Placement of area spells

[Derren]

I have a problem with the way area spells are placed. They can be placed to exact so that there is no real disadvantage that it is an area spell. Lets say the two fighters engaged the enemies in melee. The wizard casts fireball. Now my players count the spaces an the battle map and places the fireball so, that the radius stops just before the fighters. Unless in heavy melee, small spaces or in special environment there is no disadvantage in using area spells over targeted spells because there is always a way to place them so that only enemies are hit.
Any idea how to make it a bit more risky to place fireballs close to your allies?

 

[las]

Use one of the grade charts to when it lands it can be 5 feet off think of the problems with that. Hit hits both or none or one.

 

[ichabod]

I have a house rule in my campaign. If you want to target a spell exactly, you have to make a DC 15 spellcraft roll. If you fail, it shifts 5 feet in a random direction. If you don't have center-to-center line of sight to the spot you want to place the spell, the DC is 20.

 

[mikebr99]

I have a similar house rule:

The fog of war

A spellcraft check is required to place a burst or cone spell right where you want it. The DC is based on the radius (or half range for cones) of the burst spell, 1 point per foot. So a fireball that is to be placed in such a way that it will hit their front line, but not ours would have a DC of 20.

Every point the spellcraft check is missed by translates into a foot off target in a random direction that the spell actually landed.

 

[Tewligan]

I have a similar house rule:

The fog of war

A spellcraft check is required to place a burst or cone spell right where you want it. The DC is based on the radius (or half range for cones) of the burst spell, 1 point per foot. So a fireball that is to be placed in such a way that it will hit their front line, but not ours would have a DC of 20.

Every point the spellcraft check is missed by translates into a foot off target in a random direction that the spell actually landed.

Ooh, I like that a lot. Consider that grabbed for my campaign restart. Ahh, I can almost hear the players' outraged cries right now...

 

[Crothian]

That is nice. Make sure you apply to both the PCs and NPCs. Personally, I just wing the Spellcraft DC and only when it would be more difficult to see the placement becasue of objects/people in the way or other things to hinder vision.

 

[Jack Haggerty]

Another simple way is to stop using grids for combat...

Go find a tailor's tape measure (the small flexible type, as opposed to large fairly rigid carpentry tape measures). 1"=5'. use the tape measure to measure out distances...

Now the characters have to guess ranges and what areas are affected before you measure it out.

Area templates for cones, and common radii of circles can be cut out of tag board.

 

[kreynolds]

Any idea how to make it a bit more risky to place fireballs close to your allies?

Sure. Play 2nd edition.

You might try staggering your baddies. Don't keep them all bunched up. See if you can get a good mix of baddies and allies, and if you can do that, there won't always be a perfect place to land that fireball. Don't do it too often though. It gets really boring, and maybe even irritating, for your players after a while.

 

[Limper]

I thought area of effect spells were supposed to hit more than one target.... I didn't realize they were a disadvantage!

Aside from not agreeing with your stance AT ALL. Have the enemy flank said fighter.... its a sound tactic and solves your issue without abusive DM rulings.

 

[Quip]

I'd say have a spellcraft check with a DC that increases by range, and have failure act like a grenade type weapon. Except "splash" damage is much much worse.

DC 10 if within close range
DC 15 if within medium range
DC 20 if within long range
DC +1/spell level
DC increases as appropriate for factors such as visiblity

If missed, roll 1d6 and add by how many points you missed by to find the distance. Then roll randomly to determine direction.

Any problem with this?