Probably 4 stupid questions, but I'm going to ask it anyway

[ShadowHawk]

The spell extinguish fire...
1. Is it's area of effect spherical, a cone, or simply flat?
2. Can it be moved once cast in an area? I assume so, since the rules of the spell state "an area of 40 ft can be extinguished every 15 seconds. So, it's basically slow to move.
3. If it is flat, can it be cast in the air to put out fire arrows, fire balls, etc?
4. Is the duration just the time it will take for an area touched by it to recatch on fire?

[drewkitty ~..~]

You bring up one spell that is written in a way that is loose enough to let players describe their use of the spell as if they were role-playing instead of roll-playing.

[kiralon]

The spell extinguish fire...
1. Is it's area of effect spherical, a cone, or simply flat?
2. Can it be moved once cast in an area? I assume so, since the rules of the spell state "an area of 40 ft can be extinguished every 15 seconds. So, it's basically slow to move.
3. If it is flat, can it be cast in the air to put out fire arrows, fire balls, etc?
4. Is the duration just the time it will take for an area touched by it to recatch on fire?

1 spherical
2 not moved but be can retargeted (eg wherever the mage looks 20ft radius from that spot gets put out).
3 radius is sphere, so 20ft from the original casting point up down left right etc.
4 nope dm has to decide that, duration is how long the wizard can keep doing spell for.

another question is does it make the area nice and cool, or just get rid of the flames.

[Prysus]

The spell extinguish fire...

Greetings and Salutations. drewkitty_~..~ is right in the fact it's vague and you (or the G.M.) can rule many ways. With that said, I'll do my best to answer your questions (using information provided within the book, as well as extrapolating from what I feel the books means).

1. Is it's area of effect spherical, a cone, or simply flat?

What the book tells us is that it's a "20 foot (6 m) radius" that can be extinguished. To me, this would say spherical. Because the spell is at the center point, and it can stretch up to 20 feet in every direction (and that makes a sphere). In my personal opinion though, fire tends to cling to stuff (such as floors, walls, ceilings, etc.) As such, when cast it'll probably be cast on the object (the floor, for example) and you'd more likely only see a more dome shape (as the other half of the sphere would be underground and not seen).

With that said, in theory it could be other shapes. Though I think a G.M. would be a jerk to rule it had a flat circle shape only (this would make it nearly useless by the way), if the player of the caster wanted to make it a smaller and more limited shape (let's say a 20 foot radius base, and a 20 foot tip for a cone shape) I'd probably allow it. I'd say that a 20 foot radius (40 foot diameter sphere) is the maximum, though a caster could choose to make it smaller and/or a different shape they can (as long as it remains within the 40 foot diameter limit).

2. Can it be moved once cast in an area? I assume so, since the rules of the spell state "an area of 40 ft can be extinguished every 15 seconds. So, it's basically slow to move.

I think this is just the limits of the spell. The spell has a duration, and during the duration the caster can move the target. So, for example, your mage is stuck in a burning building. You need to get two rooms away, but both doorways are covered in flames. So you use Extinguish Fire to remove the flames from the first doorway. It'll take a full 15 seconds for the spell to extinguish the flames in a 40 foot (20 foot radius or the spell) area. So your mage runs through once the flames are clear. So now he's in the room and he targets the next doorway and puts out those flames (with no new casting or P.P.E. expenditure, this is just the same spell he already cast). Continue until the spell runs out.

Now it does say "40 feet" (which is equal to the radius, for a reminder) can be put out every 15 seconds. As an individual, I'd say you can put out one larger (40 foot) area with the spell in 15 seconds, or you can put out several smaller fires (say, 4 fires only 10 feet each) within that time. So a small fire would be put out much faster. So this helps you adjust depending on the situation (put out one big fire, or a lot of smaller fires). For small fires, I'd say you're still limited to only 40 feet max, but you're also limited the number of times you can move it by the number of attacks per melee you have as well.

3. If it is flat, can it be cast in the air to put out fire arrows, fire balls, etc?

Interesting question. I'd definitely say it's a G.M.'s call. Because while the spell does extinguish flames, it also does so over a 15 second period, so the projectiles might be moving too fast to be full extinguished. With that said, I'd probably allow it (at least for the fire arrows, and maybe for the fire ball or at least a damage reduction on the fire ball as a partial but not complete extinguishing). This is, of course, if you already had the spell up in the area the projectiles were moving. Otherwise, probably too fast moving to put the spell up in time (I mean, arrows and fire balls have a -10 to dodge ... I think casting a spell or redirecting a currently active one would be at least that difficult, if not more so).

Note: As to the Fire Ball, abilities such as Extinguish Fire (a low level spell) often don't work on magical fires. No such limit is listed within the spell itself, but it is a common limit to such abilities (and I can also see a G.M. ruling it doesn't work on magic fire ... but that's totally a personal call).

4. Is the duration just the time it will take for an area touched by it to recatch on fire?

A G.M. might rule that way, and say that since it was magically extinguished at the end of the duration the flames automatically start back up again. Though I don't (personally) believe that was the intent. The duration, in my opinion, is to say how long the mage can continue to use the spell in new areas without recasting it. See the answer to #2 for more details.

However, you can also look at the Pyrokinesis super psionic on page 178 of the PF2 main book. Power #4 is "Extinguish Flames." Different to some degree, but I think you can see why it would be considered similar as well and worth looking at. There we see the duration as "Permanent until set on fire again." Now, you could rule that since the durations are listed different, that things will magically catch on fire again after the spell wears off. However, I believe this is again a simple matter of the Psionic being 1 per use, while the Spell can be used multiple times within that time range. Part of my reason for believing this is the difference is that the spell mentions how 40 feet (which amounts to the radius) can be put out every 15 seconds. This last line wouldn't make much sense (to me) unless it can be reused multiple times with a single casting.

So, with the spell, I'd say you can extinguish 40 feet (max area) every 15 seconds for the duration of the spell. Any fires put out in that time remain out until lit again (either by a spreading fire, or someone's handiwork).

Anyways, that's my thoughts on the matter (and detailed out the best I can). Hope that helps. Farewell and safe journeys to all.[/justify]

[pblackcrow]

Kiralon, your question has started some interesting discussions at the game masters table. Nice job! You have got all of us thinking in 3D terms. Cheers for that, mate!