Rod of negation - what range?

[Hypersmurf]

Ah, here we go...dang, nothing but the "pale gray beam" bit (wand of negation, 2E).

Same in 1E.

Most wands in 1E that had visible ray effects had a range of 6".

Fear: pale amber ray (cone), 6".
Illusion: invisible ray, 14".
Negation: pale gray beam, no range listed.
Paralyzation: bluish ray, 6".
Polymorph: green beam, 6".

Of course, Dispel Magic had a range of 6" as well (for clerics; 12" for magic-users).

-Hyp.

 

[CRGreathouse]

Most wands in 1E that had visible ray effects had a range of 6".

Fear: pale amber ray (cone), 6".
Illusion: invisible ray, 14".
Negation: pale gray beam, no range listed.
Paralyzation: bluish ray, 6".
Polymorph: green beam, 6".

Of course, Dispel Magic had a range of 6" as well (for clerics; 12" for magic-users).

Wouldn't a range of under 1 foot make it all but useless?

 

[IceBear]

I'm going to guess that you're joking or simply you didn't play 1e .

Basically, in 1e, 1"=10 feet was the scale you used inside (I think it was 1"=10 yards outside, I could be wrong, but I think so) so 6" was 60 feet.

IceBear

 

[Hypersmurf]

Wouldn't a range of under 1 foot make it all but useless?

You're either teasing, or you never played 1E...?

1" represents 10 feet indoors, or 10 yards outdoors.

The idea was with poor lighting and low ceilings, your arrow/javelin/whatever couldn't travel as far inside as it could outside, where it could get a proper arc for maximum distance, etc. So a longbow's short range was 7" - 70' or 210' depending. Maximum range was 21" : 210' or 630' depending.

Spell ranges received the same benefit : "In order to keep magic spells on a par, their range is also tripled" outdoors.

-Hyp.