[RPG] Would the fire damage from a burning bush lit by Burning Hands still be magical fire damage

damage-typesdnd-5espells

If burning hands is used to set a bush on fire is the damage caused by the burning bush still considered magical damage? What penalties would apply if so?

Best Answer

There is a distinction between magical and nonmagical fire damage.

First, it is explicitly stated in the rules on damage resistance (emphasis mine):

Multiple instances of resistance or vulnerability that affect the same damage type count as only one instance. For example, if a creature has resistance to fire damage as well as resistance to all nonmagical damage, the damage of a nonmagical fire is reduced by half against the creature, not reduced by three-quarters.

Second, it shows up practically in several places. Consider the Armor of Invulnerability:

You have resistance to nonmagical damage while you wear this armor.

While wearing this armor, you would have resistance to fire damage from something like a house fire, but would not have resistance to fire damage from something like a firebolt spell. There is a distinction to be made, as made necessary by this armor, and it is going to be up to the DM what constitutes magical and non magical sources of fire damage. Additionally, the spell gaseous form grants resistance to "nonmagical damage".

This answer goes into greater detail, establishing further a distinction between magical and nonmagical sources of damage.

What about our burning bush?

I will initially say this is up to the DM, because it isn't spelled out clearly, but I will make a case that our bush is probably not burning with magical fire.

To get there we have to ask the question, "What is magical?" This question was asked of Jeremy Crawford often enough that it was answered in some detail in the Sage Advice Compendium. The SAC gives the following definition of magical:

the concentrated magical energy that is contained in a magic item or channeled to create a spell or other focused magical effect.

SAC goes in to give this guidance for determining if something is magical:

Determining whether a game feature is magical is straightforward. Ask yourself these questions about the feature:

  • Is it a magic item?
  • Is it a spell? Or does it let you create the effects of a spell that’s mentioned in its description?
  • Is it a spell attack?
  • Is it fueled by the use of spell slots?
  • Does its description say it’s magical?

So finally, in the case of our burning bush, I make the case that the fire there is no longer "the concentrated magical energy that is contained in a magic item or channeled to create a spell or other focused magical effect", but rather magical fire just lit the bush on fire that is now burning. After all, the fire on the bush is sourced from the bush itself once the burning hands effect is ended.

So we conclude: fire damage from the bush is non magical.