If I am a wind elemental sorcerer in Pathfinder 3.5, how does the fire spells work for me?
I am a Level 3 Wind Elemental Sorcerer and I get Burning Hands, a 1st level spell, as a bonus spell at this level. Burning hands says... A (15 ft.) Cone of Fire (Electricity) shoots from finger tips. Any creature in the area of the Fire (Electricity) takes 1d4 of Fire (Electricity) damage per caster level (Max 5d4).
Okay, this part is easy, I just change it to electricity damage.
Combustible material catch Fire if the the flames touch them. A Character can take a full round action to put out the flames.
Here I have an issue. I am shooting Electricity, which would cause Electrical Damage and might not start a fire. The rules actually say that 1st level Electricity spells rarely cause fires, so what does it actually do? Higher level spells heat up metal either causing them to melt or become so hot that they burn the target character or can catch stuff on fire. Some other electrical spells call for a -4 DC throw when the targeted creature is wearing metal or +3 to hit (Shocking Grasp). This spell hits automatically, so the +3 to hit cannot be substituted here. There is a Reflex save throw of (10 + Spell Level + Caster Level) to reduce the damage by 1/2, which could increase +4 for targets wearing metal, but this seems hardly fair since the fire can cause the target to lose a turn while it puts it out or could also cause additional fire damage every round if it is not extinguish. So, the question is how would this spell actually work with electricity instead of fire? Would the target have to drop all metal or take burning damage? Would the save throw also be increased the additional +4 if they are wearing metal? Should I just ignore the rule and catch stuff on fire even if it is Electricity and not Fire?