Make cone effects = step pyramid shape

[Contents May Vary]

Allowing cones and angled blasts would enable non-friendly fire AoE to be used against a flanked target without hitting your friends. With blasts and bursts that's a huge difference.

But there are already situations where you can do that.

Consider the following (T=Target, F=Flanker, * = Originator, O = open square and X = square affected by a close blast from *):

OOFOO
OXXTO
OXXXF
OXXXO
OO*OO

 

[Oompa]

Make up your fluff damnit..

If an dragonbreath breathes fire in an 3x3 square, he probably effects half of them with his fire blast and the other half damned heat, only for the simplicity it is said all same effects in an 3x3 square..

Just like the square rock, the rock isnt square, it just occupies an few squares and those squares cant be moved into, cause it is occupied by the rock..

Use imagination in combination with the simple rules.. it works..

 

[frankthedm]

Use imagination in combination with the simple rules.. it works..

For some people. Others sometimes want a higher complexity level than the level a game company decided would sell the most units. That said, Blasts DO really cut down on players wasting time finagling their position & the cone template. It's a 6 second round folks, chose a different power or just blast your friends and say "Oops!".

Now Hexes make turning blasts back into cones really easy.

 

[Silverblade The Ench]

Frankthedm,
ah nice work on the hexes! :0


ok, so, if folk don't want cones...WTH about lines then, eh? Lighning bolt is a LINE, "bolt" not "It whacks two people"..gah!! "I cast Lightning...Two person Hitter!". not quite the same, is it? lol

Sorry, one of the few aspects of 4th ed that PO's me off

 

[Contents May Vary]

Frankthedm,
ah nice work on the hexes! :0

ok, so, if folk don't want cones...WTH about lines then, eh? Lighning bolt is a LINE, "bolt" not "It whacks two people"..gah!! "I cast Lightning...Two person Hitter!". not quite the same, is it? lol

Sorry, one of the few aspects of 4th ed that PO's me off

One of the defining characteristics of lightning bolts is that they don't go in a straight line! 3rd ed was never very realistic in that respect; 4th ed isn't any better or worse really, just different.

Except, of course, it's a lot easier to work out who will get hit.

 

[frankthedm]

ok, so, if folk don't want cones...WTH about lines then, eh? Lighning bolt is a LINE, "bolt" not "It whacks two people"..gah!! "I cast Lightning...Two person Hitter!". not quite the same, is it? lol

Sorry, one of the few aspects of 4th ed that PO's me off

Well the way lines in 3.5 worked, they modeled energy attacks.

4E lines seemed more to model piercing shots.

 

[Exen Trik]

One thing that always struck me as funny is that if you look at blasts in term of distance from the user is that a blast from a corner is EXACTLY what a cone should look like: 1 adjacent square effected, 3 squares one square away, and 5 squares beyond that.


What a blast from the front looks like, in terms of square distance:

 . 3 3 3 .
 . 2 2 2 . 
 . 1 1 1 .
 . . O . .

A normal blast, from a corner

 . 3 3 3 .
 . 2 2 3 .
 . 1 2 2 .
 O . . . .

A hypothetical front facing cone area

 3 3 3 3 3
 . 2 2 2 . 
 . . 1 . .
 . . O . .

A blast from a corner SHOULD look like

 . . 3 3 .
 . 2 2 3 .
 1 1 2 . .
 O 1 . . .

Now then, if you try to use this reasoning to make a cone or burst at anything but a right or 45 degree angle, it all gets rather messy. Probably a good enough reason to not do it right there... but if you really want different cones and bursts, it might be worth it.

 

[Boco]

Here are two ways to use cones instead of blasts. Of course the 'source' square can be any of the 8 you're touching just like now, so these two options are just examples.

..........
..........
...X......
...XX.....
...XXX....
...XXXX...
...XXXXX..
..C.......
..........
..........

..........
..........
.......X..
......XX..
.....XXX..
....XXXX..
...XXXXX..
..C.......
..........
..........

 

[KarinsDad]

Allowing cones and angled blasts would enable non-friendly fire AoE to be used against a flanked target without hitting your friends. With blasts and bursts that's a huge difference.

Our DM allows Cone Blasts, but not Angled Blasts.

The PCs used two blasts in our 5 encounter game on Saturday (the NPCs used two). One of them, there were no PCs anywhere near. The other, a PC was on the opposite side of a Dragon.

The Wizard using the Blast (Thunderwave) was stuck between a Wall and a Dragon. He could have used a normal Blast, but that might have gotten 2 PCs. He used the Cone Blast and only included 1 PC in the area of effect.

In that scenario, the normal blast is very detrimental (even moreso if 3 or more PCs would have been targeted). It's not fun to be straighjacketed that way and unable to use powers.

The cone blast solves that issue. It allows for the inclusion of zero or few allies in a blast.

It's FUN (and that is the important thing) and not unbalanced.

And, it works for NPCs exactly like it does for PCs.

That same Dragon in that same encounter used a Cone Blast twice to very good effect because of the following:

. . . . .
1 . . . .
2 . . . .
x x x x x
x x x x x
x x x x x D
x x 4 x x
x 3 x x x
. . . . .
. . . . .

In the first example here, PCs 1 and 2 are out of the area of effect.

. . . . .
1 . . . .
2 x . . .
x x x . .
x x x x .
x x x x x D
x x 4 x .
x 3 x . .
x x . . .
x . . . .

In the second example here, PCs 1 and 2 are in of the area of effect.

Good for the goose. Good for the gander.

This allows for more options in the game and is more fun for those who like more options, including a DM.

It doesn't break anything, especially when one considers that a Square Blast is a lot more beneficial for a melee type (i.e. frontline) PC. A Cone Blast is a lot more beneficial for a spell caster (i.e. second line) PC.

 

[Gee4orce]

Clearly the dragons have wised up a bit and realised that if they can blast in a cone, then can also wave that blast around a bit and paint the whole area in breath effect. That's how I see these close blasts working.

Plus, the elder and ancient dragons also have a ranged burst effect, which I interpret as the classic ball or jet of fire.