Does Burning Hands set creatures on fire?

[Dorduum]

Although I think the spell description implies it may be possible, it's not explicitly mentioned and so I thought I'd post the question here (I'm a returning member). Any help would be much appreciated!

 

[werk]

Yeah, that's much like the text in fireball too. Any flammable materials exposed catch fire.

The neat things is that the sage told me that text doesn't get altered with energy substitution feat, so you can cast an Iceball or Freezing Hands that...sets flammable materials on fire.

Up to the DM, extra bookkeeping if you ask me.

 

[pawsplay]

No. Things burn, they do not catch fire. Ordinarily, instantaneous effects do not cause things to catch fire.


Characters exposed to burning oil, bonfires, and noninstantaneous magic fires might find their clothes, hair, or equipment on fire. Spells with an instantaneous duration don’t normally set a character on fire, since the heat and flame from these come and go in a flash.

 

[Aaron L]

I imagine if you hit a big sheet of paper with burning hands, it would catch on fire.

Or curtains.

Or hair.

Or puppies.

 

[starwed]

I think that, RAW, it does not catch creatures on fire. Flesh is not flammable, and it's the flesh which has to catch on fire to do the big damage, not just the clothing/fur/etc.

That said, it's a pretty common house rule to let it catch them on fire anyway. (Was it a benefit in previous editions, maybe?) It makes the spell quite good at low levels, but probably doesn't matter much later on.

 

[Dorduum]

No. Things burn, they do not catch fire. Ordinarily, instantaneous effects do not cause things to catch fire.


Characters exposed to burning oil, bonfires, and noninstantaneous magic fires might find their clothes, hair, or equipment on fire. Spells with an instantaneous duration don’t normally set a character on fire, since the heat and flame from these come and go in a flash.

See that's the part that confused me. The duration of the spell is "instantaneous", but clearly it's "non-instantaneous" enough to ignite flammable objects (such as foliage or the paper curtain). So the flash of heat and flame clearly has the potential to ignite flammable objects. If these are unattended objects, it's a no-brainer. But what about objects held by a PC? Or, for that matter, their clothing?

I don't know if I totally agree with this line of reasoning or not, but I am playing a fire specialist (evoker) and I can foresee the issue coming up over a career of using fire spells.

 

[Drowbane]

So, what did your DM say?

Quite simply, no. By RAW, Burning Hands (even a mighty CL 5 from a lvl 2 Wizard! ) does not set things on fire. It could be described as doing so... but that would be purely flavor and wouldn't cause further damage unless your DM wanders in House Rule territory and states otherwise.

IMC, trolls are flammable... but they also rage when presented with fire. YMMV.

"Light a man a fire and keep him warm for a night... light a man on fire and keep him warm for the rest of his life!"

 

[Dorduum]

Alright... so does that mean I can use this spell in a forest without starting a forest fire? That was one of my concerns...

Drowbane has a good point (and is in my group!) and my DM has final say. I was just curious to get an informed opinion before talking it over with him (since my DM and I are not rules-masters... oh hush, Drowbane. )

 

[pawsplay]

It is my opinion, that as written, burning hands burns paper and cloth, and is done burning in less than 6 seconds. No catching fire. Just "burning" (taking damage from fire, also, becoming more burnt, such as a written page being no longer legible).

 

[Drowbane]

That burning hands was insane... 1pt off max damage. The bugs didn't stand a chance.

edit: Oh, and congrats on finally joining the Boards!