Ignite Fire

==the simple sorcery approach==
pg 16 of Thaumatology: Sorcery simply takes No Wounding on Burning Attack. Despite the lack of direct damage, the incendiary aspect of BA apparently still applies. This avoids the random "roll dice and see how often you get 0s" approach done in brainstorm in below sections.
"target rated from Super-Flammable to Resistant ignites immediately" per B433 is normally something 10 points of damage does. The Incendiary enhancement is what makes a mere 3 points of damage capable of doing it.
The 3 damage is done by the 0.25 for 1 and 0.3 per +1, meaning it costs 0.85 to get 3 dmg instead of 1d.
Sorcery's approach to ignite fire is an AWFUL point deal, because it takes merely +30% in enhancements and -120% in limitations for a net of -90%. It could've taken another +10% enhancements or -10% fewer in limitations.
*having 0.85 x 5 points base cost doesn't really change anyhting, 4.25 rounds up to 5 points, though it's unclear if you round costs up before or after applying modifiers
This differs from normal magic in that it is Vision Based, Reversed requiring the mage to stare. In normal magic, they can ignite fires without looking at the target, but at -5. The way to do that is probable Requires IQ roll w/ Reliable (limited enhancement: sightbased, reversed)
The problem is that buying reliable purely for offsetting a rquires IQ roll (max discount 10) lacks incentive unless you can make the roll worse via Hard to Use, which gives high penalties for low reward. Boosting HTU to -5% per -1 (as Reliable uses, and resembling the Accurate v Inaccurate relationship) works better, it can give a worthwhile discount, and be offset by situational reliability.
Sorcery appears to ignore IQ based skills and using concentrates to attack. Stuff that was a regular spell really ought to be a Malediction so that it can ignore intervening barriers just like ignite fire is capable of.
==Damage==
It's questionable whether this would be capable of inflicting immediate damage AT ALL. Primarily since it does not actually create a flame in and of itself. A flame however can be caused by how it interacts with certain objects. The ACTUAL description of it's function:
:Produces a single spot of heat
The spell is limited to "readily flammable object", which initially sounds vague. There is a stated cutoff point:
#will not affect any item that would not burn in an ordinary fire.
#*B433's Fire Sources lists the maximum damage a "fire of ordinary intensity" can do per full second is 5 (1d-1) so that's the absolute cutoff.
#**when viewed in respect to B433's Making Things Burn it takes 10 points of damage to ignite Resistant things like seasoned wood, clothing, rope and leather. So Ignite Fire should not be capable of INSTANTANEOUSLY making Resistant things catch fire
#***the "prolonged contact" rule however, still should make this possible: if it is "up two categories" (taking 1 per second for 10 seconds) then a roll of 6 or less would make it catch fire . If it's "up one" (taking 3 per second for 10 seconds) then a roll of 16 or less is adequate.
#In particular, it will not set fire to a living being
#*When viewed in respect to B433's Making Things Burn it takes 30 points of damage to ignite Highly Resistant things like flesh or green wood instantaneously. The "prolonged contact" rules would be 10/second (16 or less) or 3/second (6 or less). Based on this, it can be assumed that even the strongest (4 energy) version of Ignite Fire is not capable of inflicting 3 damage.
#**B434's Heat description "Intense Heat: Human skin starts to burn at 160°" would mean Ignite Fire is incapable of creating (or adding up to) that heat, based on that description.
#***science more specifically defines pain @ 111 degrees, 1st-degree burns @118, 2nd-degree @ 131, destroyed @162 (3rd degree?)
==Problem==
The highest (4 energy) version states "Ignites coal in one second, heavy wood in two seconds" which does not aid in understanding how it interacts with rules because:
*coal is not listed in the examples of the six flammability classesBased on the spell and real world references coal would qualify as Resistant.
*wood is defined as paper or dry wood or seasoned wood or green wood : not "light" or "heavy"The closest thing in the real world to this term are heavy hardwoods like oak, maple and cherry but their condition has more to do with how they will burn
*MTB does not include anything like a "2 second guarantee". Fire that doesn't ignite something instantaneously rolls each second until it does, unless it's max isn't capable of success, in which case it is compared to the max of preceding classes to see if it can inflict that much damage for 10 consecutive seconds to generate an "x or less" roll. 
==explaining cumulative seconds with DR and Penetrating Damage==
Given that this pattern is present in other spells (fixed time, not variable by rolling damage per second) an effort could be made to explain this using existing rules. B559 for example:
:repeated burning, corrosion, crushing, cutting, or huge piercing attacks at that same spot reduce DR at that point as if it were ablative
This note is for asterisk items wood (DR never drops below 1) and concrete/brick/stone (never below 3)
*ongoing DR influences how much Penetrating Damage goes by. B433 only specifies "damage" but that it refers to PENETRATING damage could be a pretty reasonable assumption.
**this would weirdly per B558 give thicker wood more initial resistance to catching fire (until DR was ablated down to 1 like 1/2 inch wallboard or 1-inch thick wood wall) which is hard to imagine. What this might reflect is "penetrating" the wood though, in which case the fire would be able to wrap around and "attack from all sides" on a larger surface area, so perhaps it would make sense for that to increase the odds of catching fire
***B559 lists the cover DR of wood as ranging from 0.5 to 1 per inch. The latter matches up with the DRs listed on B558. 
==explaining cumulative seconds with DR and Combustible==
Per B558 wood is combustible thus Fragile, per B136 a HT roll is made when a "major wound" (inflicts >1/2 HP) is inflicted by a burning attack (with fire being automatic if 10 HP is lost) with failure resulting in 1d-1 per second further loss until water immersion. The thresholds are (with notes for B558 upper left Homogenous objects):
*1 damage for 1 HP (>0.5) less than 1/64lb (paper?)
*2 damage for 2-3 HP (>1 or 1.5) (1/64+)
*3 damage for 4-5 HP (>2 or 2.5) (1/8+)
*4 damage for 6-7 HP (>3 or 3.5) (1/2+)
*5 damage for 8-9 HP (>4 or 4.5) (1+)
*6 damage for 10-11 HP (>5 or 5.5) (2+)
*7 damage for 12-13 HP (>6 or 6.6) (3+)
*8 damage for 14-15 HP (>7 or 7.5) (5+)
*9 damage for 16-17 HP (>8 or 8.5) (8+)
18+ HP (11 pounds or more) would then be where the "10 damage" cutoff takes effect. Items of this weight tier all are equally flammable when suffering 10 of injury from fire. Wood that weighs less than 8 pounds catches fire from progressively lower amounts of damage.
How ablated DR would affect this is greater injuries would result as DR went down, getting closer to 10 (or major wound threshold) to cause more HT rolls.
Since this uses injury rather than penetrating damage, things like Vulnerability could also act as a Wound Multiplier on Penetrating Damage to represent more-flammable large objects. x2 for example would only require 5 penetrating damage. Higher HT wood would be more resistant to catching fire (for example green wood) while lower HT wood would be less resistant (for example "dry wood"). HT could reflect the "vitality" of the wood, and perhaps the approximate Flammability Class too, even though that mechanic does not use HT rolls.
One could in theory also define Susceptible or Resistant to catching fire. The former should only be allowed for Combustible creatures, and the latter is useless for non-combustible creatures unless they get hit with Affliction:Disadvantage or Symptoms: Disadvantage.
==synergy==
BOTH mechanics could in theory simultaneously apply, with Combustible things having an extra injury-based mechanic for igniting compared to the standard (penetrating?) damage-based mechanic for it.
==using Last Gasp==
Last Gasp introduces a mechanic where loss of FP would reduce HT. This would make a Combustible creature more likely to fail their HT roll and catch fire. This could assuming some kind of Fatigue Attack component to Ignite Fire.
*Cole's use of progressively penalized HT rolls to see if HP loss accompanies FP loss (rather than the hard shift at 0 FP) also allows for a double-whammy here: not just FP reduction making it hardy to pass HT rolls from high-damage attacks, but also lowering HP like an additional attack. One could even house rule to add "HP lost from FP loss" to the value of whichever attack lowered it (say if a linked Burning+Fatigue) for purposes of determining Major Wound threshold
**another aspect is how in LG, injury can cause AP loss (mitigated by HT roll). Even though a stick of wood doesn't have much use for Action Points, if one rules that one is forced to Burn FP (pun intended) if reduced below 0 FP, then that would also a mechanic to incur FP loss from a Burning Attack without even needing to give it a Fatigue Attack linked to it.
==using dehydration hazard enhancement==
This is an add-on to the above idea
B104's Hazard of Dehydration for Fatigue Attack refers to Chapter 14 rules: B426 covers dehydration.
This more realistically emulates what heat/fire does than a Fatigue Attack alone. It requires water to reverse the FP loss (for example: soaking dry wood in water).
==using Hazard enhancement==
B434's Heat makes a connection: Heat generates HT rolls and failing them results in FP loss. The description does differ from dehydration:
:"You cannot recover FP or HP lost to heat until you move into cooler surroundings.
This is not actually defined as a "Hazard" on B104 but given that Freezing is (presumably referring to Cold rules on B430 which apply "in “normal” freezing, below 35°F for most humans) it might be reasonable to allow it at a similar value. Both emulate hazards which require HT rolls to avoid FP loss, and in Cold's case:
:"Recovery of FP or HP lost to cold requires adequate shelter and a heat source"
**ADDENDUM : the Heat (enhancement) option for Hazard WAS eventually added, see PU4 new notes
The distinction is: water recovers FP lost to dehydration, but can't recover FP lost to heat until it's in a cool area.
B434's overlap is merely that in addition to losing FP on it's own merit (on failed HT rolls) it ALSO increases FP lost to dehydration (and also exertion) which would recover per their own rules.
Using a "Heat" hazard (custom house rule since it's lacking) Fatigue Attack would more accurately emulate the "spot of heat" description than just using a non-modified Innate Attack.
If this was used though, Dehydration would still make sense. Perhaps allow the enhancements to be bought on separate linked Fatigue Attacks: with Ignite Fire both "stealing FP from heat" and "stealing FP from dehydration".
==using INTENSE heat rules==
B434's rules for Intense Heat gives a means of Burning Attack damage which does not result in Penetrating Damage still having consequences:
:Even if no damage penetrates your DR, you will rapidly overheat if the ambient temperature is more than 6 x your comfort zone’s width over your comfort zone
B93 Temperature Tolerance explains humans have width 55 of 35-90. 6x55=330. 90+330=420. This is 260 degrees above the 160 required to "burn" (destroy) human skin, but the contrast is that "ambient temperature" is not "temperature of he skin itself". It requires time for ambient temperatures to transfer that heat energy to the skin over time.
This applies "even if no damage penetrates your DR" which is useful for bypassing the 1DR minimum of wood.
The "HT roll per second" applies "after DRx3 seconds" so humans would begin to roll immediately in ambient heat 421+ while wood would begin to roll after 3 seconds. It is unclear however what zone's width or comfort zone of wood is compared to humans, so it might meet the threshold at less or more than 420 degrees.
The "hard cap" of the Intense Heat rules is probably not realistic: it doesn't distinguish between ambient heats of 421 and 921 for example, even though the latter is twice as hot and would probably heat the skin faster, leading to either penalized HT rolls or 2 FP per second on a failed roll.
It also implies that 419 degrees (329 past comfort) is no worse than 151 (61 past comfort). The rules preceding IH actually don't cover 61-329 at ALL. The way the preceding rules terminate at 150 degrees sort of implies the next tier would be around there (as 160 insinuates) but comfort 55 meaning 6xcomfort = 330 means there's a HUGE gap.
There doesn't seem to be a rule reflecting how raw heat can just cause skin to burn. Probably the best approximation would be if enough FP is lost to cause HP loss, to treat that as HP lost to Burning Injury. Or to come up with some other mechanic for HP loss due to high ambient temperature and treating that as Burning Attack.
Using either approach the rapid per-second FP loss using these rules could emulate how Ignite Fire works: by causing enough ambient heat to first drain FP (heat/dehyration hazards) and then HP which is lost (more granualarly using Cole's excellent rules) uses whichever hits first: failed HT rolls on Major Wounds against Combustible beings, or the pure damage needed to ignite something of a Flammability Class.
There does not appear to be any advantage which actually alters Flammability Class though...
==2nd best==
Getting back to the spell, the 3-energy gives the example:
:Ignites dry firewood or clothes being worn in one second,
:leather in two seconds
This contrast causes some confusion: B433 lists "clothing" and "leather" in the same tier: "Resistant". This implies a greater deal of granularity might be used than merely the six given. Like for example, perhaps "Resistant+1" is for leather requiring 11 damage, or "Resistant-1" is for clothing requiring 9 damage.
Another explanation could simply be the DR, supporting the argument that 433's MTB refers to PENETRATING damage. B283 assigns DR 2 to Leather Armor and only DR 1 to Cloth Armor, for example. Leather helm/ leather gloves on 284 also get 2 compared to 1 for cloth cap / cloth gloves. 283 only defines "Heavy Leather" sleeves/leggings getting DR 2 while leather leggings/pants only get DR 1 same as like Cloth Sleeves.
One distinction (explained below) is the "being worn" caveat. "Clothing not being worn" could be considered "loose cloth" which is perhaps more flammable due to not being able to dissipate heat into the flesh below it, and with 'folds' creating natural heat pockets for eruption.
"Dry firewood" OTOH appears to match up with "dry wood" in the "flammable" category.
==3rd best==
The 2-energy tier distinguishes between "ordinary clothes being worn" (4 seconds) and "loose cloth" (2 seconds). This kind of distinction is not seen on B433 but perhaps relates cloth being worn atop flesh being able to dissipate it's heat into that flesh better, protecting it from fast ignition.
"loose cloth" is equated to "paper" which B433 does classify as "Highly Flammable". The term LOOSE cloth is never actually used on B433 so "clothing" may ONLY refer to "clothing worn on a person" as it is the act of being worn which turns cloth in to clothing.
Cloth should probably still be slightly less flammable than paper though...
A guaranteed ability to ignite something Highly Flammable in 1 second would require one of these approaches:
*another attack (perhaps Fatigue Attack w/ hazard) + Incendiary enhancement
*Burning Attack 0.25 [1] (inflicts 1 burning damage)
*Burning Attack 0.7 or lower (1d-1, or 1d-2 for 0.4, or 1d-3 for 0.1...) if rolling 0 damage it could qualify as "negligible damage" (candle flame) which is still enough to ignite something Super-Flammable ... then you take the Incendiry enhancement per PU4 to move it up 1 class for +10%
*the house rule where HP lost from FP loss due to Heat is classified as burning injury
==4th best==
the 1 energy tier "lights a tinder in one second" which presumably is equivalent to targeting Highly Flammable objects, as "tinder" is listed there as an example.
Requiring 1 energy to light tinder but 2 energy to ignite paper however creates a dichotomy absent on B433 where tinder+paper are classified in the exact same tier (along with alcohol).
This further supports the idea that MTB should have further distinctions.
For example: 1 damage to ignite tinder, 2 damage to ignite paper. This would still keep paper below the 3 damage required for "Flammable" middle tier, which is probably the better spot to have Loose Cloth than to make it only take 1 or 2 damage.
==Notes==
Category:Spells
Category:Fire College