D&D 5E Question: Spirit Guardians/Distant Spell metamagic interaction?

Arial Black · Jul 21, 2019

I'm creating a Divine Soul sorcerer.

I have the Distant Spell metamagic, which says, "When you cast a spell that has a RANGE of 5 feet or greater, you can spend 1 sorcery point to double the RANGE of the spell".

The spell spirit guardians, under the 'Range' entry, says, "Range: Self (15-foot radius)".

So, does Distant Spell double the radius to 30-foot (on the grounds that the radius is mentioned in the entry for 'range', which makes it able to be affected by Distant Spell), OR does Distant Spell not apply at all (on the grounds that the range is 'Self')?

DND_Reborn · Jul 21, 2019

Nope. Range is self. The area is 15' radius, which Distant spell won't help. That's my take, anyway.

Greenstone.Walker · Jul 21, 2019

dnd4vr said:
Nope. Range is self. The area is 15' radius, which Distant spell won't help. That's my take, anyway.

Agreed.

As an aside, I wish the writers had consistently and correctly differentiated "range" and "area of effect".

Paul Farquhar · Jul 22, 2019

Agreed, there are anomalies which mean that some pbaoe benefit from Distant Spell (e.g. Sword Burst) and some do not (e.g. Thunderwave).

gyor · Jul 22, 2019

dnd4vr said:
Nope. Range is self. The area is 15' radius, which Distant spell won't help. That's my take, anyway.

There are some spells where area of effect is explicitly tied to the spells range such as Seeming or Major Illusion sort of (you can move the imagine around an area 240 feet instead of 120 feet with distance spell).

DND_Reborn · Jul 22, 2019

gyor said:
There are some spells where area of effect is explicitly tied to the spells range such as Seeming or Major Illusion sort of (you can move the imagine around an area 240 feet instead of 120 feet with distance spell).

Sure, but both of those spells have explicit ranges, not self or 0 feet. Since they have ranges, those are doubled.

Harzel · Jul 24, 2019

Paul Farquhar said:
Agreed, there are anomalies which mean that some pbaoe benefit from Distant Spell (e.g. Sword Burst) and some do not (e.g. Thunderwave).

Meh. "Range" and "Area" are words that have meanings; they're not arbitrary labels. From the body of the spell description for Sword Burst it's clear the header should say Range: Self (5 ft. radius). The header is simply erroneous. (Note that you even called it a pbaoe.) My ruling would be that Distant Spell does not apply.

Paul Farquhar · Jul 24, 2019

Harzel said:
Meh. "Range" and "Area" are words that have meanings; they're not arbitrary labels.

True. And Sword Burst, Thunderclap, and Word of Radiance all use the word "Range" not "Area".

From the body of the spell description for Sword Burst it's clear the header should say Range: Self (5 ft. radius). The header is simply erroneous.

Once could be an error, but making the same mistake in three separate cantrips? The probability is very low.

(Note that you even called it a pbaoe.)

There is nothing in the description of Distant Spell that explicitly prohibits pbaoes being affected.

My ruling would be that Distant Spell does not apply.

As DM you are free to rule how you think best. However, RAW Distant Spell should apply. Personally, I don't see it as a problem, since all those cantrips do low damage. I can't think of any more powerful spells with similar wording that could be abused by this.

Arial Black · Jul 24, 2019

Paul Farquhar said:
As DM you are free to rule how you think best. However, RAW Distant Spell should apply. Personally, I don't see it as a problem, since all those cantrips do low damage. I can't think of any more powerful spells with similar wording that could be abused by this.

Well....spirit guardians....!