Flaming Sphere... again.

[OchreJelly]

I'd let an ally move through it but the sphere gets a free attack. It's only fair. Completely a house rule though.

You could, or you could see it as a low burning ember that occasionally pulses blasts of fire. There are ways to come up with believable flavor to keep powers in line with the RAW.

I would caution against adding to a power simply based on perceived flavor. That's both a benefit and a drawback of the "less is more" power flavor. On one hand it's nice to have some freedom to interpret a power in different ways, on the other hand you sometimes have to perform some mental gymnastics that not everyone may agree on.

 

[keterys]

Or flaming spheres just bounce and they bounce out of the way for allies.

 

[mikebr99]

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[OchreJelly]

Exactly! Lots of different ways to flavor a power for the RAW. It also helps because it's "just magic".

 

[lukelightning]

I think I'd give it a free attack as well. Walking through a ball of magic fire should hurt.

So when a wizard moves the flaming sphere around the battlefield, he can move it over people and damage everyone in its path?

 

[Oni]

So when a wizard moves the flaming sphere around the battlefield, he can move it over people and damage everyone in its path?

mmm, that would be horribly broken and awesome.

 

[Irda Ranger]

So when a wizard moves the flaming sphere around the battlefield, he can move it over people and damage everyone in its path?

Actually, that's a really good question ...

I realize that the spell power description does not allow for this, but still, how does it move over a battlefield? Are you forced to route around people, or can you pass over/through them?

 

[Chen_93]

The sphere occupies a square. I wouldn't call it a creature and thus it is not an ally or enemy. It cannot be moved THROUGH other people because people cannot occupy the same space as objects (unless they have phasing).

 

[keterys]

Route around enemies, can move through allies. It "moves" just like everyone else.

Bounce bounce.

 

[Kinie]

Now, here's a question for you all:

Say that there is a Flaming Sphere in square 3A. In 2A is a monster, and 1A holds a sword and board Fighter. On the Fighter's turn, he Tide of Iron's the monster into square 3A. How would you handle this?

For our DM, he had the sphere grant a free attack while the monster rolled out of the square and into a square adjacent to the sphere. What ended up happening is that the Wizard would cast it when it was the proper time. I would run up and Tide of Iron it into the sphere, and the sphere ended up hitting about 70% of the time on the free attack.

I know there are rules on how to treat hazardous squares. Could you treat the square that the Flaming Sphere occupies as a hazardous square, and therefore keep it bound by those same rules?