Can you do a "diamond" shaped blast?

[jaycrockett]

If you did want to allow cone-shaped blasts, they should encompass the same number of squares as a standard blast, in this case, 9. So you would just need to chop the taper off that cone diagram.

Personally I'd leave it alone because a square shaped blast is alot faster to adudicate than a cone, and a cone is probably just as likely to hit party members as a square. If you allow both then the player will be switching back and forth, trying to get the optimal coverage, and really bogging down play. With the square, you can tell at a glace if it will work without movement. In your example, it's clear that the dragonborn isn't on the front line so his blast isn't going to work.

 

[LEHaskell]

It occurs to me that you could truncate your diamond blast at the third row. This would: 1) preserve the 9-square area; 2) hit the areas you want; 3) simulate the cone shape people have been missing from breath weapons.

In fact, you could easily house rule that characters could choose to shape their blasts such that: blast n be either an n x n square (as currently ruled) or as a "stepped pyramid" of n levels.

....x....
...xxx...
..xxxxx..

For any blast n <6 this will have area n-squared, just like the square shape. And is still a reasonable approximation for 6 or 7.

Hmmm, as I think about it, this might be a good feat, too -- the ability to shape the blast as either of those shapes. Dragonborn Improved Breath Control...



edited to properly define limits of analysis

 

[erik_the_guy]

According to the rules: No
According to the DM: ?

 

[Mort_Q]

According to the rules: No
According to the DM: ?

Well, the last part is true regardless of the answer to the first part.

 

[KarinsDad]

Nobody has actually posted a rules quote that prevents this (so far).

So according to RAW, yes this is legal.

The number of squares is irrelevant. The shape merely has to be 3 squares on a side (which it is) and next to the caster (which it is).




Firecubes strike again!!!

 

[Insignia]

Nobody has actually posted a rules quote that prevents this (so far).

So according to RAW, yes this is legal.

Unless you interpret "a 3-square-by-3-square area" as an area which is 3*3 squares.

 

[Lucas Blackstone]

A 3 square by 3 square area is 9 squares. The second shape shown in the attached file above is more then the 3 square by 3 square areas shown in the PHB as the amount of area covered. This is just a misunderstanding of how the blast area works.

 

[Zaruthustran]

Nobody has actually posted a rules quote that prevents this (so far).

So according to RAW, yes this is legal.

The number of squares is irrelevant. The shape merely has to be 3 squares on a side (which it is) and next to the caster (which it is).
Firecubes strike again!!!

Pretty funny, but I think the diagram on page 272 shows exactly what happens when you shoot a blast 3 diagonally. It looks like a 3x3 box. It doesn't look like the diagram in that PDF.

Also, the rules specify (as you pointed out) 3 squares on a side. The area filled in that diagram does not have *any* sides; or rather, it's a collection of squares forming an area with a bunch of sides, each side 1 square.

Fails on (at least) two levels.

 

[KarinsDad]

Pretty funny, but I think the diagram on page 272 shows exactly what happens when you shoot a blast 3 diagonally. It looks like a 3x3 box. It doesn't look like the diagram in that PDF.

Also, the rules specify (as you pointed out) 3 squares on a side. The area filled in that diagram does not have *any* sides; or rather, it's a collection of squares forming an area with a bunch of sides, each side 1 square.

Fails on (at least) two levels.

This is 3 squares on a side, the squares just happen to be turned 45 degrees.

The attached diagram is (literally) also 3 squares by 3 squares.


Still waiting for a rules quote folks.

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Note: I know how WotC customer service will answer this and I understand the intent, but so far, nobody has posted actual rules to deny it. It's all been opinion and narrow interpretation.

 

[Jhaelen]

This is 3 squares on a side, the squares just happen to be turned 45 degrees.

Squares cannot be turned 45 degrees - they wouldn't be Squares anymore (notice the difference between squares and Squares).

In other words:
Trying to do this will create a temporary local dimensional disturbance which will suck the blaster into the far realms