Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Burning Oil - how do you handle it?


Without biasing the question (and yes, I know however I handle it is fine), how do you as a DM handle players using burning oil?

Is it just regular old lamp oil or something special?  Does it have an area?  How long does it burn?  How much damage?  Roll to hit?  Saving throw?

I'm just really curious to hear how others do or have done it.  It's such a staple of the genre, I'd love to get everyone's different perspective.

At the end, I'll tell you how I do it.

Thanks!

4 comments:

Roger G-S said...

Regular oil Molotov - 1d6 on direct hit and break, 1 point splash damage within 3 feet, the old 1d6 foot windage in d8 direction on a miss. The container has a chance of breaking on d6, modified up and down for hard or soft surfaces, which the player can more or less set by choosing and preparing a container, but then has to abide by when the oil is carried in equipment.

There may be greek fire which burns longer and hotter and sticks harder, but that's rare, alchemical, and a good money drain for mid levels.

Unknown said...

Regular lamp oil. As a weapon it is useless.

Jarrah said...

While, as Eric pointed out, regular old lamp oil would be useless, I figure the oil that my PCs buy specifically for setting fire to things is something special - cinematic oil, if you will :p

Roll to hit AC 5 (ascending AC) to target the correct square. 1d6 damage on a direct hit and sets the target on fire on a failed save (you can only be set on fire once. Additional oil won't do anything after that). 1 damage to everybody within 5 feet. 1d3 damage to anybody who passes through the flaming square.

Players love this stuff... so I've started rolling to see whether the flasks break when they take falling damage, and had goblins use it on the PCs (to great effect).

Jim said...

As promised, I have the PCs roll to hit the square -- AC 5+(squares distant). 1d6 on hit using small template. Save for half. Burns for two rounds. Will be implementing splash damage and breakage rules (thanks for the ideas!)