Area of Firestorm: Clarification wanted

Leopold

NKL4LYFE

• Mar 19, 2004

• #1

Ok this spell has become a major pain in my royal ass. The basic dimensions of this are a 10' Cube per level. Now this is how I ruled it as:

You can make a shape that has to be rectangular, square, or cube like and then positioin it like a fireball.

This makes the PC have to say: " I make a firestorm 100' long by 10' high by 10' deep" or "10' long 10' wide 100' high" or some such demension, although it must be roughy cubish.

Am i off on this or is this spell horribly warped to make it be 10' cubes scattered all over the board?

 

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Dwarmaj

First Post

• Mar 19, 2004

• #2

The spell says "shapeable". You can have two 10' cubes per level and they must be contiguous. The area convered doesn't need to be "cubic" or "rectangular". They could have a big "S".

 

MerakSpielman

First Post

• Mar 19, 2004

• #3

Or like this (with you in the 5' square in the middle, unharmed):

 

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Pielorinho

Iron Fist of Pelor

• Mar 19, 2004

• #4

Yep -- it's a nasty spell.

I once had an NPC using a spell from R&R2 called "Hail of Arrows" or something, basically a 4th-level firestorm variant that used arrows instead of fire to do its damage. Darn near killed the entire party of PCs, and if he'd cast it a second time, I would've been looking at a TPK. Instead, he cast dispel magic on the flying sorcerer -- not necessarily his best offensive move, but mightily effective as a defensive move .

Daniel

 

Leopold

NKL4LYFE

• Mar 19, 2004

• #5

Dwarmaj said:

The spell says "shapeable". You can have two 10' cubes per level and they must be contiguous. The area convered doesn't need to be "cubic" or "rectangular". They could have a big "S".

Click to expand...

this is a horribly written and crappy spell. This makes it a roving fireball!

 

MerakSpielman

First Post

• Mar 19, 2004

• #6

If it's so crappy, don't use it.

 

Pielorinho

Iron Fist of Pelor

• Mar 19, 2004

• #7

Oh, yeah -- in a session this winter, I finally got to use Firestorm (as a DM). The shapeability of it is really what makes it so nasty, compared to spells like Fireball.

With fireball and other spells, you usually can get one good shot off before the enemy closes to melee range, and while this softens them up a great deal, it won't normally kill all of them.

But with firestorm, you can cast it even after the enemy has closed, shaping it carefully to exclude your allies while hitting most of the enemy. Two castings of it will reduce most equal-character-level PCs from full hit points to zero hit points (doing 7 points of damage/level on average, assuming they fail their saves); this is very, very nasty.

Then again, it's a seventh-level spell; it SHOULD be nasty.
Daniel

 

Plane Sailing

Astral Admin - Mwahahaha!

• Mar 19, 2004

• #8

It seems considerably more valuable that delayed blast fireball, I can say that for certain!

 

Pielorinho

Iron Fist of Pelor

• Mar 19, 2004

• #9

Leopold said:

this is a horribly written and crappy spell. This makes it a roving fireball!

Click to expand...

Roving? Huh? Its effect is instantaneous; there's no roving involved. Horribly written? Huh? Its effect seems crystal clear to me. Crappy? Not if you're the one casting it .

Comparing it to other 7th-level damage spells -- creeping doom, acid fog, prismatic spray, delayed blast fireball,summon nature's ally VII (greater fire elemental), and the like -- it seems perfectly reasonable to me.

Daniel

 

MerakSpielman

First Post

• Mar 19, 2004

• #10

Out of curiosity, what are good uses for delayed blast fireball? I've never seen fit to want to hurt enemies a specific number of rounds in the future. I like the higher damage cap is good, but the delay?

 

Last edited: Mar 19, 2004