My players just dropped an Ancient Gold Shadow Dragon that I homebrewed into the sun. How do I rule this? How much damage would the dragon be taking every round (24d10)? What damage type are they taking; fire or radiant? If fire, its immune so it will remain trapped in the sun since it does not need to eat, sleep, drink, or breathe.
It deals instant death damage! Sure maybe the corona and chromosphere do fire damage, than you go to the photosphere and probably start to call that radiant damage. If somehow he's immune to that well.. keep in mind there is no "surface" on the sun and as he sinks well.. it's something like almost 4 trillion PSI at the core.. it is generating nuclear fusion after all.
Y'all are out here suggesting the Sun is a ball of fusion powered gas in a void, and not that the sun is a disc of heavenly energies which the sun god rides across the vault of the sky each day.
That being said - if something is in, near, or otherwise suffering damage from the sun then splitting it between fire and radiant would be a good idea. Anything immune to one of those would only take half the total damage. Taking inspiration from the most damaging AOE spells, the max per turn damage of an effect is up around 8d10. I reckon for Being In The Sun you could go ahead and double that up to 8d10 Fire plus 8d10 Radiant per turn. Perhaps add a 30 DC Con save to avoid half the damage, and apply Blinded and Poisoned for a minute if they fail that check - even if they manage to escape the sun in their next turn - to represent the sheer burning radioactive hell you've been through.
Just instant death. Fire, radiant, force. If you want to quantify it as a damage type, you can. You can just as easily say "ignores immunity." In older editions of D&D extreme sources like this could ignore immunity (like a sun in the plane of fire that could burn even its residents).
Do you want realism? Dragon is dead. Do you want D&D extrapolation? "A moon sized creature" does 24d10 on a bite. 64.3 million moons can fit in the sun. Assuming a sun sized creature had a "bite" no other things considered as to what the actual powers of a sun are, you could also gather that 64.3 million times 24d10 would also result in a dead dragon.
My players just dropped an Ancient Gold Shadow Dragon that I homebrewed into the sun. How do I rule this? How much damage would the dragon be taking every round (24d10)? What damage type are they taking; fire or radiant? If fire, its immune so it will remain trapped in the sun since it does not need to eat, sleep, drink, or breathe.
It would take the following damage types:
Fire, Radiant, Crushing (gravity and pressure), it also wouldn't be able to breathe.
I'm sure it would be instantly dead from somehow appearing inside a star.
I don't think this can be made out to damage dice. If I was forced to give a guess, then 100d6 of each damage type.
The gravitational force inside the sun is enough to keep the sun together, as well as keeping entire planets in orbit.
The dragon is dead. Even if it wasn't instantly dead (it's an ancient magical dragon, after all) there is no way without teleportation for the dragon to leave the sun's gravity.
We can safely assume that the players will not be pursuing the dragon to the sun (and if they do, they will get plot damage too).
Plot Damage is basically where it will either kill them or it won't depending on if the plot requires it. If the dragon has a way to escape the sun, then they might live. If they don't, they're dead. Same with the players - if they pursue the dragon to the sun without a plan on how to survive there, then they're dead.
If the dragon has no means by which to teleport out (probably in one round) then it's dead. If it succeeds, it should be disfigured and melted, and blame them for the corruption of its otherwise perfect form, perhaps becoming a more sinister and underhanded villain ,terrified of being sent to the sun again but too prepossessed on revenge to leave them be.
If you don't want it to be simply instant death, I would roll All the Dice.
d20s, d6s and d4s would deal radiant damage; d12s, d10s and d8s would deal force damage.
If a creature was still alive after that, I would roll All the Dice again.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
I would guess Radiant Damage since it is nuclear fusion not actually fire, but your world your rules.
Heat is actual fire.
Fire is just a gas heated to a degree where it starts emiting photons (light).
"When a piece of paper is set on fire with a match, the atoms (mostly carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen) in the chemical compounds in the paper combine with the molecules of oxygen in the atmosphere to produce the chemical compounds carbon dioxide and water and to release heat and light. This is a chemical reaction that we call combustion.
The sun is carrying out a much different process called nuclear fusion. Each second the sun converts 700,000,000 tons of the element hydrogen into 695,000,000 tons of the element helium. This releases energy in the form of gamma rays. The gamma rays are mostly converted to light eventually. This process does not require oxygen. It does require incredibly high temperatures and pressures."
I would guess Radiant Damage since it is nuclear fusion not actually fire, but your world your rules.
Well, the sun is hot (citation needed), and though the cause is thermonuclear fusion and not fire, being 5,778 K (5504.85°C, 9940.73°F) will probably be doing fire damage! Heat metal goes to circa 400-500°C and deals fire damage. I think that radiant damage is supposed to be something more magical than physical, like the opposite to necrotic damage! I think vampires taking radiant damage is more a reflection of their curse than the sun itself!
The physical aspect of being on or in the sun would involve becoming suddenly incredibly hot and also taking a huge amount of crushing force (more than just gravity, you have the force of those atoms all colliding with you under the extreme pressure!). Fire damage and Force damage are probably the main ones, but you'd be taking about a million of each! You could even argue that the force is actually bludgeoning damage, as it is the damage from being pounded by high pressure atoms!
First off, you don't "drop" a Dragon into a star. I don't even know how your char gets into space, and manages to subdue an ancient gold shadow dragon, and create some kind of structure to hold said dragon, but I assume it will have happened.
But it is a suicide maneuver. The forces of gravity pull being exerted on the dragon are also being exerted on the char, and whatever structure surrounding the char. They will be subjected at the same rate of acceleration into the star as the dragon.
The char is also subjected to the same effects as the dragon, and I would assume an ancient gold shadow dragon would have far higher resists than some puny mortal, so the dragon would outlast the char, even though both would be dead from X-rays, gamma rays, and gravitational tidal forces. Radiant damage is a religious effect damage type, and the stars are not gods. There is no radiant damage put out by a star.
I mean, you could, if you're clever. Cast Levitate. You are no longer subject to gravity. The dragon can fly, but not in the vacuum of space. You could "drop" the dragon from some distance from the sun, and it would fall inevitably on an elongated elliptical orbit spiraling closer to the sun, eventually reaching a distance where it would take damage.
Radiant damage is a religious effect damage type, and the stars are not gods. There is no radiant damage put out by a star.
I have to disagree with this part as there are ways to deal Radiant Damage that is not reliant upon gods. Wizards don't use the power of a god to cast Sunbeam for example.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
She/Her Player and Dungeon Master
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
My players just dropped an Ancient Gold Shadow Dragon that I homebrewed into the sun. How do I rule this? How much damage would the dragon be taking every round (24d10)? What damage type are they taking; fire or radiant? If fire, its immune so it will remain trapped in the sun since it does not need to eat, sleep, drink, or breathe.
I would guess Radiant Damage since it is nuclear fusion not actually fire, but your world your rules.
She/Her Player and Dungeon Master
It deals instant death damage! Sure maybe the corona and chromosphere do fire damage, than you go to the photosphere and probably start to call that radiant damage. If somehow he's immune to that well.. keep in mind there is no "surface" on the sun and as he sinks well.. it's something like almost 4 trillion PSI at the core.. it is generating nuclear fusion after all.
dmg immunity isn't gonna help when you go squish
Y'all are out here suggesting the Sun is a ball of fusion powered gas in a void, and not that the sun is a disc of heavenly energies which the sun god rides across the vault of the sky each day.
That being said - if something is in, near, or otherwise suffering damage from the sun then splitting it between fire and radiant would be a good idea. Anything immune to one of those would only take half the total damage. Taking inspiration from the most damaging AOE spells, the max per turn damage of an effect is up around 8d10. I reckon for Being In The Sun you could go ahead and double that up to 8d10 Fire plus 8d10 Radiant per turn. Perhaps add a 30 DC Con save to avoid half the damage, and apply Blinded and Poisoned for a minute if they fail that check - even if they manage to escape the sun in their next turn - to represent the sheer burning radioactive hell you've been through.
Just instant death. Fire, radiant, force. If you want to quantify it as a damage type, you can. You can just as easily say "ignores immunity." In older editions of D&D extreme sources like this could ignore immunity (like a sun in the plane of fire that could burn even its residents).
Thank you. I'll keep that in mind.
Do you want realism? Dragon is dead. Do you want D&D extrapolation? "A moon sized creature" does 24d10 on a bite. 64.3 million moons can fit in the sun. Assuming a sun sized creature had a "bite" no other things considered as to what the actual powers of a sun are, you could also gather that 64.3 million times 24d10 would also result in a dead dragon.
It would take the following damage types:
Fire, Radiant, Crushing (gravity and pressure), it also wouldn't be able to breathe.
I'm sure it would be instantly dead from somehow appearing inside a star.
I don't think this can be made out to damage dice. If I was forced to give a guess, then 100d6 of each damage type.
Altrazin Aghanes - Wizard/Fighter
Varpulis Windhowl - Fighter
Skolson Demjon - Cleric/Fighter
Heat is actual fire.
Fire is just a gas heated to a degree where it starts emiting photons (light).
Altrazin Aghanes - Wizard/Fighter
Varpulis Windhowl - Fighter
Skolson Demjon - Cleric/Fighter
Before you decide the damage you should probably work out how often your players are doing this… how does one throw a huge dragon into the Sun?
The gravitational force inside the sun is enough to keep the sun together, as well as keeping entire planets in orbit.
The dragon is dead. Even if it wasn't instantly dead (it's an ancient magical dragon, after all) there is no way without teleportation for the dragon to leave the sun's gravity.
The sun deals Plot Damage.
We can safely assume that the players will not be pursuing the dragon to the sun (and if they do, they will get plot damage too).
Plot Damage is basically where it will either kill them or it won't depending on if the plot requires it. If the dragon has a way to escape the sun, then they might live. If they don't, they're dead. Same with the players - if they pursue the dragon to the sun without a plan on how to survive there, then they're dead.
If the dragon has no means by which to teleport out (probably in one round) then it's dead. If it succeeds, it should be disfigured and melted, and blame them for the corruption of its otherwise perfect form, perhaps becoming a more sinister and underhanded villain ,terrified of being sent to the sun again but too prepossessed on revenge to leave them be.
Make your Artificer work with any other class with 174 Multiclassing Feats for your Artificer Multiclass Character!
DM's Guild Releases on This Thread Or check them all out on DMs Guild!
DrivethruRPG Releases on This Thread - latest release: My Character is a Werewolf: balanced rules for Lycanthropy!
I have started discussing/reviewing 3rd party D&D content on Substack - stay tuned for semi-regular posts!
If you don't want it to be simply instant death, I would roll All the Dice.
d20s, d6s and d4s would deal radiant damage; d12s, d10s and d8s would deal force damage.
If a creature was still alive after that, I would roll All the Dice again.
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
You could even throw in some lightning damage, since the sun is electrically charged plasma. But I think radiant damage will do.
I think even a player who stays out in the sun too long should make a Con save or take 1 radiant (sunburn) damage.
"When a piece of paper is set on fire with a match, the atoms (mostly carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen) in the chemical compounds in the paper combine with the molecules of oxygen in the atmosphere to produce the chemical compounds carbon dioxide and water and to release heat and light. This is a chemical reaction that we call combustion.
The sun is carrying out a much different process called nuclear fusion. Each second the sun converts 700,000,000 tons of the element hydrogen into 695,000,000 tons of the element helium. This releases energy in the form of gamma rays. The gamma rays are mostly converted to light eventually. This process does not require oxygen. It does require incredibly high temperatures and pressures."
- Some Physicist Online.
She/Her Player and Dungeon Master
Also, the spells Sunbeam and Sunburst do Radiant Damage and Vampires take Radiant Damage when exposed to sunlight so there is that.
She/Her Player and Dungeon Master
Well, the sun is hot (citation needed), and though the cause is thermonuclear fusion and not fire, being 5,778 K (5504.85°C, 9940.73°F) will probably be doing fire damage! Heat metal goes to circa 400-500°C and deals fire damage. I think that radiant damage is supposed to be something more magical than physical, like the opposite to necrotic damage! I think vampires taking radiant damage is more a reflection of their curse than the sun itself!
The physical aspect of being on or in the sun would involve becoming suddenly incredibly hot and also taking a huge amount of crushing force (more than just gravity, you have the force of those atoms all colliding with you under the extreme pressure!). Fire damage and Force damage are probably the main ones, but you'd be taking about a million of each! You could even argue that the force is actually bludgeoning damage, as it is the damage from being pounded by high pressure atoms!
Make your Artificer work with any other class with 174 Multiclassing Feats for your Artificer Multiclass Character!
DM's Guild Releases on This Thread Or check them all out on DMs Guild!
DrivethruRPG Releases on This Thread - latest release: My Character is a Werewolf: balanced rules for Lycanthropy!
I have started discussing/reviewing 3rd party D&D content on Substack - stay tuned for semi-regular posts!
I meant a player character. But also, do wear sunscreen if you play D&D at the beach.
I mean, you could, if you're clever. Cast Levitate. You are no longer subject to gravity. The dragon can fly, but not in the vacuum of space. You could "drop" the dragon from some distance from the sun, and it would fall inevitably on an elongated elliptical orbit spiraling closer to the sun, eventually reaching a distance where it would take damage.
I have to disagree with this part as there are ways to deal Radiant Damage that is not reliant upon gods. Wizards don't use the power of a god to cast Sunbeam for example.
She/Her Player and Dungeon Master