Line of Effect

[garumn]

Hello, all;

Here is my scenario/desire: as a rather nefarious plot, an evil wizard, named Nuke Nukesalot, would dearly LOVE to trap the PC's in a corner of a room using Wall of Force. Nuke's idea is to have a treasure chest in the corner of a room to dupe the party into that corner. Invisibly wringing his hands, Nuke casts his Wall of Force spell, easily catching all PC's within the corner (his level gives him plenty of square footage to diagonally close off escape for the group). Now that he has them effectively trapped, he would cast conjuration spell after conjuration spell inside where the PC's are (Cloudkill, Summon Monster, Acid Fog, etc.).

Is he able to carry out his dastardly plot using the rules?

Thank you all in advance for your help!!!

 

[Hypersmurf]

Hello, all;

Here is my scenario/desire: as a rather nefarious plot, an evil wizard, named Nuke Nukesalot, would dearly LOVE to trap the PC's in a corner of a room using Wall of Force. Nuke's idea is to have a treasure chest in the corner of a room to dupe the party into that corner. Invisibly wringing his hands, Nuke casts his Wall of Force spell, easily catching all PC's within the corner (his level gives him plenty of square footage to diagonally close off escape for the group). Now that he has them effectively trapped, he would cast conjuration spell after conjuration spell inside where the PC's are (Cloudkill, Summon Monster, Acid Fog, etc.).

Is he able to carry out his dastardly plot using the rules?

Yes and no.

If Nuke Nukesalot seals off the corner completely, floor-to-ceiling, he will have no line of effect to the point of origin for his Conjuration spells, because the Wall will block it.

If, on the other hand, he leaves a three-inch gap between the base of the Wall and the floor (unlike, say, a Wall of Iron or Wall of Ice, a Wall of Force is not required to rest on a solid surface), Nuke Nukesalot will have line of effect to the other side of the Wall, and can cast his spells just fine. The down-side, of course, is that this means any casters on the other side of the Wall have line of effect to him.

An otherwise solid barrier with a hole of at least 1 square foot through it does not block a spell’s line of effect. Such an opening means that the 5-foot length of wall containing the hole is no longer considered a barrier for purposes of a spell’s line of effect.

Three inches by five feet is larger than one square foot (1.25), so the gap at the bottom would make the Wall not-a-barrier for LoE purposes, but it will prevent the PCs walking out.

-Hyp.

 

[Delta]

As an aside, I'd give a small-sized creature a chance at Escape Artist: Tight Space to get out of that trick (3" is pretty close to such a character's head diameter, within an inch or so).

 

[Dross]

Three inches by five feet is larger than one square foot (1.25), so the gap at the bottom would make the Wall not-a-barrier for LoE purposes, but it will prevent the PCs walking out.

-Hyp.

Would you have to know where the gap is for LoE to work? Would things like fireball make a difference?

 

[Hypersmurf]

Would you have to know where the gap is for LoE to work? Would things like fireball make a difference?

For fireball, yes, because the spell has explicit rules for a narrow gap.

For pretty much any other spell that doesn't require an attack roll, it doesn't matter - you just need line of effect, and you have line of effect.

-Hyp.

 

[Hussar]

How does that jive with scrying effects then? Or teleportation? I can both scry and teleport into a sealed room, even through walls of force. I have no line of effect, so, how does that work?

 

[Hypersmurf]

How does that jive with scrying effects then? Or teleportation? I can both scry and teleport into a sealed room, even through walls of force. I have no line of effect, so, how does that work?

Teleport you need line of effect to the target; the target is you. You don't need line of effect to your destination.

Scrying creates an effect - a magical sensor - which may be at any distance. Strictly as written, unlimited range does not get around the line of effect rules... so strictly, you need a straight unblocked path (which may be of unlimited length) to where you want to create that effect.

In practice, I suspect most people treat it as an exception.

-Hyp.

 

[Hussar]

That makes sense. Although, if you did take line of effect into consideration, it would make scrying far less powerful and less problematic. The whole scry/buff/teleport thing goes out the window if your target is underground or even in a room with no windows facing you.

I was going to point to claivoyance, but, reading the spell, it specifically calls out the exception.

OTOH, since you can scry on other planes, I'm thinking, while it doesn't specifically say so, scry is also an exception.

 

[garumn]

LoE

Thanks for the help, Smurf!!

It would appear Mr. Nukesalot needs to rethink his dastardly plan... He certainly likes the idea of leaving a 5'x3" gap in it for LOE.

The caster can form the wall into a flat, vertical plane whose area is up to one 10-foot square per level. The wall must be continuous and unbroken when formed. If its surface is broken by any object or creature, the spell fails.

Using this last paragraph of the spell description, the wall would still be continuous if 10' tall when created, correct?

 

[Hypersmurf]

Using this last paragraph of the spell description, the wall would still be continuous if 10' tall when created, correct?

Absolutely.

-Hyp.