need help - breath weap in confined space

[rom90125]

My party is going to face a wounded young adult red dragon tonight and I wanted opinions regarding the use of the dragon's breath weap. Specifically, if the dragon uses its breath weap as the pc's flee into an ajoining tunnel, how do I determine the length of fire as it extends from the dragon's maw into the tunnel? How far will the fire reach into the tunnel?

Thx in advance.

 

[JimAde]

The short answer, as I understand it, is that the fire will reach only as far as it normally would (50 feet for a Huge dragon).

Hm. I just looked in the SRD and it doesn't say if the dragon's breath weapon is a burst or a spread.

Under the magic overview it seems to say the following about spells:
1) If it's a burst, you do the area normally and any point outside that area OR that doesn't have line of effect from the origin is safe.
2) If it's a spread you do much the same, but any point that would be in the affected area and can be reached by "spreading" around obstacles is still in danger.

In either case, if I'm reading it correctly, the effect is never squeezed out to a greater range because of space restrictions.

 

[Methos of Aundair]

Unfortunately, to my understanding 3rd edition and 3.5 rules that the spells area of effect does not change due to confining spaces. I had a pc cast fireball in a 5' wide x 10' tall sewer tunnel at an opponent 40' away at a dead end tunnel. I ruled that due to the enclosed area and the dead end tunnel the fireball spread down to tunnel back towards the wizard and his companions and made them take the effects of the spell as well. They informed me that 3.x editions don't deal with spells like that, there is no force behind a fireball like there was in previous editions (1st or 2nd, can't remember). After a brief discussion I adjusted my ruling, though I did expand the fireball anyway only a bit more forcefully, after all, sewers contain methane gas

In my own opinion, I would think the tunnel would act like a wind tunnel with the dragon's breath weapon, even raising the DC, but the rules don't follow that.

 

[FireLance]

What JimAde said, with the added comment that IMO, fire breath should be a spread, not a burst.

 

[Liquidsabre]

Hmm, in the DMG (p.291) under breath weapons all it states is: "The breath simply fills its stated area."

Sounds rather like a spread to me, it can turn corners. So just lay down the template and whatever bits of the template lie in the tunnel is hit by the breath.