Flame Damage

[legalto]

In Supplement 4: Central Supply Catalogue:

"Flame and cryo weapons are persistent. A target who is hit with
a weapon takes additional damage each round. This damage
is halved each round (rounding down) until it finally runs out. A
character who is flamed again whilst on fire takes only the largest
damage of all current flame attacks – there is a limit to how much
on fire a person can be. The rounding down starts again from the
largest damage."

When does the person on fire take persistent damage? For example, P1 gets hit for 8 flame dmg. Next round, if he is not attacked, P1 will take 4 dmg due to persistent fire damage. When is this damage taken? The book says each round...is this at the beginning of the round, on P1's turn next round, at the end of the round, or is it on the attacking players turn? This seems important to me because the person on fire may die due to persistent damage before they get an action. Thanks!

 

[CosmicGamer]

Interesting. And I have more issues.

Let me give an example to help think it through.

Initiative in the following order:
Phalaris
Agnes Nutter
Synod of Verona

Situation: Phalaris and Synod of Verona burning Agnes Nutter.

"takes only the largest damage of all current flame attacks"
- Assuming "current flame attacks" to mean all attacks on the same person in the same round.
- Does this mean that you should ignore all fire damage until the end of the round just in case a larger fire damage occurs later - since only the largest damage is taken?

I think not. It creates a whole new set of issues if the situation were:
Phalaris' attack succeeds for 8 points of damage. (but lets just ignore this in case more fire damage is taken later)
Agnes Nutter does whatever she does
Synod of Verona's attack fails.

With this method Agnes gets to act as if she didn't even get attacked - even if the damage was enough to knock her out or even kill her.
=============
Round 1
Phalaris' attack succeeds for 4 points of damage.
Agnes Nutter does whatever she does
Synod of Verona's attack succeeds for 8 points of damage.

I'd change it to be during round 1, Agnes took 4 fire damage and then another 4 (since the second attack was greater by 4 points). The largest attack was 8 and Agnes Nutter should take 4 dmg due to persistent fire damage in round 2.

If the first attack was greater then yes, the second attack would be ignored.

Now, the question becomes do you continue with taking 4 damage at some point in round 2 or do you do 1/2 of the first attack which would be 1/2 of 4 or 2 pts and an additional 1/2 of the second attack since it did 4 more points of damage during round 1 it now does 1/2 or 2 in round 2.

Weather you buy into my version of what happens during the round or not, here is what I think of the additional fire damage distribution in future rounds.
- I think not at the beginning of the round.
- On Agnes' turn - before or after her actions? Neither would be my choice. She could possibly still not get to act or could get in 2 actions before taking the persistent damage.
- My current way of doing it if this came up: on each turn that corresponds to when the damage was received - ie during the turn of the person that did the damage. If a character rushes or delays action it could throw a monkey in the works so to be more precise, at the same initiative number as the damage was received. In larger combat we actually do an initiative count down one point at a time and determine which characters are acting. "Ok, we are now at initiative 10. Who has an initiative of 10? Nobody? Ok 9...
- I wouldn't argue with someone if they decided there was a record keeping phase at the end of a round and that's when the additional damage is taken.

 

[legalto]

Thanks for the post. This is also on page 91 of the central supply catalogue:

"For example, ‘Pyro’ Pete hoses an enemy soldier down for 13 damage
with a flamethrower. Next round, Pete switches to another target
and the hapless victim takes 6 (13 halved to 6.5 and rounded down)
damage. In the third round, Pete decides to flame his original target
again but scores a measly 2 points of damage. His opponent is
already on fire for 3 points (half of 6) so takes 3 points of damage that
round. The new attack is lost amid the general inferno. Assuming
there is anything left of the target, he takes 1 point of damage next
round before the fire dies out. Unless of course Pete feels the need
to apply more flame…"

The way I understand the rules is that once someone is on fire, it is okay for multiple people to attack them. If the damage roll is higher than the current damage that the target is burning for, then the target takes the higher damage, and is now burning at this rate. If the attacker's damage is less than the current damage the target is burning for, the target still takes damage, but equal to the current damage they are burning for.

My question is what happens if you decide to not attack the that target during the next round. When is the persistent damage taken?

 

[CosmicGamer]

You could keep track of what the characters initiative was when they dealt the fire damage and the additional fire damage continues to occur at this same point in each round.

Are there rules for putting the fire damage out? Like what if someone jumps into water?

 

[legalto]

You could keep track of what the characters initiative was when they dealt the fire damage and the additional fire damage continues to occur at this same point in each round.

Yeah, I was thinking something along those lines. I'm leaning towards that or just making the target take the damage at the end of combat.

There aren't any rules for putting out a fire from what I can tell. As the dm, if they jumped into some water it would put out the fire. I don't think flamethrower gel is self oxidizing.