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Message: <blockquote data-quote="eamon" data-source="post: 5041800" data-attributes="member: 51942">This discussion can't be resolved perfectly.  There are two conflicting aims here, and it's a matter of balancing these.  On the one hand, there's RAI and playability, and on the other, there's consistency.Sure, the game is probably best if spell effects don't generally cause "hindering terrain".  But I think that a rules-based argument to that extent is pretty weak. It's a good interpretation for gameplay, and apparently it's been informally mentioned to be the intent several times, but it's not clearcut given the rules text.The examples you give - such as deafened etc. - are not really comparable.  Deafened is a specific condition with a defined effect.  Hindering terrain isn't; it's a catch-all description of a type of terrain.Playing devil's advocate here: from a consistency perspective, why does it make sense that creatures get a saving throw from a magical fire the DM happens to have put there (perhaps an effect of some BBEG's ritual), when creatures don't get such a save if an otherwise identical fire happens to be the result of a PC's power?Clearly, that is not very consistent.The problem with going down that road is that it's unclear what the solution might be.  If you let ephemeral effects be hindering terrain, inevitably, you'll need to ask yourself what sorts of effects are hindering.  Clearly, dropping prone to avoid movement is essentially a voluntary action, so if a creature does that to avoid fire, why not the cold of a chilling cloud (a non-damaging effect)?  Why not to remain out of reach of a fighter's rain of steel?  Why, in fact, not to remain out of a particularly dangerous tactical situation?  If a creature is immune to fire this turn, is a sea of flames still hindering terrain?If you let creatures drop prone to avoid spell effects, you'll need to decide what effects are dangerous enough to qualify, and the only reasonable measuring stick here would be the opinion of the creature - the creature decides whether the situation appears harmful or hindering enough to warrant attempting to fall prone.Of course, that approach has it's own set of problems; for one, it's clearly not the intent - so that's going to mess up the balance of the game, which is predicated on the assumption of powers working in a particular fashion.  Secondly, it's less fun; as-is forced movement is pretty neat, but if you can just drop prone whenever you're making it a lot less attractive.Any real fix of this issue would need to introduce a house-rule to somehow maintain the tactical gameplay element of forced movement and marry that with the ability of a creature to do an emergency break if needed.  That'd be tricky (possibly impossible) to do, probably, especially if you don't want to otherwise affect balance much.Personally, I like a consistent approach - but perfection is the enemy of good, and I'm definitely not willing to sacrifice the excellent 4e forced movement tactics to resolve a minor inconsistency with respect to hindering terrain.</blockquote>

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