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How much damage does lava do?
On contact?
On submersion?
I know being in hot temperatures for long periods of time invokes levels of exhaustion. But the DM's guide appears to neglect damage for lava, but it does specify damage for "falling" etc.
During the session last night I chose 10d6 for submersion for level 5 characters and that worked for the moment, but now I'm researching what the damage should have been.
I would say it would be a based on the Improvising Damage chart on page 249 of the DMG, which says you take this much damage per round:
10d10 …, wading through a lava stream
18d10 Being submerged in lava, ...
That sounds really nasty actually...
For contact and using the same chart, I would probably default to 1d10 (burned by coals on the chart), or possibly 2d10 (stumbling into a fire pit) if a hand/foot was immersed briefly.
This actually comes up in Princes of the Apocalypse, so if you don't mind using something from the adventure it contains the following:
Lava. A creature takes 6d10 fire damage when it enters lava for the first time on a turn or when it ends its turn there.
Do keep in mind that this adventure is based on the Elements, and the lava may or may not be enhanced by the presence of Elemental Evil. It's also in an area that should be visited by characters of the third tier of play, and would be almost suicidally dangerous for a party of 5th level characters.
That being said, it's pretty steep damage, especially for not getting anything resembling a save, but lava is hot after all.
* unless you are immune to fire
From lava rules pdf, which is an Open GL licensed "comprehensive guide for lava, magma, and super-heated rock." It accounts for felsic lava, andesitic lava, and even well-formed phenocrysts within mafic lavas.
Not just terrifying like you could take a lot of damage. Terrifying like it's a non-survivable force of nature.
In Tomb of Annihilation, lava does the following damage:
Any creature that falls into the lava or starts its turn there takes 55 (10d10) fire damage. Any object that falls into the lava takes damage on initial contact and once per round thereafter until it is removed from the lava or destroyed.
Humans are pretty much water. They have a density of 1 ton per m³. Lava on the other hand has a density of more than 3 tons per m³. You'd not sink... you'd stand on the surface of the lava and get turned into burning charcoal from the feet upwards? No, your skin gets vaporized and charred even before you touch the lava... It's an agonizing and horrible death.
Of course, the Dungeon master's guide offers damage on page 249:
10d10 / round wading through a lava stream
18d10 / round Being submerged in lava
Which needs some correction and then still can stand: simply replace the wading through with walking over (since you don't even make a depression in the surface), and make the latter being doused with Lava.
Oh, if you get in a lava shower, remember that that stuff is heavy. So it would be fair to add some bludgeoning damage from the impact of the molten rock to the body - which sounds about like a collapsing roof (DMG page 122, example trap) for 4d10 bludgeoning damage atop of the 18d10 heat damage from just having been doused in molten rock.
Oh, and for the record: the very same damage also would apply to molten metals.
