How does electricity deal damage in D&D?

[gooddragon1]

Example:
A blue dragon has a line of lightning for a breath weapon. How does the attack encounter enough resistance in the target to damage it? Undead would not be affected if it were just amps and volts won't do anything.

[WeeFreeMen]

Not completely true. Almost much of everything has a melting point. IE: You can heat something up, excite molecules, in an object/person/etc enough to the point were it gets heated.

As for "Electric" damage in DnD, I've always though of it as regular natural occurrences. "Orb of Lightning" would be someone forming static ball. Call lightning..would be lightning.

I suppose if you wanna be technical about it, you can assume that everything hits supernova [Figurative term, calm down Physic majors] and just overheats/disintegrates.

[gooddragon1]

Not completely true. Almost much of everything has a melting point. IE: You can heat something up, excite molecules, in an object/person/etc enough to the point were it gets heated.

As for "Electric" damage in DnD, I've always though of it as regular natural occurrences. "Orb of Lightning" would be someone forming static ball. Call lightning..would be lightning.

I suppose if you wanna be technical about it, you can assume that everything hits supernova [Figurative term, calm down Physic majors] and just overheats/disintegrates.

But then fire resistance would work against it... and to get it that high it would have to be a lot more energy than lightning?

[The Demented One]

The magical electricity energy touches things, and makes them be messed up.

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

The magical electricity energy touches things, and makes them be messed up.

Eloquence incarnate.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

The magical electricity energy touches things, and makes them be messed up.

QFT. Aka "The wizard makes things go zappy."

[Sinfire Titan]

Example:
A blue dragon has a line of lightning for a breath weapon. How does the attack encounter enough resistance in the target to damage it? Undead would not be affected if it were just amps and volts won't do anything.

Just how many catgirls did you aim to kill with this thread? Because I'm counting 43 dead within 2 posts.

Remember: The people who made this game (R.I.P.) likely did not have a good grasp on the scientific aspects of the rules they were designing. And we all know WotC gives no **** about doing the research, as their own books have shown us.

It's best to just say "A Wizard did it" and move along.

[Lysander]

But then fire resistance would work against it... and to get it that high it would have to be a lot more energy than lightning?

They work a little differently though. Fire heats the outside of things, electricity travels through them. Electricity also disrupt nervous systems and muscle action.

[The Demented One]

They work a little differently though. Fire heats the outside of things, electricity travels through them. Electricity also disrupt nervous systems and muscle action.

No no no. The electricity touches things, and makes them be messed up. But it makes them be messed up in a different way than fire. This is literally the amount of thought put into it.

[Adumbration]

Why Shocking grasp doesn't shock it's user as well?
Why is it that Burning hands never set's the magician's sleeves on fire?
How can you create anything out of nothing?
How can you make things go boom with your mind?

It's magic.

[Temotei]

I like the light spells that deal damage better. Light damage? Honestly.

[Mastikator]

Also, why is acid and fire considered energies? They should be chemical reactions.
Cold isn't energy, it's lack of energy. They used cold, but not heat (which IS a form of energy)?!?
Fire, light and lightning should all deal "thermal damage".

And "force"? What's force? They obviously don't mean physical force, otherwise it'd be piercing/slashing or bludgeoning.

DIE CATGIRLS DIE!

[Thurbane]

I like the light spells that deal damage better. Light damage? Honestly.

Spoiler

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Also, why is acid and fire considered energies?

There's an interesting sidebar about this in the 3.5 Rules Compendium. Long story short, it's for simplicity...

[PhoenixRivers]

Example:
A blue dragon has a line of lightning for a breath weapon. How does the attack encounter enough resistance in the target to damage it? Undead would not be affected if it were just amps and volts won't do anything.

This makes total sense in a world where 85 foot long lizards poop lightning out of their mouth.

[Poil]

I think heat damage/resistance/etc is worked into fire since you can swim through lava with enough fire resistance. It's also great for cooking and shrugging off laser guns.

[Nero24200]

Electricy in D'n'D isn't anything like RL electricity. It doesn't follow the same rules. You can target creatures which aren't earthed with such spells, instantly breaking one of the normal rules of electrcity (that not touching the ground or having something like thick rubber between you and the ground stops you being shocked). Or the fact that they allow reflex saves for partial damage. We're talking about something which moves at the speed of light and PC's are able to perceive and avoid it?

To be fair, the same applies to other thigns as well. Why does a mundane fire cause 1D6 damage when a fireball does a minimum of 5D6? The simplelist explanation is that spells don't produce "mundane" energy types (unless the spell effect specifically says so). And well...if they did, it would complicate the game so much, since you would need to determine how many volts equates to what level of damage etc.

[Lysander]

Also, why is acid and fire considered energies? They should be chemical reactions.
Cold isn't energy, it's lack of energy. They used cold, but not heat (which IS a form of energy)?!?
Fire, light and lightning should all deal "thermal damage".

And "force"? What's force? They obviously don't mean physical force, otherwise it'd be piercing/slashing or bludgeoning.

DIE CATGIRLS DIE!

Clearly "energy" is a misnomer. What they mean are "damage types"

[gooddragon1]

Would you believe I forgot about the catgirls thing when asking this question? Because I did.

[Kuma Kode]

That reminds me of the time our half-blue-dragon barbarian asked me what the voltage of his breath weapon is...

You're a barbarian in a fantasy setting! You can't even read! You have no concept of voltage whyareyouaskingme ARRRGH.

[Roderick_BR]

In the same way that lightining bolts destroy things in movies and classic literature. Go ask them.

Also: You have a giant flying lizard that can make magic and spit lightining outta their mouths, and you are worried on how magic eletricity damages things?

Tough it's a good question if lightning bolts would ricochet offa zombies in AD&D...

[hamishspence]

We're talking about something which moves at the speed of light and PC's are able to perceive and avoid it?

Lightning bolts don't move at the speed of light- though they do move pretty fast.

The ones in D&D could be pretty slow- or, its a case of not dodging the bolt, but dodging the line of effect directed by the casters fingers.

You see them point in your direction- you dodge, and however fast the spell goes off, it doesn't matter, because you dodged before it went off.

[peacenlove]

That reminds me of the time our half-blue-dragon barbarian asked me what the voltage of his breath weapon is...

You're a barbarian in a fantasy setting! You can't even read! You have no concept of voltage whyareyouaskingme ARRRGH.

The real problem is explaining to him why the voltage (read DC) of his breath weapon increases when he is raging (gaining constitution).

[Runestar]

Electricy in D'n'D isn't anything like RL electricity. It doesn't follow the same rules. You can target creatures which aren't earthed with such spells, instantly breaking one of the normal rules of electrcity (that not touching the ground or having something like thick rubber between you and the ground stops you being shocked).

Funny enough, I was just reading this christian superhero comic where the protagonist was claiming the exact same thing - that the enemy's electric attacks had no effect on him because he was floating in the air (no grounded).

[AslanCross]

Example:
A blue dragon has a line of lightning for a breath weapon. How does the attack encounter enough resistance in the target to damage it? Undead would not be affected if it were just amps and volts won't do anything.

While I don't really like the "It's magic, duh" arguments, you're talking about a fantasy game here. Are you really sure you want to simulate the laws of physics to the letter here?

[hamishspence]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning

Apparently, the leader stroke of a bolt of lightning moves at 60,000 metres per second.

Whereas light

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light

moves at about 300,000,000 metres per second.

Roughly 50,000 times as fast.

[Amiel]

Also, why is acid and fire considered energies? They should be chemical reactions.
Cold isn't energy, it's lack of energy. They used cold, but not heat (which IS a form of energy)?!?
Fire, light and lightning should all deal "thermal damage".

The answer you are looking for is Paracelsus; see also, the Greek concept of the four elements and Hermeticism. D&D subscribes to concepts of alchemical energy rather than the known physical sciences.

[hamishspence]

Combining the four elements, with Positive and Negative energy- produces a lot of elemental varieties.

And if you go back to 2nd edition, there was a Quasi-Elemental Plane of Lightning- maybe that's where D&D lightning is drawn from.

[Amiel]

There were probably blue dragons and electrical attacks prior to Planescape; although the setting did expound upon the material.

Incidently, they really should bring back Planescape.

[WildPyre]

Combining the four elements, with Positive and Negative energy- produces a lot of elemental varieties.

And if you go back to 2nd edition, there was a Quasi-Elemental Plane of Lightning- maybe that's where D&D lightning is drawn from.

And combining the 4 elemental energies with "heart" gives you...


CAPTAAAAAAAAAIN PLANEEEEEEEEEET!

[John Campbell]

The real problem is explaining to him why the voltage (read DC) of his breath weapon increases when he is raging (gaining constitution).

Voltage should directly affect range, indirectly affect damage (which is going to be a combination of current and power dissipation, both of which are determined by the ratio of voltage to resistance), but shouldn't be involved with the DC of a Reflex save. I cannot explain why raging makes his breath weapon harder to dodge, though. I'd have thought the opposite would be the case.

Now, as to the voltage... the breakdown voltage of air is about 30kV/inch, so in order to drive an electric arc across 60' of open air, a blue half-dragon has to be producing something in the neighborhood of 20 megavolts. The simple explanation, however, doesn't explain why the bolt travels in a straight line rather than just arcing to the nearest conductive object (possibly even the half-dragon himself) and grounding out through that. Possibly the half-dragon is using a laser or the like to ionize the air along a line to the target, thus drastically reducing resistance along that line and encouraging the bolt to follow it. This also significantly reduces the voltage necessary to drive the bolt.

(Fry, catgirls! Fry!)