Question about energy attacks

[RavynsLand]

Some energy types have specific functions (like cold freezing things, acid melting things, etc.), do those take effect when you use them in, say, a spell? Or does it just do cold damage?

Example: Say you have darkvision and are in a room with several lit torches in sconces on the walls. The advancing party is all human, so you decide to screw them over and cast Cone of Cold. Does it put the torches out?

Example: Say you're a warlock and have Vitriolic Blast, usable at will. Can you use it to melt a doorknob, turn a trap into sludge, or burn a hole through a wall?

Example: Your quarry rushes into a wooden house. You Fireball it. Does it get lit ablaze?

[Kamin_Majere]

Doesnt the spell usually say?

I know fireball sets fire to anything that burns, but Cone of cold isnt really described as a blast of wind so much as an emanation of subartic temperatures

As to Vitriolic blast, yeah it can damage objects (I believe acid does full damage to unattended objects)

So
example 1 - No

example 2 - Yes

example 3 - Yes

[RavynsLand]

But wouldn't subarctic temperatures intense enough to flash-freeze and instantly kill normal humans be sufficient to put out a torch?

[Kamin_Majere]

Well for a more physics based reason wood ignites at around 350-500 degrees F, and burns at 1200-1600 degrees, so cone of cold would have to drop the temperature at minimum 700ish degrees to put out the fire my removing the heat leg of the fire triangle, and at that level its instant death with no saves as assuming a temp of 80-100 cone of cold makes absolute zero and then some and no reflex save is going to help you against a zone so cold that molecular motion stops

[Red Fel]

But wouldn't subarctic temperatures intense enough to flash-freeze and instantly kill normal humans be sufficient to put out a torch?

The problem is that we're using *handwaves* magic. A small area of a sudden, sharp drop in temperature would have a substantial impact, more than simply putting out torches. There would be numerous ramifications.

Which we ignore, because *handwaves* magic. We don't talk about physics, because *handwaves* magic. Also, dead catgirls. You monster.

Basically, unless there is a RAW someplace that says "Spells with the [Cold] descriptor can lower the temperature of objects and extinguish flames," or "When fire is exposed to this spell, it is extinguished," or similar, we assume that the spell does precisely what it says it does, and no more.*

Just look at the spell description specifically, and the rules on spells generally. That's all the RAW you'll get, really, short of various errata. And the RAW is the RAW, full stop.

* Note, however, that a DM is free to invoke the Rule of Cool, and observe that, yes, it is perfectly reasonable for your sudden blast of arctic wind to extinguish torches, freeze small amounts of standing water, or cause some animals to assume it's time to hibernate.

[TuggyNE]

Example: Say you have darkvision and are in a room with several lit torches in sconces on the walls. The advancing party is all human, so you decide to screw them over and cast Cone of Cold. Does it put the torches out?

Usually, if only by doing cold damage to the torches sufficient to destroy them. Torches have hardness 5 and about 10 HP; cold damage is quartered before being applied, so if you do at least 60 damage they're one-shotted.

However, fire effects in general are usually considered to take full damage from cold, not one quarter, so you could pretty reasonably argue that even much less damage than that would do the job.


Example: Say you're a warlock and have Vitriolic Blast, usable at will. Can you use it to melt a doorknob, turn a trap into sludge, or burn a hole through a wall?

Yes.


Example: Your quarry rushes into a wooden house. You Fireball it. Does it get lit ablaze?

Yes, explicitly.

[RavynsLand]

Thanks guys. ^_^