Cover, line of effect, fireball ??

[Ninja-to]

Oh yeah, the air burst fireball is a favourite of my wizard. Bad guys hiding behind that low wall or comrades blocking my view of the battlefield are no problem provided the ceiling is high enough to put one above them. I'm surprised you didn't point out to your DM that the world's 3-dimensional.

Cheers, Al'Kelhar

Here's the DM you wanted to point something out to. Luckily for my group I do realize there are 3 dimensions and not 2. In fact, even before Quake came out for the PC I knew there were 3 dimensions in the world. In turn the full of crap DM has got something to point out to you.

A fireball fills an area. It doesn't help you if you're hiding behind a low wall. The fireball simply fills up the space it was cast into.

It's discomforting to be judged on rules when the understanding of them by the judges are incomplete.

 

[Ice man]

what i have done in the past is to have the mage in question make a spell craft check (yes, i know that is not strictly according to the rules but it works) to accurately place his/her spell where they want it. I set the DC as base 10 + spell level + number of obstacles or creatures between caster and target. Make the check and all is well, fail and the spell effect goes off at randomly determined obstacle. i find this preferable to saying no you cant cast it there...based on the idea that things do move around in their squares and combat is not static. I tend not to make the mage roll a touch attack because I assume they are competent enough to hit their target square without significant dispersion unless they are blinded or under other spell effects.

 

[0-hr]

If you need to hit an AC 5 to target a grid intersection, then targeting one through cover (which an intervening character would provide) means you need to hit an effective AC of 9. There are also rules for striking the cover in the event that you miss.

Maybe that would handle the situation for you?

 

[Ninja-to]

If you need to hit an AC 5 to target a grid intersection, then targeting one through cover (which an intervening character would provide) means you need to hit an effective AC of 9. There are also rules for striking the cover in the event that you miss.

Maybe that would handle the situation for you?

It's cool. I'm perfectly happy with the ruling that 'soft cover' doesn't require a mage to worry about targets. As I said before I only questioned whether or not a mage could cast directly through an adjacent square and risk his fireball detonating prematurely. Even in game I let the mage do what he wanted when I raised the question. As far as I'm concerned the rules have been made clear, which was what I was trying to do when I brought this up during game.