attack roll for area effect spells

[LazerPointer]

yeah that's right, I'm talkin fireballs, sound bursts, etc.

what it'll change: no more perfect positioning of these spells to harm the max # of foes, while PC's stand 5' away, locked in melee, and are unscathed.

I was thinking something arbitrary like

16-up: perfect targetting
14-16: 50% chance of 5' error*
12-14: 80% chance of 5' error
9-12: 100% chance of 5' error

8 and below:
increasing chance of zany mistargetting

*the direction would be determined like a splash weapon.


anyway, just thought I'd throw that 5 am thought out there.

 

[Staffan]

I like the suggestion someone else posted in another thread that combatants adjacent to the area, and who are in melee with someone in the area, would have a 50% chance of being affected as well.

 

[ARandomGod]

yeah that's right, I'm talkin fireballs, sound bursts, etc.

what it'll change: no more perfect positioning of these spells to harm the max # of foes, while PC's stand 5' away, locked in melee, and are unscathed.

I was thinking something arbitrary like

16-up: perfect targetting
14-16: 50% chance of 5' error*
12-14: 80% chance of 5' error
9-12: 100% chance of 5' error

8 and below:
increasing chance of zany mistargetting

*the direction would be determined like a splash weapon.


anyway, just thought I'd throw that 5 am thought out there.

Technically, the AC to hit a square is 10. Of course, you can do whatever you'd like with this! It's not invalid to give the square cover bonuses, of course.

And then, there's the additional fact that this makes fireball and similiar spells an attack spell which requires a hit roll and does damage. Hence I'd LOVE to play in this game. Of course, you realize I'm playing an Arcane Trickster.

All that lovely sneak attack damage on everyone would be excellent.

 

[A'koss]

Heh, nice... I like the idea, but Steffan has a good point in that it might be better to have a simplier rule for this. 50% chance of getting tagged if you're in melee combat sounds about right.

In our low magic game, all combat spells required an attack roll of some sort to either hit or to be most effective. We were trying to create for believable areas of effect whereby the damage for something like a fireball would be most intense at the centre and progressively less so from there. Fireballs for example would inflict a certain amount of damage on a direct hit and a lesser amount in the surrounding radius. If you missed, it would just continue along that line until it did hit something (or ran out of range). Cone shaped spells are most effective when centering the cone along a particular line (with everyone outside that line taking less damage). Throw in crits and fumbles and bake...

 

[LazerPointer]

good points, and the 50% chance of being tagged would be way simpler. If I could avoid slowing combat to a crawl, the risk of an innacurate detonation really appeals to me.

I've wondered in the past why someone at the center of a fireball is allowed a reflex save at all. What about a system where the inside 10' radius wasn't allowed a save unless they had some cover from the blast point, and those on the very edge had a better chance of saving?

 

[Staffan]

Too complicated, I think, and it would make the spell better than it already is (and fireball is a pretty darn good 3rd level spell - the "blast mage" problem mostly appears at higher levels, when the offensive spells don't really get any better than fireball...). Maybe you take shelter behind your shield, or the flames aren't uniformly hot, or the gods take pity on you, or something.

 

[A'koss]

Give it a shot LazerPointer, see how it goes. You might want to do some readjustment to the spell if you do however... If the center point gets no save and takes full damage you might want to reduce the blast radius damage to rebalance it (d4s?).

 

[AeroDm]

Were you to remove the ability to save against the fireball I'd only apply it to those squares touching the intersection selected. This makes it much easier to adjucate, makes targeting people more important, and makes the radius smaller.