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Message: <blockquote data-quote="KarinsDad" data-source="post: 5756004" data-attributes="member: 2011">This is the part of the issue that some people might be missing.A Fireball doesn't ignite material in 4E.It requires handwaving or house rules from the DM to allow an Arcana check to sustain the flight of a damaged hot air balloon. Arcana is a knowledge skill. It doesn't technically give the ability to modify spells unless the DM states that it can.A given skill challenge might allow for it, but the power itself and the general skill rules do not.The targets of a Fireball spell are the creatures in the area. Not paper in the area. Not a table.In 3.5, a Fireball could ignite material.4E has become very metagamey and rules driven and not narrative driven. It's more like a game of Monopoly than an RPG in some respects.As a different example, there are elemental attack spells that only target enemies (e.g. Storm Pillar, Flames of Purity, Fires of Judgement, Flame Spiral, etc.). People have to narratively stretch that to say "Well, I'm summoning elemental creatures that do the damage against my enemies, that's why it doesn't target my allies", or "my god attacks only my enemies" (but that doesn't happen with other prayers), or whatever.Say what?The game mechanics of some elemental powers allow for them to attack only enemies, but fire and lightning and acid shouldn't have cognitive reasoning powers. They should just do elemental damage, especially at heroic levels. At Paragon and Epic levels, yeah maybe one could stretch it that the elemental powers are quasi-intelligent or totally within the control of the caster/user.But at low level, powers should not be this precise. Blasts should be blasts that hit everyone in them. Bursts should be bursts that hit everyone in them. Especially elemental bursts and blasts.Instead of some type of power capability based on level and based on keyword, level merely indicates how much damage something does and possibly the strength of a conditional effect. Instead of the elemental power affecting every object in the area, it only affects living creatures.This is where the disconnect comes in for some players.A Fireball is no longer fire. It's a multi-creature effect that doesn't really burn. Not really. Sure, fire resistance helps against it, but in a room of papers, it doesn't matter.</blockquote>

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