No more cone shaped powers?

[Cadfan]

It really doesn't. The Red Dragon's fiery breath is very naturally a cone shape. They absolutely have to have a really good mechanic for how this works, because if the game can't model the iconic creature in the game, then they have a real problem.

Didn't the red dragon's fiery breath used to be a cloud? My Rules Cyclopedia is so buried away that there's no chance of me finding it, but I seem to recall that.

 

[olshanski]

I will not miss cone effects.

 

[Sir Brennen]

I didn't get the impression from the podcast that the cone is *gone* so much as they recognize the weirdness at certain angles on a square grid. Perhaps cones in the mini game are gone, Not sure what the resolution will actually be in the 4E RPG. It would suck if my Steel Squire templates were renedered useless.

But for those that want consistant cones... another reason for hex grids !

 

[frankthedm]

It would suck if my Steel Squire templates were renedered useless.

Trust me, they will be useless in 4E. Alll of their shapes worked specificly off how grid areas were counted in 3^.5E.

In 3^.5E a radius was counted from an intersection of squares using the 1-2-1-2 diagonal count.
In 4E a radius is counted from a square using 1-1-1-1 in all directions

TBH steel squire won't be needed since all radial areas are Boxes now,

Didn't the red dragon's fiery breath used to be a cloud? My Rules Cyclopedia is so buried away that there's no chance of me finding it, but I seem to recall that.

Green and Gold dragons had clouds for thier clorine gas breath weapons. Fire and cold had narrow cones and acid and lightning were lines.

 

[jaer]

Kinda glad they were removed. I find cone area of effects to be a major drawback to any spell. It's one of those things that seems cool, but almost always works best for the DM, not the PCs.

For a trap or a solo creature like a dragon, the cone works out well. It has no potential allies to hit and can get most of the party. It's also easy for a DM to design an encounter where cones can be blasted about freely due to elemental immunities and the like.

But given the option between a cone effect (cone of cold) and a line effect (l-bolt) for a PC, the line effect is the better choice (and makes l-bolt generally a significantly better spell, even with the lower cap damage). With cones being a set shape, without being an archmage, it's almost impossible to hit a significant number of opponents without hitting your allies. It is much easier and preferable, IMO, to hit 2 out of 4 enemies with a line effect then 4 out of 4 and 2 allies with a cone.

As a DM, I might miss them being gone, but as a PC, they were never really all that worth it, and I would go out of my way to not have cone effects.

 

[SteveC]

Well this sounds like rather a silly thing to do. There's simplification and then there's just getting bothered over things that were never really a problem.

So cone of cold is out, eh? I suppose dragons breath lines now? Just seems rather silly to me. I wonder what we're getting out of this change?

--Steve

 

[frankthedm]

So cone of cold is out, eh? I suppose dragons breath lines now? Just seems rather silly to me. I wonder what we're getting out of this change?

A lot fewer targets being hit.

Especially since 4e will use lines effecting only those in squares the line passes through, rather than squares the line passes trough or touches as in 3.5.

 

[Delta]

Didn't the red dragon's fiery breath used to be a cloud? My Rules Cyclopedia is so buried away that there's no chance of me finding it, but I seem to recall that.

Nope.

 

[Fifth Element]

This thing about no cone templates is insane.

I think you might be overstating your case a tad. Just a tad.

Perhaps they have a very rational explanation.

 

[drothgery]

FWIW, even though SWSE counts all diaganols as 2 for movement purposes, cone and burst effect shapes are the same as 3.x D&D.