flaming sphere and invisibility

[hong]

burning sponge

You know, I was _just_ thinking of what my next custom title should be....

 

[Bad Paper]

whether flaming sphere damages automatically

It deals damage when it enters your space. If the caster then chooses not to use any more move actions, it deals no more damage, even if you stay in its square.

You must use a move action to get your money's worth of the spell?

By your logic, the caster must use a standard action to invoke the sphere and then use a move action to cause damage in that first round it is cast (unless you consider "appearing" in a space tantamount to "entering" that space, which I don't). A full-round action for 2d6 damage? Kinda weakens the spell a bit, dontcha think?

Also, the sphere is a ridiculous 5' in diameter! It burns! ouch! "I will share my space with this burning sponge and not take damage, because the guy who cast it is busy drawing his dagger."

 

[Nail]

You must move Flaming Sphere to get it to cause damage? Huh. I guess a strict reading of the spell does lead to that conclusion.

Huh.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Also, the sphere is a ridiculous 5' in diameter! It burns! ouch! "I will share my space with this burning sponge and not take damage, because the guy who cast it is busy drawing his dagger."

If you make your Reflex save when it enters your square, then for the rest of the round, you are sharing a square with a 5' diameter burning sponge and not taking any damage.

Obviously, then, it is possible to spend a round standing in the same square as the 5' diameter burning sponge without taking any damage.

And since the spell only states that it deals damage when it enters a square, I have no problem assuming that unless it's moving towards you, you can easily find the same position in the square that allows you to take no damage, that you stand in when a successful Reflex save grants the same effect.

-Hyp.

 

[Jeff Wilder]

You must use a move action to get your money's worth of the spell? [...] Also, the sphere is a ridiculous 5' in diameter! It burns! ouch! "I will share my space with this burning sponge and not take damage, because the guy who cast it is busy drawing his dagger."

Just remember, this is only by the strictest reading of the spell, and, again, almost certainly not what is intended. I've never met an actual DM who played it the way Hypersmurf apparently does.


Jeff

 

[Abraxas]

I have.

 

[shilsen]

So have I.

 

[atom crash]

Movement is relative. If I enter the space containing the flaming sphere, does it not also enter my space? Because with a 5' diameter, it -- unlike a medium creature -- fills the 5' space if occupies. I'd give a character a reflex save and let him go on his merry way.

 

[Liquidsabre]

As have I.

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

I'd give a character a reflex save and let him go on his merry way.

I agree with this, but what about when the character wants to remain in the same space as a flaming sphere? I'd either make that an automatic fail or have a hefty penalty on the save (maybe -4). I'd probably make it an automatic fail unless the character was tiny since the sphere has a 5-foot radius.