poor rational for "updating" Magic Missile?

[Infiniti2000]

A 7 foot wide 35 degrees off diagonal corridor will be run differently by multiple groups because the game system is so focused on "stay between the lines".

God forbid I should ever require that much accuracy. Hell, people play without grids at all and here you not only want grids, you want them at a high enough resolution to support foot-level increments and angles at 35 degrees.

Also, you're comparing your houserules to official rules. Of course your houserules will meet your requirements so it's not a fair comparison. The only argument I can see you make legitimately is if your partial hex rules (and any other rules) cannot be extrapolated to square grids or square grids simply don't support what you need (no matter how you tweak it). Let's be honest, though, both methods have advantages over the other.

 

[ExploderWizard]

How much did Khufu's pyramid follow the "divisible by 5" model? For that matter, how many streets in the world follow the "divisible by 5" model?

I wouldn't want you designing my Stonehenge monument Mr. Tufnel.

5" indeed.

 

[AFGNCAAP]

Surely, you jest. Do you view only 3 posts per page?

See title of said individual post.

 

[Infiniti2000]

See title of said individual post.

Ah, so you didn't even have the common courtesy to revise your post before cross-posting? Thanks for that. Regarding your post itself, tl;dr. <= a recent rude addition to practice which we don't like to see. Thanks. Plane Sailing

 

[keterys]

because it targets the often-weaker Will defense of a foe

This statement doesn't make sense. Will is not appreciably weaker in monsters than Reflex.

Unless you mean it in the useless fashion, where you could _also_ say 'because it targets the often-weaker Reflex defense of a foe', because some enemies are high Reflex or Will, or low Reflex or Will, so having the ability to pick the right defense is good. I'm all for having attacks against multiple different defenses, absolutely.

Really, the only thing is that Fort attacks are worse against frontline bruiser types. That's the only FRW angle you can really reliably make.

 

[KarinsDad]

God forbid I should ever require that much accuracy. Hell, people play without grids at all and here you not only want grids, you want them at a high enough resolution to support foot-level increments and angles at 35 degrees.

If I pull a map of a cave system or an area off the Internet, I just want to puck down the grid on top of it and go. I don't want to adjust it.

I think plausible looking maps (either real world places, or artist conceptualized places) are sexy and fun.

I think hand drawn dry erase on a square grid board is a lot less sexy and fun.

I prefer that the grid system work best, regardless of the source of the encounter area.

Grids have certain advantages in certain very 90 degree restrictive ways. Hexes have the rest of the advantages, hands down.


And even better than hexes are the offset squares. All you need then is a half square rule and a partial square rule.

 

[keterys]

Maps that a DM intentionally designs to be interesting and a better combat experience work better than anything copied from anywhere real.

The trick is to have the functionality, then make it look good. But if you just take an area that looks really nice, and it's too small, too crowded, or too open and boring... then you're not leveraging the encounter as much as you could.

 

[KarinsDad]

Maps that a DM intentionally designs to be interesting and a better combat experience work better than anything copied from anywhere real.

Not necessarily.

Not all DMs are artists. The DM can always add features to a map that he wants to, but the ability to actually craft a nice map in the first place that doesn't just look like grids on a gray surface are beyond some of us.

 

[DracoSuave]

No. It means that I have rules for when a hex is partial.

4E has no rules (TMK) for when a square is partial. A 7 foot wide 35 degrees off diagonal corridor will be run differently by multiple groups because the game system is so focused on "stay between the lines".

If a hex is partial, you have one of two situations with your standard room with standard 90' corners.

One- half hexes don't exist, and you cannot stand in them. Then you have the situation where standing beside the wall on the hexes that do exist five feet away means that you can never be flanked, even by two people exactly the same distance from the wall from you, for no reason other than trying to apply hexes to square areas.

Two- half hexes do exist and can be occupied, in which caose those hexes do exactly the same thing as above, and they are more advantages for no reason other than an artifact of trying to apply hexes to square areas.

Three- Some nonintuitive f'd up flipper baby stuff that requires knowing how it works just to get 'stuff flanks you if it's across from you.'


The point is, you're doing nothing but a kludge just to make your fireballs rounder in, what is essence, an abstraction of things. Are squares mathematically elegant for the 45' angles? No. But neither are hexes! Both are kludges for the natural world, but only one is a kludge for artificial constructs.

 

[Insight]

With area of effect powers, all it comes down to is who is affected and who isn't. What difference does it make what the effect's shape is? Unless you're willing to fundamentally change how these powers work, just state "the Fireball hits these squares" and forget whether the fireball is a square, a sphere, or a trapezoid.

EDIT: If it bothers you a lot, just imagine that the "corner squares" in the area are "rounded edges" and that you're still affected if you're standing there. That should solve the problem.