Long range spells and aiming

[Plecak]

Hi guys,

I have got the following problem:

Imagine a battle coming to an end. One side is clearly losing, and the unfortunate combatants are fleeing the batltlefield. One of the winning wizards decides to finish the escapees off with, for example, the Fireball spell.

Now, since Fireball has a long range, the wizard has to "aim" it, that is, he has to evaluate where the target is now and where it is going to be in several seconds before proceeding to cast the spell. In theory, the wizard could misjudge the distance and/or the target's speed, and/or the direction the target is moving, so there is plenty room for error. In short, the wizard could easily miss the target.

How do you handle such things in your campaigns?

Thanx in advance.

 

[Plane Sailing]

He is using a magic spell, not a bazooka, so target speed and distance isn't really relevant. He just says "explosion there" and it happens. The distance are height are given as '8ft off the ground in the middle of those people"

That is how I do it.

I can see how someone might decide that You point your finger and determine the range (distance and height) at which the fireball is to burst. means that the wizard ought to say "568ft away, 8ft up", but I don't think that is a workable way of using the spell in the game. Melfs acid arrow and other long range spells certainly don't even suggest that might be needed.

The spells are instantaneous, so there isn't any movement between the completion of the casting of the spell and the arrival at the target, so 'leading' a moving target wouldn't be relevant anyway.

Cheers

 

[lukelightning]

Yeah, it's not sucky like in Baldur's Gate CRPG in which by the time you've finished casting the fireball the enemies are in melee with you and nowhere near the explosion.

 

[frankthedm]

The spells are instantaneous, so there isn't any movement between the completion of the casting of the spell and the arrival at the target, so 'leading' a moving target wouldn't be relevant anyway.

The fireball bead [fine size] does streak the intervening distance.

A glowing, pea-sized bead streaks from the pointing digit and, unless it impacts upon a material body or solid barrier prior to attaining the prescribed range, blossoms into the fireball at that point. (An early impact results in an early detonation.) If you attempt to send the bead through a narrow passage, such as through an arrow slit, you must “hit” the opening with a ranged touch attack, or else the bead strikes the barrier and detonates prematurely.

Sadly yes, the core rules do assume pin point accuracy with fireballs at a 1/5th of a mile :\

I prefer scatter dice for fireball impact. But I like magic as dangerous to friend and foe, rather than 100% safe to use as 3e makes it.

 

[kayn99]

I also do not like the way it works, just point at a square and it happens. In my games in the past, we house ruled a Spellcraft check for the mage to allow him to count squares. It is to easier to look down on a battle map and count; if you stand in your back yard and try to judge 250 or 270 feet it is hard. It is even harder to judge distance when a object is coming directly towards you or away from you. At first the players did not like the rule until The NPC mage who was targeting them missed by 20 feet.

DKR

 

[shilsen]

[QUEEN]It's a kind of magic.[/QUEEN]

Less musically, I've never found anything useful added to the game by not allowing precise aiming as the RAW does, so I use that. PCs benefit. NPCs benefit. Works fine for me.

 

[RangerWickett]

By the rules, it hits exactly where you want it to hit. I'd assume that, if we were making this into a movie so casting the spell isn't exactly instantaneous, the magic lets you guide it slightly as it flies, and heightens your senses so you can make it land with pinpoint accuracy.

In the games I play in, the DMs rule it that way, and I'm fine with it. In my personal campaign I use Elements of Magic where all spells are made up on the fly anyway, so people can say the fireball just appears where they want, instead of it streaking. (Or they can have tiny motes of fire spring up on different targets; or they can have a dragon head appear from a fiery rift and exhale upon the targets; etc.).

I think you're fully in the realm of reason to say that it's not perfectly aimable. But if you do that, you start down the path of having to house rule other things. Like how is it possible for an arrow to fly 800 ft. to its target in time to disrupt a mage casting a spell, or why you can charge 10 ft. as long as it's a straight line, but if your speed is 80 you can't step around a corner and charge 70 ft. as a straight line. I'd be cool with all these things being adjudicated, as long as they were consistent.

 

[Thurbane]

Hi guys,

I have got the following problem:

Imagine a battle coming to an end. One side is clearly losing, and the unfortunate combatants are fleeing the batltlefield. One of the winning wizards decides to finish the escapees off with, for example, the Fireball spell.

Now, since Fireball has a long range, the wizard has to "aim" it, that is, he has to evaluate where the target is now and where it is going to be in several seconds before proceeding to cast the spell. In theory, the wizard could misjudge the distance and/or the target's speed, and/or the direction the target is moving, so there is plenty room for error. In short, the wizard could easily miss the target.

How do you handle such things in your campaigns?

Thanx in advance.

I totally agree with you, we use a house rule where the wizard makes a very basic ranged touch attack (usually about AC 10 unless the distance is really extreme), using the grenade scatter resolution if he misses.

It's not the RAW, but I've always thought having a wizard be able to drop a fireball to the exact inch from 400+ feet away was a little odd. It also helps stop the silly tactic of dropping a fireball into a melee and positioning so it stops at the toes of allied creatures but miraculously engulfs all the enemies...

 

[Tiberius]

Don't forget, though, that this is what wizards do. Their continued employment (and, often, existence) is contingent upon them being able to pull up magical effects upon demand (assuming reasonable notice beforehand) and have said effects do exactly what the party wants (with reasonable allowances made for things like unexpected resistances and the like). If I was expected to throw fireballs around in life-or-death circumstances with precision accuracy, you'd better believe I'd spend my off days with a pile of sulfur and bat guano until I could nuke a fly at a thousand paces.

 

[Plecak]

The problem seems to be difficult. How would you handle it if the escapees were running away in zigzags?