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General Tabletop Discussion
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As a DM, do you let PCs precisely "place" areas of effect for spells?
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<blockquote data-quote="Elder-Basilisk" data-source="post: 849995" data-attributes="member: 3146"><p>Yes. If I wanted to be a jerk about it, I'd have the players bring a template for area effect spells and give them three seconds to place the template where the fireball would be (six seconds if they want to take a full round action. But I don't want to be that way.</p><p></p><p>As I see it, if I force PCs to target imprecisely (and doing that would be somewhat difficult--would I place roll a d8 and say "7-8 you overshoot the target by 2d6 feet, 3-6 on target, 1-2 it's short 2d6 feet", would they make an int check, if I went with the int check, would avoiding two friends who are ten feet apart be harder or easier than avoiding two friends who are next to each other, etc, etc) I would have to either invent new mechanics to simulate imprecision (thus changing the balance of the current rules which do not seem to be balanced on the assumption that wizards will regularly miss with their fireballs) or create imprecision by making arbitrary, ad hoc rulings "Mialee, I don't care if you did it yesterday without hitting Redgar, today either Redgar or Lidda is in the fireball's area of effect--roll a d6... high. Sucks to be you Redgar, roll a reflex save DC 16." Arbitrary, ad hoc rulings would have all the balance difficulties of the new rules but wouldn't have the advantage of automatically having the perception of PC/NPC fairness and balance.</p><p></p><p>If I have a problem with wizards calculating the ground level area of a fireball cast to airburst at 15 feet (airbursting area spells is a wonderful way to avoid hitting your friends), I'll simply tell the wizard to pick a target within a set time limit and then do the calculations for what it effects myself.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Elder-Basilisk, post: 849995, member: 3146"] Yes. If I wanted to be a jerk about it, I'd have the players bring a template for area effect spells and give them three seconds to place the template where the fireball would be (six seconds if they want to take a full round action. But I don't want to be that way. As I see it, if I force PCs to target imprecisely (and doing that would be somewhat difficult--would I place roll a d8 and say "7-8 you overshoot the target by 2d6 feet, 3-6 on target, 1-2 it's short 2d6 feet", would they make an int check, if I went with the int check, would avoiding two friends who are ten feet apart be harder or easier than avoiding two friends who are next to each other, etc, etc) I would have to either invent new mechanics to simulate imprecision (thus changing the balance of the current rules which do not seem to be balanced on the assumption that wizards will regularly miss with their fireballs) or create imprecision by making arbitrary, ad hoc rulings "Mialee, I don't care if you did it yesterday without hitting Redgar, today either Redgar or Lidda is in the fireball's area of effect--roll a d6... high. Sucks to be you Redgar, roll a reflex save DC 16." Arbitrary, ad hoc rulings would have all the balance difficulties of the new rules but wouldn't have the advantage of automatically having the perception of PC/NPC fairness and balance. If I have a problem with wizards calculating the ground level area of a fireball cast to airburst at 15 feet (airbursting area spells is a wonderful way to avoid hitting your friends), I'll simply tell the wizard to pick a target within a set time limit and then do the calculations for what it effects myself. [/QUOTE]
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As a DM, do you let PCs precisely "place" areas of effect for spells?
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