Blocking Fireballs

[Christian]

If your DM allows you to block it, it will explode when you do. So, be careful with that.

Ah, but that's the point, my friend. The monk typically has a good Reflex save as well as Evasion, and at higher levels, Improved Evasion. That makes her much less likely to suffer from the fireball than the intended target.

I wouldn't try this myself, though. My DM is already ticked about my intentionally provoking AoO's against my inflated (via Mobility) AC in order to prevent my allies from suffering them when casting within a big beastie's threat range. That and the mere existence of the Evasion ability ... (DM: "And you three made your Reflex saves, so you only take seventeen points of damage." Me: "That'll be no points over here. " DM: ) I wouldn't want to compel him to drop a cow on me.

 

[hong]

I wouldn't want to compel him to drop a cow on me.

Indeed you wouldn't, because a cow would be an exceptional ranged weapon and you couldn't use your Deflect Arrows feat on it.

 

[Lord Ben]

Okay, I have a fighter who's focused on archery. I've always thought it would be cool to shoot a fireball out of the air with my bow. What kind of AC and what penalty to hit would I have? 10 + a good size bonus for the fireball, call it AC20. Then it's moving fast so give me a -6 penalty?

How would you handle it?

Yes, I know that readying an action to shoot the mage is worth MUCH more then trying to shoot the fireball out of the air but I want to make it into a story that the bards sing about.

 

[hong]

Okay, I have a fighter who's focused on archery. I've always thought it would be cool to shoot a fireball out of the air with my bow. What kind of AC and what penalty to hit would I have? 10 + a good size bonus for the fireball, call it AC20. Then it's moving fast so give me a -6 penalty?

How would you handle it?

A fireball bead is Fine size, for a +8 AC bonus. However, it's moving so fast that shooting it is practically impossible, for a -20 penalty on your attack. Effectively, that makes it AC 38.

Yes, I know that readying an action to shoot the mage is worth MUCH more then trying to shoot the fireball out of the air but I want to make it into a story that the bards sing about.

Oh, I don't know. Shooting the bead out of the air when it's just left the mage's hand could be very worthwhile in itself....

 

[Jhamin]

Okay, I have a fighter who's focused on archery. I've always thought it would be cool to shoot a fireball out of the air with my bow. What kind of AC and what penalty to hit would I have? 10 + a good size bonus for the fireball, call it AC20. Then it's moving fast so give me a -6 penalty?

How would you handle it?

Yes, I know that readying an action to shoot the mage is worth MUCH more then trying to shoot the fireball out of the air but I want to make it into a story that the bards sing about.

I think I would handle it the same way I would handle a gunslinger who wants to shoot bullets out of the air. He better be ledgendary and we better be playing Fung Shuei

 

[Number47]

"Okay, you purposefully throw yourself in the way of a fireball. You succeed in making it explode on yourself. Then you...manage to completely avoid the fireball? Forget that, no saves for intentionally taking damage!"

 

[kreynolds]

Okay, I have a fighter who's focused on archery. I've always thought it would be cool to shoot a fireball out of the air with my bow. What kind of AC and what penalty to hit would I have? 10 + a good size bonus for the fireball, call it AC20. Then it's moving fast so give me a -6 penalty?

How would you handle it?

Yes, I know that readying an action to shoot the mage is worth MUCH more then trying to shoot the fireball out of the air but I want to make it into a story that the bards sing about.

Simple. You don't. If you wanna take out the bead before it blossoms into a full-blown fireball, use a counterspell action. If you wanna do anything else, go to the house rules thread.

 

[AuraSeer]

There aren't any rules for shooting down a spell effect. If I had to make a DM call, I'd give the thing a size modifier of about 32, and a speed modifier of 20 (because it moves so fast), for a total AC of 52. And you'd need a successful Spot check against DC 40 in order to predict its trajectory accurately. If I wasn't feeling particularly generous, I might require an obscene Reflex save in order to react in time.

And, because it's such an exceptional feat, even a natural 20 won't give you automatic success.

In short, it ain't gonna happen until the Epic Level Handbook comes out.

 

[Dragonjester]

First off, evasion doesn't enter into it. You put yourself in front of the fireball, you get hit, no save. Having said that I'm just posing hypothetical scenarios that I don't know how to answer.

If a wizard is shooting a fireball through an occupied space, he does have to make a range touch attack, no?

From the unofficial SRD:

If the character attempts to send the bead through a narrow passage, such as through an arrow slit, the character must "hit" the opening with a ranged touch attack, or else the bead strikes the barrier and detonates prematurely.

At what point does the 5' space become a "narrow passage", when it's occupied by a medium character, a large character or larger?

If that character wanted to be hit, would the "ranged touch attack" AC be raised?

 

[Surreal]

"My DM is already ticked about my intentionally provoking AoO's against my inflated (via Mobility) AC in order to prevent my allies from suffering them when casting within a big beastie's threat range."

Correct me if I'm wrong, but you aren't forced to take an AoO if it's presented to you. So why couldn't the monster just hold onto it until the spell caster provoked one of his own? Assuming he doesn't cast on the defensive anyways.

Surreal