Can you do a "diamond" shaped blast?

[Ziana]

http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/commentary/alttext/2008/06/alttext_0618

Posted: 12:48 a.m. by Goku1440 I found an awesome loophole! On page 242 it says "Add oregano to taste!" It doesn't say how much oregano, or what sort of taste! You can add as much oregano as you want! I'm going to make my friends eat infinite oregano and they'll have to do it because the recipe says so!

Anyone insisting that their diamond interpretation is valid fails basic comprehension of English.

WotC have stated that they wrote the books in colloquial English because they're rules for a game; it's not legalese to intended withstand determined rules-lawyering.

It's your game and you can do whatever you want. Insist that your blast effect extends infinitely in all directions due to Zeno's Paradox if you like, or that it can be tilted at any arbitrary angle in 4 dimensions, so intersecting only targets you declare. But for sake of simplicity and expedient gameplay, the designers reduced area attacks to straightforward squares on a battlemap. If that's too difficult to grasp then I seriously wonder what sort of enjoyment you could get out of an RPG.

 

[Lucas Blackstone]

It's all good Ziana. It's not like KarinsDad doesn't know it's not intended and even really arguing that it be allowed in games. We were simply debating if it was allowed by RAW. At least I think this is the case. Sorry if I put words in your mouth KarinsDad.

 

[KarinsDad]

It's all good Ziana. It's not like KarinsDad doesn't know it's not intended and even really arguing that it be allowed in games. We were simply debating if it was allowed by RAW. At least I think this is the case. Sorry if I put words in your mouth KarinsDad.

Yup, it's all good.

At least you did not say that I "fail basic comprehension of English" or my "rigid, literal-mindedness is unable to grasp the intended meaning of the rules" or that you "wonder what sort of enjoyment I could get out of an RPG".

Some people get too wrapped around the axle.

 

[Keltheos]

WotC have stated that they wrote t...riting to their target audience!! ;) :D :D

 

[Chocobo]

The shape in question is not any sort of square.

A square is a 4-sided shape with 90 degree angles on the corners and all sides of equal length.

The shape in question is a 20-sided shape with 90 degree angles on the corners and all sides of equal length.

4 != 20

Therefore, it is not a square.

 

[Zaruthustran]

This is 3 squares on a side, the squares just happen to be turned 45 degrees.

The attached diagram is (literally) also 3 squares by 3 squares.

Nope. It doesn't have any sides; it's just a collection of individual blocks.

Still waiting for a rules quote folks.

See the diagram on page 272, which shows what happens when you shoot a close blast 3 on the diagonal.

so far, nobody has posted actual rules to deny it. It's all been opinion and narrow interpretation.

See the diagram on page 272, which shows what happens when you shoot a close blast 3 on the diagonal.

 

[Ziana]

The game is complex enough for newcomers, and thankfully WotC with 4E are trying to appeal to a broader audience so that the game has a future. Pointless rules-lawyering and insisting that extreme interpretations are correct simply on the basis that they "aren't contrary to RAW", despite clear examples of intent in the book needlessly complicate the issue. That's the sort of obsessive behavior Wired recently lampooned, for good reason. It's the kind of thing that drives off new players; who wants to get bogged down in endless debates over trivialities?

There's a simple and direct answer to the original poster's question, and that's all that's necessary.

 

[TiwazTyrsfist]

Seriously, go look at the COMBAT CHAPTER of the freaking PHB.

Chapter 9, P. 264 - 295
In particular, p. 272, 281.

You will see demonstrations and diagrams of how you can use the blasts. You will notice there are NO diagonal diamond shapes shown. Only square justified/oriented to the grid lines.

 

[Caliban]

Seriously, go look at the COMBAT CHAPTER of the freaking PHB.

Chapter 9, P. 264 - 295
In particular, p. 272, 281.

You will see demonstrations and diagrams of how you can use the blasts. You will notice there are NO diagonal diamond shapes shown. Only square justified/oriented to the grid lines.

The RAW crowd knows this. They just don't care. They are quite willing to ignore intent if it let's them have pedantic arguements.

I see 4e will be no different than 3e in that regard.

 

[Khaim]

Well, due to the new distance metric, the world cares about the direction of the lines on the grid. Given that, you can't just turn something 45 degrees like you can in the real world- it changes the geometry!