Area spells - one roll for all or each target?

[Vortakh]

Greetings,

again a question whose answer I didn't found in the core rules or the web...

When casting an area damage spell, do you roll damage once for all targets or for every target separately?

I only found that every target SAVES separately, which makes sense logically, since it depends on every targets own save value. But you could say the damage depends on the actual "strength" of the whole spell, so it could be rolled once for all victims.

Thanks for any enlightenment

V.

 

[hong]

No effin' way am I rolling 15d6 separately for 10 targets.

 

[shilsen]

What Hong said. Definitely damage once for all targets.

 

[Christian]

No effin' way am I rolling 15d6 separately for 10 targets.

10 ... or many, many more. I nailed about fifty undead with a hailstorm a few sessions back. It was bad enough just recording the damage on each of those SOBs. The DM was praising the D&D gods that that spell has no save.

 

[Vortakh]

10 ... or many, many more. I nailed about fifty undead with a hailstorm a few sessions back. It was bad enough just recording the damage on each of those SOBs. The DM was praising the D&D gods that that spell has no save.

Oh, all you need is a handful of D20's, say 10-20. As long as there are not too many different creatures (with different save values), this should be manageable.

And thanks to you all for the quick answers.

V.

 

[Dross]

No effin' way am I rolling 15d6 separately for 10 targets.

the only way I'd allow seperate rollings for each target was if the caster gave me the damage range and i'd use a random roller (excel spreadsheet works well) to produce a great many numbers, between games. It's not so difficult to mark each one off as you go. But it's still easier just to roll damage once.

As for the saves, the caster, and maybe t he other players, get to roll the saves (in the open) of the victims. It only seems fair.