Do spellcasters use Burning Hands in your game?

[AuraSeer]

If you're that worried about AoOs, put the spell into a wand. Using a wand does not draw an AoO.

 

[Rel]

Or feels that he has a good enough AC to chance it, yes.

I'd also note that, playing on a grid where each character occupies a distinct space (as my groups always do), there are actually 3 spaces out of 6 in the burning hands' area of effect that typically do not threaten the caster, not "one creature in the space 10 feet away."

Hmm. I don't have my books with me at the moment, Dr., but we looked at this very recently and I was pretty sure that on a 5' grid, there were 4 spaces that would be affected by the spell.

Let's see if I can diagram this:

NEN
EEE
NCN

C=Caster
E=Space within the area of effect
N=Space that is not affected by the spell

If I recall correctly, the diagram in the PHB shows a goblin in one of the spaces flanking the "E" space 10' away from the caster but only the corner of his square is touched by the AoE and therefore he is not subject to the effects of the spell.

Perhaps I'm wrong about that. In any event, we are using a hex map and that further complicates things. Our solution is going to be to make a mylar template for the area of effect and just have the Wizard put it down on the map adjacent to his figure. If any given hex is more than 50% within the template, that hex is affected. That's what we did with Fireball and Color Spray and Sleep and Entangle (you should see the Entangle template, it is huge!) and it has worked well.

 

[Shard O'Glase]

Hmm. I don't have my books with me at the moment, Dr., but we looked at this very recently and I was pretty sure that on a 5' grid, there were 4 spaces that would be affected by the spell.

Let's see if I can diagram this:

NEN
EEE
NCN

C=Caster
E=Space within the area of effect
N=Space that is not affected by the spell

If I recall correctly, the diagram in the PHB shows a goblin in one of the spaces flanking the "E" space 10' away from the caster but only the corner of his square is touched by the AoE and therefore he is not subject to the effects of the spell.

haven't checked out burning hands in a while, but i made cut out diagrams for the AoE of all the spells. And it is surprising how much area a cone covers if cast at an angle on a grid. So maybe if you cast that spell at an angle instead of head on, less targets in the AoE would be able to target you with an AoO.

 

[Rel]

If you're that worried about AoOs, put the spell into a wand. Using a wand does not draw an AoO.

I'm not "worried" about it, AS. In fact, my character is not even the one trying to cast the spell.

I was just observing that Burning Hands appears to be one of very few spells that require you to cast them while threatened in order to use them efficiently. If Dr. Rictus is correct about the area of effect and I am wrong, then I can see how you could cast the spell and still catch multiple foes in it while staying out of a threatened area (assuming Medium foes without Reach weapons).

Clearly there are a variety of ways to use the spell in such a way as to avoid AoO's and, as I mentioned earlier, I am well aware that a wand is one of them. But most spells that affect an area can either be cast from a fair distance away or are shaped like a cone, which means that they will get bigger as they get further away, meaning that you don't need to cast the spell while adjacent to 3 foes in order to affect those 3 foes.

 

[AuraSeer]

When you're working with a grid, spells should be centered on an intersection of the lines. If you designate a square itself as the center, you end up with an apparently smaller radius of effect, because the edges extend into "half squares" and get ignored.

For a Burning Hands cast in a particular direction, the caster has two intersection points to choose from. Depending on which he picks, the diagram looks either like this:

XEEXX
EEEEX
XXCXX

...or like this:

XXEEX
XEEEE
XXCXX

(The diagrams are the same, but mirrored horizontally.) Either way, the spell affects a total of 6 squares, only 3 of which are adjacent to the caster.

 

[Rel]

When you're working with a grid, spells should be centered on an intersection of the lines. If you designate a square itself as the center, you end up with an apparently smaller radius of effect, because the edges extend into "half squares" and get ignored.

I agree with you about this, AuraSeer. And when we use our mylar templates, that's exactly what we do. In fact, it helps with that age-old question about targeting area effect spells to hit a foe, but not the PC Fighter he is engaged in melee with at the moment. The GM just says, "Pick the center" and the spellcaster player does (within just a couple of seconds). Then we plop the center of the template down on it and draw around the edges to see what falls within the area of effect.

However, we don't yet have a template for Burning Hands and so we haven't done this. Furthermore, when we consulted the PHB, it does not show the AoE being diagrammed the way you have it (I again reiterate that I am fairly sure about this but am not looking at the book. If I am wrong, my apologies).

 

[candidus_cogitens]

When you're working with a grid, spells should be centered on an intersection of the lines. If you designate a square itself as the center, you end up with an apparently smaller radius of effect, because the edges extend into "half squares" and get ignored.

There might be various legitimate ways of handling squares and hexes on a gaming mat. So, I offer my remarks humbly.

I was not under the impression that any squares would get ignored. In my group, we treat squares like indivisible points. You can't be half-way on a square or half-way within the area of effect. So, here's how we would do it.

XXXXXXX
XEEEEEX
XEEEEEX
XXXCXXX

In theory it is a semicircle, but in practice, any square that is within two squares of the caster's square (and in front of the caster, in the case of this spell) would be affected. So, if a semicircle seems to hit half of a square, the question becomes: is this square considered ten feet or less from the caster's square?

So, if you do it this way, there would be seven affected squares that do not threaten the spellcaster, so long as there are no reach weapons involved.

 

[Bonedagger]

Re: Re: Re: Do spellcasters use Burning Hands in your game?

Then again, if you've got Mage Armor, Shield and a good Dex, you might not care if they get some AoO's. At low levels, the bad guys probably can't hit you anyway. But if they do, ouch.

I thought Shield prevented AoO by providing 3/4 cover.

 

[Corlon]

such a waste

Who would get this when almost all the other level one spells are obviously better...

Magic Missle, Flamebolt, minor orbs, even jump I'd say

 

[Benben]

Re: Re: Do spellcasters use Burning Hands in your game?

No. They think it leads to the path of Satan, just like dancing.

I would suggest adding Kevin Bacon as a NPC then.