questions on spell effect combinations & some physics issues?

[bookkeeping guy]

Would casting permanency on a lava rock give you essentially the equivalent of a brazier of a warmth that say a character could bring into a water zone or an arctic zone for warmth even though they didn't use a spell effect for the heat source in the lava rock (harvested from volcanic area)?

With wizards and sorcs do you let your people assign some spell points to energy resistance/ shielding? How do you work this out so you aren't 1-shoting each other in duels? In your campaigns do you ever do like gangs of wizards vs gangs of sorcs or other casters? It might be fun campaign wise to do something like this and curious if others have tried it? Or do you do something in campaigns like fire wiz gangs vs. earth wiz or water wiz gangs? Do you separate them into their own rivalry groups?

Would adventurers in alternate worlds be polygamists most the time by default? I mean they are rich right? And powerful, often good looking? Rich people in this world usually have a few mistresses...so why don't adventurer types in stories often have multiple lovers?

When combining levitate with fly would you get a bonus to maneuverability?

If you hit a monster with a fire based spell and then an ice/cold based spell right after would there be bonus damage based on the idea of physics rapid temperature changes similar to how metal can warp when heated up and then cooled too fast?

When attacking creatures or PCs with shadow creatures wouldn't there be an infection rate chance of some kind, whether through biological infection, chemical, or poison, etc?

I'm having trouble with dragon breath weapon physics...if a red dragon is dueling a white dragon for example...the one has a fire breath weapon and the other a cold or ice based breath weapon...how would you determine the resistances? If I look at straight rules it might say there would be zero immunity to each other's breath weapons. But the problem is that it doesn't make sense that a creature as powerful as a dragon would be able to 1 shot each other. In the examples of 2 dragons dueling one another with different breath weapon attacks there should be some balance where they can still hit either other but not have it so 1 sided that the fight is instantly over. Wouldn't there also be allowances for like partial and half resistances to other dragon breath weapons? In the old monster manuals I don't see this accounted for.

I wondered too how often dragons are used in DM campaigns? There obviously shouldn't be one on every street corner but I wonder if they are getting ignored for vampires and werewolf fetishes now.

Physics issue;

Why do most ad&d, d&d, etc type world concepts always assume that humans are in charge? When you look at them statwise most city people would be villagers and traders, serfs probably, but the # of people that would be knights, city guard, adventurers, and powerful would be infinitely small compared to demihumans being powerful across the board in their populations...so why do most worlds get built under the concept of humans being in charge if that's the case?

Wouldn't humans be the minority? Wouldn't the averages of the physics sum up to humans would probably be serfs to other creatures MOST of the time?

Curious what you think about some of these issues, as they can affect world building, campaigns, background for story, etc.

Thank you

[Khedrac]

Would casting permanency on a lava rock give you essentially the equivalent of a brazier of a warmth that say a character could bring into a water zone or an arctic zone for warmth even though they didn't use a spell effect for the heat source in the lava rock (harvested from volcanic area)?
Permanency has a very specific list of spells it can affect. The DM may add to this list though. Casting it on anything else has no effect.


With wizards and sorcs do you let your people assign some spell points to energy resistance/ shielding? How do you work this out so you aren't 1-shoting each other in duels? In your campaigns do you ever do like gangs of wizards vs gangs of sorcs or other casters? It might be fun campaign wise to do something like this and curious if others have tried it? Or do you do something in campaigns like fire wiz gangs vs. earth wiz or water wiz gangs? Do you separate them into their own rivalry groups?
Anyone who doesn't cast defensive spells doesn't deserve to win a duel.


Would adventurers in alternate worlds be polygamists most the time by default? I mean they are rich right? And powerful, often good looking? Rich people in this world usually have a few mistresses...so why don't adventurer types in stories often have multiple lovers?
Well that entirely depends on the culture in question's attitudes to sexual relationships, both formal and informal.
As for in stories, go an read the Conan books if you think it is otherwise. Also authors need to write stories which won't get people outraged about them (usually completely unjustifiably).


When combining levitate with fly would you get a bonus to maneuverability?
If anything it would reduce it - levitate does nothing for maneuverability (read the rules on using it for an archer platform).


If you hit a monster with a fire based spell and then an ice/cold based spell right after would there be bonus damage based on the idea of physics rapid temperature changes similar to how metal can warp when heated up and then cooled too fast?
No - ignore physics, you are playing D&D.


When attacking creatures or PCs with shadow creatures wouldn't there be an infection rate chance of some kind, whether through biological infection, chemical, or poison, etc?
There are rules for environmental infections. What does "shadow" have to do with this - if you mean shadow template or similar they are probably less likely to carry infections as the infections could not survive.


I'm having trouble with dragon breath weapon physics...if a red dragon is dueling a white dragon for example...the one has a fire breath weapon and the other a cold or ice based breath weapon...how would you determine the resistances? If I look at straight rules it might say there would be zero immunity to each other's breath weapons. But the problem is that it doesn't make sense that a creature as powerful as a dragon would be able to 1 shot each other. In the examples of 2 dragons dueling one another with different breath weapon attacks there should be some balance where they can still hit either other but not have it so 1 sided that the fight is instantly over. Wouldn't there also be allowances for like partial and half resistances to other dragon breath weapons? In the old monster manuals I don't see this accounted for.
Quite the opposite - they have vulnerability to each other's attacks. They also live in totally different areas, red and silver are more likely to meet (and fight). Again, forget physics, you are playing D&D. In physics "cold" is not a thing, it is merely the absence of heat.


I wondered too how often dragons are used in DM campaigns? There obviously shouldn't be one on every street corner but I wonder if they are getting ignored for vampires and werewolf fetishes now.
Totally depends on the campaign, e.g. Dragonlance.


Physics issue;
This isn't physics at all.

Why do most ad&d, d&d, etc type world concepts always assume that humans are in charge? When you look at them statwise most city people would be villagers and traders, serfs probably, but the # of people that would be knights, city guard, adventurers, and powerful would be infinitely small compared to demihumans being powerful across the board in their populations...so why do most worlds get built under the concept of humans being in charge if that's the case?

Wouldn't humans be the minority? Wouldn't the averages of the physics sum up to humans would probably be serfs to other creatures MOST of the time?
Probably because it is easier for the authors to visualize. Also, since this is the 3rd Ed forum, humans are one of the best races for most classes (the bonus feat goes a long way) so the question reverses as to why the other player races are about at all.
For the more powerful (usually non-player) races, the answer is numbers. 100 ordinary humans with longbows can be surprisingly effective against more powerful opponents. However since this is fantasy, make them 100 1st level mages or sorcerers with magic missile (not an optimal adventuring spell at all) - consider two rounds of 100d4+100 damage divided as needed.


Curious what you think about some of these issues, as they can affect world building, campaigns, background for story, etc.
Thank you
You might want to check out some of the threads in the general roleplaying forum where some of these sorts of things get discussed in a non-rules specific context.
For this forum a lot of that boils down to "that's not how D&D works", and most of the rest boil down to "because world creators have to write things that people can identify with".