I cast a blast spell, you say: how high?

[Danceofmasks]

Yeah, but Xena has her own unique paragon path tech.

 

[Oompa]

How i miss that girl:

Ohhhh and Particle man.. The A-team is champion, they shoot, never get out of ammo, never reload, never hit someone but always win the fight..

We need the A-team to resolve the wars in the world.. it would be so much better..

But now on-topic..

I think i am going to rule it simple, on the ground it will be as said in the books, going up it will be an big square.. 3x3x3 or 10x10x10 or something like that..

 

[Ashenboychild]

Or Susan from that new Narnia movie.

Yay! Quiver of infinite indefinite arrows!

 

[Herzog]

I think I'm going to go withe the use of the 3rd dimension as an extension of the first two (if it's 5x5, it is now 5x5x5, cover handled the same as in 2d, etc.) as it's the most reasonable extension of the existing rules.

And Indefinitely high is silly. If Customer support doesn't know, they should say so, instead of trying to make up their own rules.

Herzog

 

[Obryn]

I don't see any problem with cube effects.

For close attacks, I'll just rule that they have to hug the ground - so a 3x3x3 effect can't be aimed over your buddies' heads.

-O

 

[James McMurray]

I'd let a close attack go over a friend's head, but because the origin has to be somewhere in your space, and it goes out in all directions, you'd have to be tall enough to start the attack up really high. For instance, a dragon might breath over the heads of its kobold allies, and still manage to toast the ogres attacking it.

 

[LokiDR]

There are no rules according to what I see on the vertical dimension of blasts. Everything seems to happen statically on the horizontal dimension. D&D 4e is a 2D game...

Why do you say that? 3D movement is fairly clear, I think blasts are too.

Here's the PHB quotes (p56):

Close burst [number]: A close burst power allows you to target creatures or objects within the indicated number of squares from you in all directions.

Close blast [number]: A close blast power allows you to target creatures or objects within an adjacent area that is the indicated number of squares on a side.

And again at p272:

Blast: A blast fills an area adjacent to you that is a specified number of squares on a side. For example, the wizard power thunderwave is a blast 3, which means the power affects a 3-square-by-3-square area adjacent to you. The blast must be adjacent to its origin square, which is a square in your space. The origin square is not affected by the blast. A blast affects a target only if the target is in the blast’s area and if there is line of effect from the origin square to the target.
Burst: A burst starts in an origin square and extends in all directions to a specified number of squares from the origin square. For example, the cleric power flame strike is a burst 2 within 10 squares of you, which means the power originates in a square up to 10 squares away from you and affects the origin square and every square within 2 squares of it (a 5-square-by-5-square area). Unless a power description notes otherwise, a close burst you create does not affect you. However, an area burst you create does affect you. A burst affects a target only if there is line of effect from the burst’s origin square to the target.

Given that the 3D movement rules clearly state squares are really cubes and blast says "all directions", it seems pretty clear such affects are square in all directions. The examples given in the PH are just square because the battle grid is flat and it is the easiest to visualize.

This exact same question comes up in 3rd with the volume of a fireball. This is nothing new.

 

[LokiDR]

I don't see any problem with cube effects.

For close attacks, I'll just rule that they have to hug the ground - so a 3x3x3 effect can't be aimed over your buddies' heads.

-O

That's probably the best to keep the dirty tricks down, but why couldn't a dragonborn tilt his head back and give a flaming belch up?

4e sucks, it nerfs flaming belches!

 

[webrunner]

That's not the point here.
Apparently custserv reckons infinitely high blasts is how the game officially works.

Normally, yes. You dont have to figure out how 'high' a given dragon is currently flying for the purposes of a burst. It's just easier that way.

But there are optional rules for three-dimensional combat in the DMG, and these are used for times in which it actually matters, and you actually could be directly above/below a group you want to blast.

 

[Mirtek]

Honestly... If your DM (or you, if you are the DM) can't easily judge this situation and make a sensible ruling, I don't know what to say. Maybe this kind of "imagination" game isn't for you?

Honestly... If your DM (or you, if you are the DM) can't easily judge the range of a longbow of the damage of a maul and make a sensible ruling, I don't know what to say. Maybe this kind of "imagination" game isn't for you?

Vote for deleting ranges of ranged weapon and weapon damage in general from the D&D rules.

Well I prefer the word "indefinitely" high. As in "as high as it needs to be to hit the flying opponent you want to hit". That does not require that it also be "infinitely" high, as a given opponent will not be infinitely high. So if a flyer is 60' high and you want to hit the flyer, then your burst is 65' high.

Which still leads to the question why the very same blast can't hit the guy 50' away just because he's on ground level instead of being airborne

Sorta like how the kobolds always have "one more javelin" to throw at the pcs (like in the old movie shootouts, where the shooters never seem to have to reload their guns).

You're of course free to use rule 0 to have your kobolds always having "one more javelin" to throw at your players, however the D&D rules care about this crucially important situation and did give each kobold a set finite number of javelins (3 in the case of a kobold minion). So if you're kobold is hurling just "one more javelin" after he has already thrown three javelins, that's your house rule