Is elemental fire magical?

[SangoProduction]

So, a fire elemental is a living being. That's not what I'm talking about. You know those conjuration spells that are like Orb of X, which ignore anti-magic, because bull**** about it not being magical material?

Well, camp fires are plainly accepted as not-magical. What about the natural flames of the Plane of Fire?

What if some super villain loaded up an army of druids / UMD mooks to extinguish the Plane of Fire using Quench wands?
I mean. It's supposed to be an infinite plane. But can one simply create a livable sanctuary in the plane of fire like this? I mean, aside from the radiant heat (endure elements).

And you'd clearly have to repeatedly cast it, or else the ground will combust once more, eventually. But let's take the abuse of self-resetting magic traps. Then mass produce said traps. How long until you have at least enough of an impact on the plane's health that it would have outside ramifications?

[Crake]

You may be able to put out the fires, but they will instantly re-ignite without some kind of protection:

Fire-Dominant: Planes with this trait are composed of flames that continually burn without consuming their fuel source. Fire-dominant planes are extremely hostile to Material Plane creatures, and those without resistance or immunity to fire are soon immolated. Unprotected wood, paper, cloth, and other flammable materials catch fire almost immediately, and those wearing unprotected flammable clothing catch on fire. In addition, individuals take 3d10 points of fire damage every round they are on a fire-dominant plane.

So it's not an eventual thing, it's a near immediate thing. Quench being instantaneous means it has no lasting impact, and a spellclock would be unreliable, since water magic is impeded on the plane of fire. Basically, the only way you can stop the fires is by either using something that's not flammable, or by imbuing some kind of protection from fire on the objects/area.

In any case, putting out the fires will have no impact on the plane. It's not the fires that cause the heat, it's the heat that causes the fires.

[tiercel]

But can one simply create a livable sanctuary in the plane of fire like this?

City of Brass says yes. (https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/City_of_Brass) (In this case, “by the will of the Grand Sultan” of the efreet, but obviously it must be possible by some means, even if not necessarily direct overt extinguishing-magic, since there is a canonical place where it is so.)

[Necroticplague]

I mean, aside from the radiant heat (endure elements).

Endure elements doesn't cut it. According to Sandstorm, fire-dominant areas are at least 211 degrees, above what Endure Elements works against.

[Crake]

Endure elements doesn't cut it. According to Sandstorm, fire-dominant areas are at least 211 degrees, above what Endure Elements works against.

Endure elements specifically doesn't help against heat that actually does fire damage, as it provides no fire resistance, 3d10 damage each round means you need at least fire resistance 30 to be able to resist the effects of the plane, or else use something like planar adaptation.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

If you want to put out the fires on the Elemental Plane of Fire, use brown mold.

Of course, turning the Elemental Plane of Fire into the Elemental Plane of Mold might have some unintended side-effects. See your doctor if you experience them.

[tiercel]

If you want to put out the fires on the Elemental Plane of Fire, use brown mold.

Of course, turning the Elemental Plane of Fire into the Elemental Plane of Mold might have some unintended side-effects. See your doctor if you experience them.

Would it actually put out the flames, though, or would everything without sufficient resistance/immunity take both fire damage and nonlethal cold damage?

For that matter, if it all counts as one brown mold, could the entire plane-consuming exponentially-growing Cold Plague of Doom be ended by a single ray of frost?

[SangoProduction]

Would it actually put out the flames, though, or would everything without sufficient resistance/immunity take both fire damage and nonlethal cold damage?

For that matter, if it all counts as one brown mold, could the entire plane-consuming exponentially-growing Cold Plague of Doom be ended by a single ray of frost?

Considering that if it didn't, and you couldn't, then either every single teleportation to said plane of fire has never had any contamination of brown mold, and there was never a crazy person bent on planar destruction.... or it has already happened, and fire balls are actually slime balls.

Or it's a game with wizards and elves, and trying to make such logical inferences is an act of futility.

[Asmotherion]

No. It is, by it's very definition, the "essence or concept of fire, that manifests". It does not rely on magic to keep existing; it does, because the cosmos works that way.

If a fire is fueled by magic to keep existing, it's magical, and the moment you turn the magic off, it disapears.

If all the spell does is conjure some existing fire to manifest, you can prevent it from "teleporting" there if you turn the magic off, but if it does "teleport" to your location, it does not go off, unless you extinguish it naturally (water, suffocation etc).

[Psyren]

If you want to put out the fires on the Elemental Plane of Fire, use brown mold.

Of course, turning the Elemental Plane of Fire into the Elemental Plane of Mold might have some unintended side-effects. See your doctor if you experience them.

This is not how infinity works. Even if someone did that and Brown Mold is now exponentially spreading unchecked through the plane every second of every day for the rest of eternity - there is still an infinite amount of fire to go around.

And that's outright ignoring the denizens, deities, and other planar powerhouses that would surely get involved if the plane were truly endangered in some way.


So, a fire elemental is a living being. That's not what I'm talking about. You know those conjuration spells that are like Orb of X, which ignore anti-magic, because bull**** about it not being magical material?

Well, camp fires are plainly accepted as not-magical. What about the natural flames of the Plane of Fire?

It's not a binary between "mundane" and "magical." Some things are the result of magic but not sustained by it, like Golems and Elementals. An Elder Fire Elemental's fire is clearly hotter than a campfire, but he can walk through an antimagic field just fine.

[Crake]

And that's outright ignoring the denizens, deities, and other planar powerhouses that would surely get involved if the plane were truly endangered in some way.

I'm sure one of the many efreeti with non-genie slaves would just order one of it's slaves to wish that the mold was destroyed.

[Troacctid]

I was going to point out that water magic is impeded on the Elemental Plane of Fire, but I guess quench isn't actually a water spell, so carry on.