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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Greenfield" data-source="post: 7586735" data-attributes="member: 6669384">As a general note, the 5 D6 of no-save damage is about the same as a 10D6 Fireball, with the Save made.  After a certain point in character/game progression you come to expect the opponents to make the Save a lot.The average damage is 17.5 points, which is coincidentally the exact same damage as a Magic Missile at its top end.And I know it's silly to react to a 16 year old mis-statement, but maybe I'm OCD or something.  (Though there's very little disorderly about OCD, and referenced properly it should be called "CDO".  That way it's alphabetized...)...  Anyway, you can have a Fireball reach a 40 foot height, same as Ice Storm, but the footprint at ground level gets really small.  Technically/mathematically it will cover exactly zero squares on the ground if set off at twenty feet in the air.  It's a ball sitting ona table.  Minimum surface contact.  And the area covered at the forty foot mark is also zero, for the same reason.I've used this in games as a way to limit the effective size/area of the spell, or as a way to take out opponents with it while avoiding a downed companion:  Set it to detonate 22 feet up (or 25 if you feel he need to "snap to grid" in the air), and any Medium creature in the area gets hit, while Small and/or prone characters are safe.I've occasionally limited spell use for some area effects by requiring that the caster be able to see the ground level target point.  Call Avalanche is an example, since the effect is specific to ground area covered/buried in snow.  Over all though it's a good idea to realize that not all DMs routinely think in terms of three-dimensional shapes for spells, and simply presume a "standard" footprint, as laid out in the Area of Effect templates in the book.  To such hard-liners any attempt to use them as anything other than "Ground Burst" is tantamount to cheating.</blockquote>

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