PF-convenient WMD for a catgirl holocaust

[Talya]

The Chaos demon, A.K.A. the Choronzon, has an interesting breath weapon.

It's 10d6 damage, but there's a terrifying clause in it:

"A creature killed by a choronzon’s breath weapon has its body break apart into its individual protons, neutrons, and electrons. Creatures killed in this manner can only be restored to life by a miracle, wish, or true resurrection spell."

My very brief first reaction was, "Protons, neutrons and electrons? Those words have no place in this setting." That was almost instantly replaced by "Holy frack. That's fission!"

And since it appears to be 100% efficient fission, you've got 150ish lbs. of adventurer being fissioned away to release an incredible amount of energy. A 75kg person is 6,740,663,840,526,132,000 joules of energy. That's more than 30x the energy released by Tsar Bomba.

What's most amazing about this weapon, is you don't actually need to deploy it to kill catgirls. Merely discussing it works fine!

[Captnq]

Ah, but any material with less protons then iron takes more energy to fission then it puts out, so therefore, it would more then likely consume energy. (something like that. I forget the specifics)

[Rakaydos]

Ah, but any material with less protons then iron takes more energy to fission then it puts out, so therefore, it would more then likely consume energy. (something like that. I forget the specifics)

The body is over 75% water. 2 hydrogens, 1 oxygen. Neither is heavier than iron.

[TuggyNE]

Ah, but any material with less protons then iron takes more energy to fission then it puts out, so therefore, it would more then likely consume energy. (something like that. I forget the specifics)

That's correct. Any element with an atomic number lower than iron can fuse to release (some) energy, or fission with enough energy input; any element with a higher atomic number can fission to release (some) energy, or fuse with enough energy input. In either case, elements further from iron release more energy or require more energy, as the case may be; iron itself releases no net energy in either fission or fusion.

Of course, that does mean that, in all likelihood, the catastrophic fission effectively causes an immense energy sink that absorbs all available energy of pretty nearly all types in the vicinity. Take 100d6 cold damage!

[Talya]

Ah, but any material with less protons then iron takes more energy to fission then it puts out, so therefore, it would more then likely consume energy. (something like that. I forget the specifics)

It's still going to release all the energy stated, regardless of how it's fissioned. In this case a magic breath weapon is doing the job.

[Corrin Avatan]

The Chaos demon, A.K.A. the Choronzon, has an interesting breath weapon.

It's 10d6 damage, but there's a terrifying clause in it:

"A creature killed by a choronzon’s breath weapon has its body break apart into its individual protons, neutrons, and electrons. Creatures killed in this manner can only be restored to life by a miracle, wish, or true resurrection spell."

My very brief first reaction was, "Protons, neutrons and electrons? Those words have no place in this setting." That was almost instantly replaced by "Holy frack. That's fission!"

And since it appears to be 100% efficient fission, you've got 150ish lbs. of adventurer being fissioned away to release an incredible amount of energy. A 75kg person is 6,740,663,840,526,132,000 joules of energy. That's more than 30x the energy released by Tsar Bomba.

What's most amazing about this weapon, is you don't actually need to deploy it to kill catgirls. Merely discussing it works fine!

I'm going to point out that magic violates the laws of physics all the time, and there is nothing that states in the description that nuclear fission happens. You just turn into base atomic dust. Worst case scenario you might turn into a bunch of Hydrogen atoms as the parts all congeal back together (at least the protons and electrons will be attracted to one another). I'm pretty sure that if the intent was to cause nuclear fission, there would be at least a shout-out, if not the actual calculations. In addition, it would mean that the demon would never be able to use his ability except the one time he does: he'd then kill himself :annoyed:

I mean, Create Water could be cast in a vacuum by a wizard in a space suit. It doesn't mean he's violating the Law of Conservation of Mass. It's magic.

Also, isn't it a fairly common trope that in fantasy settings, wizards and the like are aware of atoms and sub-atomic particles, and possibly even quantum physics, but because magic exists there isn't really a reason to learn about it?

[Kazyan]

Even disregarding fission, the burst of neutron radiation alone would be brutal.

[grarrrg]

There are no rules for Protons/Neutrons/etc... therefore they do nothing.

That suddenly and unexpectedly ends the argument with no possible loopholes leftover.
Right?

[Slipperychicken]

Maybe we don't see them around much because they keep blowing themselves up shortly after spawning in the Abyss?



Also, isn't it a fairly common trope that in fantasy settings, wizards and the like are aware of atoms and sub-atomic particles, and possibly even quantum physics, but because magic exists there isn't really a reason to learn about it?

I imagine that knowing the universe's underlying physics would help efforts to manipulate them.

[Erik Vale]

Subscribing this thread so I can find this creature again.

I would personally say that the spell doesn't actually cause what we would know as fission/fusion, however there would be the burst of radiation, which I would rule the outsider to be immune to.

Anyone else would probably die either in 3 days time or immediately, I'm not sure.

Edit: Also, whilst it might take energy to normally fission them apart, I do believe that if you ruled physics to be in effect the binding energy still means a conventional nuclear explosion, with the breath providing the energy.

But by that point you've just destroyed the world because you've dropped a planet cracker on it. [I think it would be the equivilent of that thought exercise, not sure].

[Sith_Happens]

Even disregarding fission, the burst of neutron radiation alone would be brutal.

Not to mention that a soup of nucleons and electrons doesn't just stay as a soup of nucleons and electrons. Here's (IMO) the most probable series of events:

1. Most of the protons and electrons immediately form hydrogen atoms. For an average human this comes out to ~1*1028 hydrogen atoms, or 16630 moles.

2. The hydrogen atoms immediately bond to form 8315 moles of molecular hydrogen, releasing 440.7 kJ/mol for a total of ~3.664 GJ. Converting to TNT-equivalent that's about 0.876 tons, enough to deal a respectable 5788d6 damage to everything caught in the blast.

3. The hydrogen gas expands. Assuming for simplicity's sake that it behaves ideally and starts at human body temperature, the initial pressure is ~3185 atmospheres (~46800 psi) for an average human (volume 66.4 L). Needless to say, the expansion from that down to 1 atmosphere is extremely violent, and is technically what deals the damage calculated from step 2 (which is bludgeoning damage).

4. The ~8*1027 neutrons left behind by step 1 go flying off every which way. That's far more than enough to immediately kill everything in a much wider radius than the explosion itself and leave the area radioactive for years.

5. All catgirls within 50 times the neutron blast radius (including those hit by steps 3 and/or 4 who somehow survived) suddenly drop dead.