Does the Fireball spell expand in a narrow corridor?

[Evilhalfling]

Ahh bouncing lightingbolts the last time I ever used this, it was cast by a vampire mage in melee with a PC paladin, in a 10x10 room. The mist flew away laughing.

Nope Im happy with the new rules - there is also an explosive spell metamagic in the Complete arcane that will fling anyone who failed the save out of the area of effect. (for more damage as they ran into walls etc.) For abuse - use with entangle. it becomes a 4d6 dmg toss people around spell.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

But now no one likes that version of the spells in a new system where protecting yourself from spells is far easier than in previous editions. Just doesn't make sense. Seems all the players have gone soft.

Did you ever actually take into account the ground in determining the "volume" of the silly old fireblob? I know of noone that did... until there was a ceiling that came into play, then suddenly the ground mattered for which squares got filled. You'd be the first I have ever heard that considered the ground when only the ground was a factor.

Tons of sense there... and never applied consistently. Plus the matter of knowing precisely just where the volume of the silly old fireblob would expand to in a complicated dungeon environment. :\

I'm a stickler for consistency and resented DMs who would insist that suddenly with the appearence of a ceiling the volume mattered, but thought that figuring out volumes when there was only the ground involved was too much effort and wanted to keep the game flowing. About as consistently applied as infravision.

Sure, lots of personality to those quirks. I have an aunt who spent time in a mental hospital and she had great "personality" too.

Chalk up another who prefers the more sensible 3.x rule that makes the game more approachable to non-math experts.

 

[ken-ichi]

About the old 2nd edition lightning bolt spell. You never took extra damage, the save just got harder and harder to make.
And by the way, lightning can and does bounce. Ever heard of ball lightning? A ball lightning came down out of a clear sky during a church picnic, bounce off a tree, and smack right into a guys chest. Cooked him on the spot. That is why you don't tick off Heironeous.

 

[Quasqueton]

It's kind of amazing that people actually still used fireball and lightning bolt in earlier editions.

Quasqueton

 

[Storyteller01]

About the old 2nd edition lightning bolt spell. You never took extra damage, the save just got harder and harder to make.
And by the way, lightning can and does bounce. Ever heard of ball lightning? A ball lightning came down out of a clear sky during a church picnic, bounce off a tree, and smack right into a guys chest. Cooked him on the spot. That is why you don't tick off Heironeous.

TYheynhave a tendency of flying through airplanes. LEave little to no damage (some report the appearance of sunburn-like burns). Some even go through walls!

 

[Quidam]

(on topic)

/points at the Sculpt Spell feat for those who are still talking about the topic.

 

[focallength]

One hopes not. It seems like calling someone a troll has been tossed about a little too freely as of late. C'mon folks, we're better than that.

tell me about it I got pratically strung up by my toes because I have some bug that highlights a few words in all of my posts, and they link to some weird web pages. So now Im a troll...<shrugs>

Anyway, yes it streamlines the game because I for one dont want to count out the squares from a fireball cast in a hallway. Also a fire with no combustion or ignition or fuel will not just roar along a hallway consuming everything in its path, it will Flash out to its maximum range (which is decided by numerous factors) and the maximum "flash" range of a "fire ball" is a 20' radius. Its not a flame thrower, its not a wall of fire bieing fueled, its not following a fuel source down the corridor,its not a exploding fuel truck which is a fireball that is consuming a fuel source, its burning oxygen, which again is "flash" when the oxygen is burned out (in a matter of seconds) the fire dies because it is missing one of the three points a fire needs to survive. Then when its flashed out it begins to catch fire to combustables in its area of affect. So I for one in a game do not want to make roles for everysingle little thing to see if it caught fire, thats why the designers decided that only magical fire has a chance to catch items on fire, simplicity.

Now for you claim of utter crap, a little bit of knowledge would tell you that a fire ball is a flash fire and would in fact behave in much the same manner as described in the 3.5 version of the spell.

So think of it this way a wizard says I cast fireball, but whats really happening is hes combusting all the oxygen in a 20' radius. which is much different than lighting a molitav cocktail or blowing up a fuel source. When the oxygen is gone so is the fire.

 

[atom crash]

My 1E DM always figured out volume for fireballs. He was an engineer and loved doing the math. I'm not, and I don't. I prefer the 3E method.

He also ruled that a fireball automatically destroyed all of our non-magical equipment (whether we made the save or not) and burned all our hair and eyebrows off. One fireball and the whole party was screwed, plus we had to smell our own singed nosehairs for hairs afterward.

So, again, 3E fireball much better.

 

[Storyteller01]

So think of it this way a wizard says I cast fireball, but whats really happening is hes combusting all the oxygen in a 20' radius. which is much different than lighting a molitav cocktail or blowing up a fuel source. When the oxygen is gone so is the fire.

Interesting analogy. Consider it stolen.

 

[Sejs]

Rainman could.

...yeaah, there's an orc. ...def.. definitly an orc guarding a chest. ...ten foot room.

...roll.. roll for initiative. ...you're probably going to get a 14. ... yeaah.