D&D (2024) Should poison spray be a cone?

[Horwath]

Regarding the 4e-ish simplification. Beyond a 10-foot radius, a "circle" is the same thing as a square except missing its corner squares.

For Mind Theater the grid rarely comes up. But for occasions when a sphere on a grid does happen, it is simple to count the squares from the center, except for any last diagonal. It works well enough most of the time. I created a diagram to see what it looks like.

View attachment 303529

Good enough. The grid sphere is simple, and it doesnt come up too often.

I prefer it little more spherical

 

[Yaarel]

View attachment 304243

I prefer it little more spherical

I sympathize with the esthetic of a circle.

But in practice, its necessary complications for how to move across a grid to determine the space are unworth the effort to me.

 

[Neonchameleon]

Want to vote "both work". I'd like to see Poison Spray as a 10' or 15' cone, giving it a unique place among cantrips. But that's polish and might run into playtest issues so I'm not unhappy with the current or even the old one.

 

[Gadget]

I could see Poison Spray being a 10' cone originating from the caster, potentially catching up to three medium sized creatures in the blast, but

• It would have to have the damage die lowered, maybe even cut in half to match Acid Splash
• It would move into the category of melee cantrip, and thus would be much less useful for most casters
• Due to it being a melee catrip, the lowered damage die, and the rarity of catching the max number of targets, I don't see it being used much.

 

[Neonchameleon]

I could see Poison Spray being a 10' cone originating from the caster, potentially catching up to three medium sized creatures in the blast, but

• It would have to have the damage die lowered, maybe even cut in half to match Acid Splash
• It would move into the category of melee cantrip, and thus would be much less useful for most casters
• Due to it being a melee catrip, the lowered damage die, and the rarity of catching the max number of targets, I don't see it being used much.

If it were dropped to acid splash damage it would need a 15' cone. Smaller AoE, worse damage type, no range? That's worse in every possible way - and you can acid splash while in melee because saving throw spells aren't affected by the caster having disadvantage. (This is a big part of why sword burst sucks even at its intended function).

But honestly I want some good arcane melee cantrips that aren't weapon based. Especially to get Storm Sorcerers working right.