(PF) Brown Mold

[urbanwolf]

Does Brown mold put out fires that cause it to double in size and do you have to target each square of mold separate with cold spells like ray of frost

[jmelesky]

From the SRD:

Brown mold feeds on warmth, drawing heat from anything around it. It normally comes in patches 5 feet in diameter, and the temperature is always cold in a 30-foot radius around it. Living creatures within 5 feet of it take 3d6 points of nonlethal cold damage. Fire brought within 5 feet of brown mold causes the mold to instantly double in size. Cold damage, such as from a cone of cold, instantly destroys it.

Does Brown mold put out fires that cause it to double in size

From the short description, it doesn't say anything about extinguishing, which means "no".

and do you have to target each square of mold separate with cold spells like ray of frost

This is trickier. According to a strict RAW, i'd say hitting it once is enough -- cold damage "instantly destroys it", and the mold doesn't reproduce or split or bud or anything, it doubles in size.

That said, i wonder if RAI is that you hit each 5ft square, which would explain why you'd use an area effect (cone of cold) on an otherwise straightforward attack.

[Ravens_cry]

What would happen if you put a brown mould in the Elemental Plane of Fire?
Besides make a bunch of efreet Awful Mad, I mean.

[The Random NPC]

From the SRD:




From the short description, it doesn't say anything about extinguishing, which means "no".



This is trickier. According to a strict RAW, i'd say hitting it once is enough -- cold damage "instantly destroys it", and the mold doesn't reproduce or split or bud or anything, it doubles in size.

That said, i wonder if RAI is that you hit each 5ft square, which would explain why you'd use an area effect (cone of cold) on an otherwise straightforward attack.

I would say that it does extinguish the fire, otherwise you run into the problem of the brown mold still being in contact with the fire and therefor instantly doubling in size. And look, it's still in contact with the fire, so it doubles in size again. And again, until it no longer is in contact with the fire. But it doubles in size instantly so no time can pass, so the brown mold fills the universe. And then spreads to other planes by passing thought open portals or catching a ride from the fleeing populace.

[MukkTB]

RAI Brown mold puts out the fire that causes it to grow and each square must be killed individually.

RAW Brown mold instantly goes to an infinite size but taking 1 damage of cold anywhere kills it. Actually what would happen is it would explode everywhere instantly and probably take a cold damage somewhere at which point it would disappear. Stupid RAW.

[ericgrau]

I don't think it doubles more than once even with repeat application of fire. I assumed it merely swelled.

Since it feeds on warmth I imagine bringing it to the elemental plane of fire would cause a mold to spread like a food-eating mold and the local exterminators would come to destroy it.

[lorddrake]

I don't think it doubles more than once even with repeat application of fire. I assumed it merely swelled.

Since it feeds on warmth I imagine bringing it to the elemental plane of fire would cause a mold to spread like a food-eating mold and the local exterminators would come to destroy it.

With cold damage? In the plane of fire?

[ericgrau]

I didn't say it was easy, but their mages can still learn cold spells. Oddly enough they aren't even impeded on the plane, only water spells are. The denizens might also develop a specialized fungicide, who knows.

[Dimers]

At the risk of bringing physics into a game ... fire needs a certain minimum heat to keep burning, and the mold removes all heat from its surroundings. The faster and larger the mold expands, the less a fire would be able to stay.

My opinion: brown mold would put out nonmagical fires instantly. Magical fires don't necessarily need heat, so they'd get some kind of opposed check (maybe a caster level check for their creator's level) to keep burning.

It would make perfect sense for enforcers, thugs and soldiers on the Elemental Plane of Fire to learn cold/ice spells. Almost everything there is vulnerable to them.

[urbanwolf]

Thanks for all the input
I went with outs fires out and had it double in size for each new source of fire

I was going to use target each square separate, but changed my mind after the amount it grew; it would have tanking days to get rid if it and slowed down the game to much.

It was actually very interesting. None of the PC made the knowledge check and they experimented with different ways to get rid of it.

After the torches they where using cause it to expand they used Burning hand(lol) then the retreated. Came back and threw some Acid flasks on it. So I had to come up with vitals for it, gave it 8 Hit points per 5 feet and an AC 5 to hit a square(same as aiming for the ground) they ran out of acid and switched to Acid Orb but they worried it was taking to long and that the Koblod would get away, so the Sorc tried a Elemental lightning ray, I ruled that as being a heat source, but although I gave them a bit of a hint

"The bolt of energy fly's from you cold hands, the temperature of the room falls even lower as the mold expands once again"

So after a bit more talking they try a ray of cold, and victory.

I think I actually found something none of my players knew about
kinda a good feeling as a DM

[The Random NPC]

Does anyone else think that it is deeply unintuitive for the thing that creates cold to be killed by cold?

It seems to be at first, but if you think about it, it isn't. You see Brown Mold feeds on heat, and because of the that the ambient temperature is colder than without the mold. Things that need heat to survive tend to be very vulnerable to the cold.

[Bhaakon]

As a general rule in D&D monsters do not generate the thing that kills them! Thus it runs counter to all the other monsters in the game.

I assume that most (living, breathing) creatures can suffocate on the CO2 they generate if left in a sealed space long enough, though I don't know if that's RAW.

[Machinekng]

Yes I understand the 'logic', but in D&D things that live in hot environments tend to have fire immunity/resistance, and things that live in cold environments tend to have cold resistance/immunity.

As a general rule in D&D monsters do not generate the thing that kills them! Thus it runs counter to all the other monsters in the game.

To be a bit picky, 'cold' doesn't exist. Cold is merely the abscence of heat. Brown Mold does not generate cold, but rather absorbs heat, creating an abscene of heat, which we call cold.

[georgie_leech]

Oh, my bad, I thought I was posting in the D&D 3.5 forums.

Look, if you want to get picky about it, which it seems that people do, cold most certainly does 'exist', because it is measurable. I can get an instrument (its called a thermometer) that can tell me that one thing is colder than another, and by how much. If you disagree then you have to chuck out every other thing which is relative to something else. Things like colours, wealth, speed and even time and space go right out the window. You may feel like you're arguing from a 'scientific point of view', but in fact if carried to its logical conclusion you have no science left to stand on.

The world is filled (oops, a metaphor) with abstract concepts. If you insist on strictly literal interpretations for everything you will be unable to function in society.

Hello, welcome to the world of relativity aqnd quantum mechanics, where, depending on which frame of reference you use, none of the above exists.

But for a more common sense reason why heat exists but cold doesn't:

Absolute Zero (roughly -273.15 degrees Celsius) is the absolute lowest temperature you can get, having no "heat," or thermal energy, whatsoever. If "cold" as anything besides the absence of heat existed, you could get to a lower temperature by adding more "cold." I've never seen a D&D spell or feat or anything that implies "cold" exists. Ice? Sure. Moving heat around? Sure. "Cold?" Not so much.