Forums of the Megaverse®

The invocation Spell Extinguish Fire from Rifts Ultimate Edition page 200

Can the spell be used to put out the propulsion on a missle?

Question #2:
Can the spell be used to extinguish magical fires?

Can the Spell cancel out the propulsion system on a missile? That is a potentially thorny issue and in most cases I would say no:
1. missiles propulsion systems do not always burn the entire duration; later stages of their flight depend on momentum to carry them to their target. I don't think you might reduce the range of the missile significantly given the speed of missiles (on PB's table) the system might flicker off for less than second as it sails through the radius of effect if it was still in the stage of using its propulsion system.
2. missile speed, IMHO, can make casting this an extremely precise timing required operation if you want to nick it after launch, the SLOWEST Missile (Fire Retardant or Gas-type SRMs) travels at a rate of 293ft/second (and a range of approx. 2500ft). A 15th Level Mage has a range of 220ft to cast the Area of Effect of the spell which is limited to a 40ft diameter, which means precise timing to catch an inflight missile (and this ignores #1) with the spell as a defensive action casting.
3. the only way I see the spell impacting a missile propulsion system is if the area effect was in place before launch and the launch platform is w/n that AoE (which is a 40ft diameter zone).

Can the spell be used to extinguish magical fires?
The spell doesn't say it can or cannot influence such fires. So, I would say yes UNLESS the magical fire description specifically says otherwise.

The way the descriptive text reads to me, is that the effect is an instant effect that can be repeated every 15 seconds. So it would be really difficult to catch the missile in the AoE during that instant effect.

Though I can see 15 sec here, 15 sec there, then 15 sec over there for the Effect duration, rather than spell duration reading.

Then there is when using this vs missiles... yes, it will stop the fuel burning. But it will not stop the momentum the missiles already has, it won't stop resignation of the fuel from the casing being hot and won't stop the warhead from going off at the end of the run (unless there is another spell in the area it explodes in).

Apologies but the missile discription.

I meant before it is launched can a mage cast this spell on a missle rack such that the CS soldier tries to fire it and the spell keeps the thruster from burning while on the ground in its missle rack holding thing.

Casting it on a missile rack would require it to be w/n range of the Mage (260ft @ 15th Level including the AoE, closer as the levels go down).

Something else to consider is if the spell will even penetrate a Mega-Damage Structure to work. We know there are spells that don't penetrate MDC armor (and such) in the text (this isn't one of them). So, it is possible that the spell won't penetrate MDC armor/materials and the scenario wasn't even considered by the author/editors leading a (revised for me) No. For all we know the author/editors intended this as just a raw firefighting spell and not a "mess with tech" option (not saying you can't allow it as a house rule/clarification given the ambiguity).

Re-Reading the spell

With a duration of 1 minute per level, it could put out a lot of fire.

Question #1:
Does Radius include serveral floors of a building or just the floor one is one?

Question #2:
With the duration of 1 minute per level, does that mean the caster can move the Area of Effect around?

Q1: I would consider it to work w/n a cyclindical area with the "height" equal to the diameter of the AOE. Now how much goes "up" and "down" is up to you (I'd personally put it at the radius at ground level) extending up and down)

Q2: Nothing indicates the AOE can be moved.

ShadowLogan,

So it is a sort of EXTINGUISH Combustion/Fire ZONE?

As in nothing can start or catch fire in that zone?
The Area of Effect of the spell I mean

That is how I read the spell, though there might be "fires" that the spell doesn't work on.

Sounds like the spell would create a safe zone where fire could not reach or catch fire to anything.

Great if you are a fire fighting crew.

Also, if you want to keep and protect you house from catching fire or such.