D&D 3E/3.5 Area of Effect: Changes from 3.0 to 3.5?

[sjmiller]

Here's something that has been bothering me of late. I have seen some great spell templates by Frank the DM and others, but they don't appear to follow the examples shown in the 3.0 DMG. Since I am playing 3.0, and only have access to the 3.5 SRD, I haven't seen official examples of the same areas of effect. So, I am wondering, was there a change in how area of effect is represented? If so, does someone have a side by side comparison so I can see the changes? This has been quite confusing to me. My players are really getting to levels where lots of spells are being thrown about, so it would be nice to have templates that follow the ruleset we are using.

 

[Corsair]

I believe how cones were defined changed from 3.0 to 3.5 specifically. The rest should be the same.

 

[frankthedm]

Here's something that has been bothering me of late. I have seen some great spell templates by Frank the DM and others, but they don't appear to follow the examples shown in the 3.0 DMG.

Thats because cones were smaller in 3.0 and burning hands was a semi circle.

Adding to the confusion, 3.0 area effects were not shown locked to the grid in the PHB examples of Burning Hands and Color Spray. If you look close you'll note most spell origins were where grid intersections WOULD have been even though the minis are not locked to the grid. There looked to be a general rule in the examples where if a critter was not 50% in the area, it went unaffected.

So for the 3.0 PHB, the caster picks the origin SPOT and then measures. The DMG on the other hand displayed how the rules actually worked with a grid.

Since I am playing 3.0, and only have access to the 3.5 SRD, I haven't seen official examples of the same areas of effect.

http://www.opengamingfoundation.org/srd.html 3.0 SRD

 

[sjmiller]

Since I am playing 3.0, and only have access to the 3.5 SRD, I haven't seen official examples of the same areas of effect.

http://www.opengamingfoundation.org/srd.html 3.0 SRD

Thanks for the info. I should have been more specific. I have the 3.0 books, I just didn’t have the 3.5 books, only the SRD, which is not illustrated. This makes it a tad hard to compare. Okay, not really that hard, I was being a bit lazy about dragging my books over to the computer to compare them to your templates. I will compare the two and see if there are any other questions.

 

[frankthedm]

ya see, in 3.0 cones are painfull to look at when constrained to the grid.

 

[sjmiller]

ya see, in 3.0 cones are painfull to look at when constrained to the grid.

Actually, according to the errata for the 3.0 DMG, your diagonal cone example is not correct. The top row, the one in line with the caster, should have 3 blue squares, not 2. Just a minor quibble.

But, after looking at both the 3.0 gridded stuff and the 3.5 gridded stuff, I think I will just use the rules shown in the 3.0 PH and use real circles and cones and adjudicate the partial squares as needed.

 

[frankthedm]

But, after looking at both the 3.0 gridded stuff and the 3.5 gridded stuff, I think I will just use the rules shown in the 3.0 PH and use real circles and cones and adjudicate the partial squares as needed.

Cones are the major issue with 3.0. the rest lock to the grid ok enough. Cones are also a problem because the grow constantly.

Here is a 25' color spray;