MoutonRustique
Explorer
When I read this reply :
For my piece of mind, I'm missing some rules element/decision points here :
- is flaming sphere an obstacle?
- can flaming sphere be used by others by pushing things and creatures in it?
- if it is an obstacle, what kind of power is required to push through ?
- when you ram it into something - does it engulf it, or does it "stop" when it hits?
Anyone else have these issues? Anyone have an easy solution - because I'm apprehending a good deal of note taking required to keep all my calls coherent...
I thought about all the ways this could be called. For me, I prefer functional (as in one input = one output) systems - I'm limited that way. This situation is a pretty classic one and one likely to come up in play.I absolutely disagree with this comment. Twice in my campaign, I have used this spell (albeit as a light domain cleric) to dramatically change the course of a fight. I'll admit it can be terrain dependant but in both cases there was a suitable 10 foot wide gap.
The first time, 2 connected rooms filled with enemies. As we engage I flaming phere the gap, we take on one half before I move the sphere to access the second half. Damage was limited but fighting 2 groups of 6 is much easier than fighting one group of 12. Total damage was about 30 made up of around 20 initially and the rest pushing into the second group, I had to drop it at that point though as I wanted my bonus action and concentration to case Shield of Faith.
Second case, another room of about 8 foes, again we engage and I use the sphere this time to block their retreat my blocking the stairs behind them. No damage this time but none of them got away to raise the alarm.
It does assume that creatures can't just run through it without taking damage, this is not explicit in the rules but is reasonably logical (as per the ramming rules with it) and my DM ruled that it could effectively block a 10 foot wide gap from passage if placed centrally (we were only dealing with medium sized creatures, it might need another discussion for small)
On burning hands, it can also be very situational but with co-operation from the rest of the party favourable circumstances can be engineered more often. My party now try to set up a fight so that the fighter and paladin are together but with a small <5ft gap between them so they can block and hold multiple enemies in a line. If it works, i will go next to the paladin to cast burning hands across their front. If I get attacked, I use warding flare or the paladin uses protection fighting to give the attack disadvantage. The gap is also used by the halfling bard to get in and cast thunderwave whilst the wizard being an evoc specialist can use burning hands from whatever the most favourable position is and sculpt round the fighter and paladin.
For my piece of mind, I'm missing some rules element/decision points here :
- is flaming sphere an obstacle?
- can flaming sphere be used by others by pushing things and creatures in it?
- if it is an obstacle, what kind of power is required to push through ?
- when you ram it into something - does it engulf it, or does it "stop" when it hits?
Anyone else have these issues? Anyone have an easy solution - because I'm apprehending a good deal of note taking required to keep all my calls coherent...