It's a Spell, Not a Grenade

[Tequila Sunrise]

Am I the only DM who's okay with players shrinking their burst and blast powers on the fly? I allowed this in 3e too, but just recently realized it might not be common practice. It's not like area damage powers can't use a boost in versatility, or that they can't get better video game prop...I mean, Spell Accuracy. (Or Mastery of Shaping for those 3e viewers.)

So how about it, do other DMs allow this?

TS

 

[Fredrik Svanberg]

I'd allow it as an Arcana stunt.

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

What's an arcana stunt?

 

[Lakoda]

It's a skill stunt for the arcana skill. Basically it is a use for the arcana skill.

I would probably make it part of an attack action with a DC equal to the easy DC for the level of the power plus the magnitude of the change. So a 3rd level spell where the player wanted to change an Area Burst 5 to Area Burst 2, I would require an Arcana check of DC 8 (5 is the easy DC for level 3, plus another 3 for the magnitude of the change ... 5-2=3).

Now you can do whatever suits your fancy but basically what Fredrik was saying is to require an Arcana skill check, if they succeed the spell is augmented as they wished, but if they fail the spells goes off unaugmented (most like centered on the same square) and fried all their friends .

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

It's a skill stunt for the arcana skill. Basically it is a use for the arcana skill.

I would probably make it part of an attack action with a DC equal to the easy DC for the level of the power plus the magnitude of the change. So a 3rd level spell where the player wanted to change an Area Burst 5 to Area Burst 2, I would require an Arcana check of DC 8 (5 is the easy DC for level 3, plus another 3 for the magnitude of the change ... 5-2=3).

Now you can do whatever suits your fancy but basically what Fredrik was saying is to require an Arcana skill check, if they succeed the spell is augmented as they wished, but if they fail the spells goes off unaugmented (most like centered on the same square) and fried all their friends .

Just to be clear, your example is essentially an auto success for any realistic wizard. DC8 with a +5 for Arcana and a virtual certainty the character has at least +2 for int bonus. Not even a 1st level character will ever fail a DC8 skill check in a trained skill unless they roll a 1. Given that there are going to be negative consequences, possibly significant ones, you may not want a LARGE chance of this failing, but at DC15 your average level 1 wizard will still make the check between 1/2 and 2/3 of the time. Easy DCs are really intended to be "a trained character won't fail except by very bad luck".

That being said I think it should be a fairly difficult stunt to pull off. Changing AoE of spells increases their flexibility a LOT. If reducing the AoE of spells is virtually a freebie then you have added a lot to the power of the wizard. I like the idea of the Arcana stunt mechanism, it should work fine, but doing this kind of thing SHOULD be risky. You don't want wizards simply shrinking their AoEs on ever cast of a spell willy nilly, IMHO. So I'd allow it if a player suggests it, but I would definitely make it at least a DC15 (hard DC for the level of the power). I think I might also consider some sort of critical failure or something like that too.

 

[Fredrik Svanberg]

I would use a DC based on the level of the power (the logic being that more powerful powers would be more difficult to modify on the fly).

To decrease the burst (or blast) area of a level 1 power by one square in each direction (3x3 => 2x2, and I wouldn't allow for greater modification than that) I'd use the medium difficulty DC provided by the errata'd DM guide. I think this amounts to 10, but I don't know. Practically a given success for a dedicated caster.

To increase the area I'd use the hard difficulty DC (at level 1 I think that's 15), but I would also require an action point to go with that, and if it fails the spell might go wild (1d6 squares in a random direction) or injure the caster (lose a healing surge), or do something else that seems cool. The reason for why I'd require an action point for a stunt like that is because I wouldn't want them to do it in every fight, or more than once per fight. The reason for the increased danger is mostly for my own amusement.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Yeah, I don't think there is any chance at all I'd allow an increased AoE for a spell at all. Even with some kind of critical failure mechanism the increase in power is really large. Plus critical failures are a rather awkward mechanism to use. Such a failure is likely to turn a desperate situation into a TPK real fast. I think people are underestimating the amount by which this amplifies the power of wizards as well. It means MANY more chances to use certain spells.
After thinking about it I would make the DC hard for a power of the caster's level, period. That should provide around a 50/50 chance of success. If the check fails, then the spell would simply go off with the normal AoE, which may not be catastrophic and is something the wizard can at least keep in mind.

 

[keterys]

Could make it just something like -2 to attack per square of radius difference (only lower allowed). That would make it much easier to play an area only mage - worst case you take -2 to your Scorching Burst to hit a single target.