal.

Also, burns cause fluid loss. Large area burns of any significance basically require intravenous fluid to avoid dehydration symptoms like renal failure. Blistered or charred skin is a channel for infection, as well.

[Flyndaran]

They also hurt more than other injury types of similar survivability, I believe.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Leather is flammable. Your armor doesn't protect you from it being on fire.

Is it really flammable on a time frame of a few seconds of light fire exposure?
I would have assumed it would smolder more than burst into flame except by blowtorch level heat.

[tanksoldier]

People who are burned at the stake don't actually burn to death. They die when their lungs breathe in super hot gas, are destroyed and they suffocate.

If you fell into a pool of burning alchemists' fire I would expect that you'd be breathing in the hot gases, which unsealed armor wouldn't protect against, and the burning liquid would cover your armor and burn even if you removed yourself from the pool. Likely your leather armor would then catch fire at some point, too.

I'd rule that if you were laying in a puddle of burning alchemists' fire and breathing you'd take fire damage to your vitals while laying in the pool, either unconscious or after not being able to hold your breath anymore.

Your body would be protected externally by 1/5 DR from the flames. If you want to get realistic fire would automatically hit "chinks in armor".

I'd use the catching fire rules for each piece of armor in the flaming puddle and your armor would take damage from the fire, eventually losing all it's DR.

If you got out of the puddle your armor would still be on fire, you'd still have a chance of breathing in hot gasses if your torso or head was on fire, you'd still take fire damage protected by 1/5 DR to some areas (your face if your head or torso armor was on fire, your groin if legs were on fire, etc).

[Flyndaran]

I think it's a commonly known fact that most people die from smoke inhalation in house fires and not from literal burning.