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<blockquote data-quote="Elder-Basilisk" data-source="post: 4598451" data-attributes="member: 3146"><p>Fireball and arrow slits is an interesting question--mostly because, if you follow the rules as written, it may enable fireball to bypass the normal line of effect rules.</p><p></p><p>The line of effect rules require a one square foot opening in the five foot square--a total of 144 square inches.</p><p></p><p>On the other hand, historical arrow slits ranged from the type that Vegipygmy posted (I suspect that is probably an english arrow-slit designed for use with a longbow) at about six feet tall by three inches or so (216 square inches, only 180 of which are in a single five foot square) to ones that are much smaller--perhaps two to four feet by three to four inches (4 feet by 4 inches is 192 square inches, but anything smaller than 3"x4' will be less than 144 square inches), or crossbow slits that were often the same 2-4 inches by 2 feet in a cross shape (176 square inches if four feet wide, but only 135 square inches if 3 inches wide). So, in short, historical arrow slits varied between just larger than necessary to provide line of effect to just smaller than is necessary to provide line of effect.</p><p></p><p>In a fantasy game, line of effect is a big deal, so it would make sense that arrow slits not specifically designed to allow spellcasting from inside would be designed to hit that "just too small to provide line of effect" mark.</p><p></p><p>Consequently, if you read the fireball text as allowing the fireball to bypass the ordinary line of effect requirements with a successful ranged touch attack, the consequences of failure would be that it has no effect at all on the targets behind the arrow slit. A successful touch attack, on the other, would give it full effect (and no effect on the outside of the arrow slit). </p><p></p><p>And for the record, I think that an AC in the neighborhood of 15-18 is probably more in line with the rest of the system than 5-7. You can extrapolate the lower AC from portions of the rules, but whatever we use, it should be harder to fire through an arrow slit than it is to hit an ordinary flatfooted human at the same distance and the human is much bigger. (As for the housecat, we all know the rules haven't ever modeled house cats well--in second edition, they regularly killed commoners <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />)</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Elder-Basilisk, post: 4598451, member: 3146"] Fireball and arrow slits is an interesting question--mostly because, if you follow the rules as written, it may enable fireball to bypass the normal line of effect rules. The line of effect rules require a one square foot opening in the five foot square--a total of 144 square inches. On the other hand, historical arrow slits ranged from the type that Vegipygmy posted (I suspect that is probably an english arrow-slit designed for use with a longbow) at about six feet tall by three inches or so (216 square inches, only 180 of which are in a single five foot square) to ones that are much smaller--perhaps two to four feet by three to four inches (4 feet by 4 inches is 192 square inches, but anything smaller than 3"x4' will be less than 144 square inches), or crossbow slits that were often the same 2-4 inches by 2 feet in a cross shape (176 square inches if four feet wide, but only 135 square inches if 3 inches wide). So, in short, historical arrow slits varied between just larger than necessary to provide line of effect to just smaller than is necessary to provide line of effect. In a fantasy game, line of effect is a big deal, so it would make sense that arrow slits not specifically designed to allow spellcasting from inside would be designed to hit that "just too small to provide line of effect" mark. Consequently, if you read the fireball text as allowing the fireball to bypass the ordinary line of effect requirements with a successful ranged touch attack, the consequences of failure would be that it has no effect at all on the targets behind the arrow slit. A successful touch attack, on the other, would give it full effect (and no effect on the outside of the arrow slit). And for the record, I think that an AC in the neighborhood of 15-18 is probably more in line with the rest of the system than 5-7. You can extrapolate the lower AC from portions of the rules, but whatever we use, it should be harder to fire through an arrow slit than it is to hit an ordinary flatfooted human at the same distance and the human is much bigger. (As for the housecat, we all know the rules haven't ever modeled house cats well--in second edition, they regularly killed commoners :)) [/QUOTE]
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