Flexor the Mighty!
18/100 Strength!
We handle tricky shots like that with an arcana check.
That's a nice idea. I have an old Warhammer artillery die we call the Determinator that would fit in with that kind of mechanic.
We handle tricky shots like that with an arcana check.
Definitely not metagaming, because it's entirely in-character for the wizard to be good at positioning such effects. This is the livelihood, of someone who experiences way more combat than anyone in real life has ever been through.Is it metagaming for a wizard 100 feet away to cast a radius spell through a door, over the heads of allies and enemies, framing the outer edge of the spell PERFECTLY so that it hits the bad guys and leaves the PCs unscathed?
I like the "skill checks decide border cases" model, with the DC rising as the player's goal becomes more improbable. Fireball the storm giant's head but not the heroes'? Pretty easy. Get the ogre instead? Tougher.
Although firing a spell through a door as in one post would be impossible since you dont have line of sight.
This and the other suggestions above seem like unneeded complexity. The PCs are heroes... this is what heroes do. Is the story about where they placed the fireball? Or is the story about how they killed the ogre king? Let the blunders come from the dice.
We've never found it to be so. It only ever rears its head when whatever is attempted strains everyone's suspension of disbelief AND it gives a mechanical combat advantage. If the player or one of my NPCs is trying to cinematically weasel out of a clever loophole, I'm most comfortable having there be a check involved.
It's not theatre of the mind to expect them to watch the on-going game and have their spell range/area of effect prepared for their turn.Wait... you play on a hex map (presuming a battle mat) but discourage counting hexes? So you play with a grid, but the players have to ignore the grid and play theatre of the mind?