Long range spells and aiming

[RangerWickett]

As people said before, it's a spell, not a cannon. You simply don't have to lead it. It magically goes exactly where you want it. Hell, if you want to hit a smaller area, you can even have it explode in the air, so the bottom edge of the sphere touches the ground, instead of the full circumference.

 

[Someone]

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.

I never got that argument. Fighting is what fighters do, they too use magic (weapons), they supposedly train a lot too and still have to roll to hit the enemy.

 

[RangerWickett]

I never got that argument. Fighting is what fighters do, they too use magic (weapons), they supposedly train a lot too and still have to roll to hit the enemy.

Attack roll = saving throw.

 

[Thurbane]

I never got that argument. Fighting is what fighters do, they too use magic (weapons), they supposedly train a lot too and still have to roll to hit the enemy.

Agreed.

Look, I can think we can all agree that by the RAW there is absolutely no miss chance or roll required. By the same token, I also believe it is no big deal to house rule some sort of system to stop the precision blasting of foes from great distances. Each group can either go RAW or house rule, no biggie...

Anyway, here's a RAW question: what if the mage is blinded, or the square he wants to hit is obscured or concealed? Whats the ruling in these cases?

 

[Moon-Lancer]

i read someplace that if you want to shoot fireball through a arrow slit, that you would have to hit the size ac for the arrow slit or it hits the side and bursts on the wall.

 

[Jeff Wilder]

One very simple house rule that we found fun -- even the spellcasters -- is to roll a d20 whenever a spell targets an intersection or square. On a 9-20, it goes where desires. On a 1-8, it's off by one square according to the roll, with 1 being "long," clockwise to 5 being "short" and so on. It's quick, it's easy, it tends to satisfy the niggling doubts about perfect aim, and yet it doesn't screw spellcasters (or their allies) over much at all.