Is it ever a good idea to hit the party?

[Kzach]

A pet peeve of mine is people who think it's Ok to target party members in area effect attacks. IMO, unless the characters have full immunity from the effects of the attack, then it is never a good idea.

I seem to be encountering several people who think otherwise lately, so I thought I'd see what the general consensus is in the greater online community.

 

[amnuxoll]

I think there are definitely times when it's a good tactic. But I think it's important for the player creating the effect to get permission of the player whose PC will be affected.

 

[Theroc]

I think it's highly situational ICly, but should be discussed and hashed out OOCly if there's any inkling this might occur... as if someone dies because of that, there might be hurt feelings.

 

[Jaysue]

In our party our fighter doesnt mind if I hit him, in fact often we'll use his come & get it so surround enemies for me to use maze of Mirrors on, so the strikers can go nuts (and I usually drop another AoE right on his head after).

I often make up for this by using my Healing Word (MC Cleric) on him, but generally we have more than enough healing that he doesnt mind.

This tactic evolved because he had the Invulnerable Coat of Arnd, and i'd just get him to swap to the right resistance - but we found even after that it wasnt "that bad".

However - the strikers used to get upset when I would hit them and a few enemies with a shock blast....but usually only did it when they got uppity about something

 

[Nightson]

Metagame wise, I think you should always, always check with the players about friendly fire to their characters.

Tactically speaking, there are plenty of situations where it's fine.

 

[FireLance]

Is it ever a good idea to deal damage to yourself to deal more damage to the enemy?

You'd be surprised how many people will say, "Yes."

The same principle applies here. If including one ally in an AoE means that you could simultaneously target two or three additional enemies, I think many people would consider it a worthwhile tradeoff.

 

[delericho]

I seem to be encountering several people who think otherwise lately, so I thought I'd see what the general consensus is in the greater online community.

They should treat the other characters as the living beings that they are supposed to represent, and the Area Effects as the potentially-lethal attacks that those are supposed to represent, rather than treating the whole thing as just a set of playing pieces moving around a board.

Now, some characters may well still be okay with targetting their friends with a fireball - a cold-hearted mage who just wants to win and doesn't care about collateral damage, for example. For most characters, though, I would expect the answer to be 'no'.

 

[Ariosto]

In my first 4e game, there was a moment when we were joking that one player was going to "score his first TPK, and not as a DM".

As it turned out, he killed only one PC. The player of that one took it in stride, but clearly did not appreciate the "friendly fire".

The offending character was certainly a callously selfish rogue (as evidenced in other ways) -- but characters are not players, and what happens in the game stays in the game. (Not that there are not some jerks one would avoid playing with in the first place!)

 

[UngainlyTitan]

Well that brings up fond memories of our paladin calling down a fireball on himself, so I fireballed him twice, worked too.

Normally I would avoid friendly fire but there are situations where it is a very good option. Probably less so in 4e as nearly every class has some minion clearance power available.

 

[Nebten]

In my first 4e game, there was a moment when we were joking that one player was going to "score his first TPK, and not as a DM".

As it turned out, he killed only one PC. The player of that one took it in stride, but clearly did not appreciate the "friendly fire".

The offending character was certainly a callously selfish rogue (as evidenced in other ways) -- but characters are not players, and what happens in the game stays in the game. (Not that there are not some jerks one would avoid playing with in the first place!)

How did that happen? A rogue really has to go out of his way to do damage to another party member, specifically at first level. Unless you have house rules that make ranged attack more difficult . . .