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    Talakeal's Avatar

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    Default Giants and blowing out fires

    A bit of an odd question, but something that came up several times in my last game in which a pyromancer frequently battled giant monsters.

    How would I go about calculating how large a given creature would have to be to blow out a fire of a given size and intensity?

    Thanks!
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    AssassinGuy

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    Default Re: Giants and blowing out fires

    Uhhhh... once a fire gets to a certain point, blowing on it is only going to make it burn bigger and hotter, as a rule. Fire needs Heat, Fuel and Oxygen (in this case) to burn. Heat comes from the fire, and in any case where a fire scales to "giant" size, its almost certainly got all the fuel it needs. So O2 is going to be the limiting factor.
    Last edited by Keltest; 2021-06-28 at 03:11 PM.
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    Talakeal's Avatar

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    Default Re: Giants and blowing out fires

    Quote Originally Posted by Keltest View Post
    Uhhhh... once a fire gets to a certain point, blowing on it is only going to make it burn bigger and hotter, as a rule. Fire needs Heat, Fuel and Oxygen (in this case) to burn. Heat comes from the fire, and in any case where a fire scales to "giant" size, its almost certainly got all the fuel it needs. So O2 is going to be the limiting factor.
    Ok, but do you have any idea how I can figure out the point at which that happens?

    In my particular case, the fires themselves aren't typically giant; rather we would have a campfire or bonfire being blown out by a dragon or giant.
    Last edited by Talakeal; 2021-06-28 at 05:10 PM.
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    Default Re: Giants and blowing out fires

    Quote Originally Posted by Talakeal View Post
    Ok, but do you have any idea how I can figure out the point at which that happens?

    In my particular case, the fires themselves aren't typically giant; rather we would have a campfire or bonfire being blown out by a dragon or giant.
    At a guess I'd say neither. Fire, once going, is very hard to blow out. A very low campfire maybe, but anything burning at all substantially, probably not. If they've got heavy boots, or are fire giants and just don't care, a giant stomping on the fire is almost certainly going to do much, much more to smother it than them huffing and puffing away.

    If you want to worry about the giants, dragons, whatever else putting the fire out, worry about them peeing on it. A large giant probably has a capacity of at least a gallon and quite possibly several, which will at the very least do a number on most campfires. Probably not your larger bonfires - and getting close enough to try seems like it would be rather uncomfortable, particularly for the lady giants. As an aside, the smell produced by peeing on a fire is legit horrible.
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    Kobold

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    Default Re: Giants and blowing out fires

    Also giants could stomp on the fire and thus put it out of oxygen and possibility to burn, this should probably connect to some kind of damage, but usually would be mostly negligent for giant monster, like 1d6, of course smart monster could throw some stone or something to get the same effect with ought damage.
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    Default Re: Giants and blowing out fires

    Even typical human boots are enough to enable stomping out a typical campfire. A giant should have no problem whatsoever.
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    Default Re: Giants and blowing out fires

    You could always just say their lungs draw more oxygen from the air and replace it with higher concentrations of CO2. They don't blow out fires; they smother them.
    Of course, usually fires of that size could restart themselves from their embers. Perhaps their breath also knocks over the fire?
    That's all I can think of, at any rate.

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    Default Re: Giants and blowing out fires

    A giant creature bmowing on a campfire could also scatter it which kinds of put it out while at the same time doesn't at all.
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    Default Re: Giants and blowing out fires

    The math comes down to how quickly does the wind take the heat away from the fire vs how quickly the fire is generating heat. In the real world, the oxygen in the wind generally speeds the oxidation rate of the fire, increasing the generation of heat faster than the air flow can take it away.

    A giant breathing on the flames will presumably be exhaling moist air, and water is really good at absorbing heat. The air breathed out will also presumably have a lower oxygen percentage than the regular air the fire is burning in. Moving air tends to drag more air along with it (induction), so there's also the question of air mixing.

    So a giant blowing on a campfire has a much better chance of blowing it out than, say, an electric fan would (which would generally not be effective at all), but the math is not simple. It's not unsolvable, mind you, but it's not simple.
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