Spell Area of Effect?

[Ogrork the Mighty]

If a spell has an Area of one 10-ft. square/level and that's all it says (i.e., no burst/emanation/shapeable, etc. descriptor), can the caster place them wherever he wants or do they spread out evenly from the designated intersection?

 

[javcs]

Caster can arrange them as he wants, so long as they are all contiguous and he has line of effect and line of sight to all squares that he covers.

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

Is that spelled out somewhere? So what does Shapeable (S) mean?

 

[frankthedm]

If a spell has an Area of one 10-ft. square/level and that's all it says (i.e., no burst/emanation/shapeable, etc. descriptor), can the caster place them wherever he wants or do they spread out evenly from the designated intersection?

Whats the spell? What book was it in? Was it reprinted in the Spell Compendium?

A spell with an area of "one 10-ft. square/level" does not even make much sense if it is not (S)hapeable unless how they are placed is called out in the text of the spell.

Caster can arrange them as he wants, so long as they are all contiguous and he has line of effect and line of sight to all squares that he covers.

Got a text citation on that one?

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

Spike stones from the PH. There's nothing in the FAQ.

 

[irdeggman]

Try using the base description of an area then the subset of shapeable.

(S) is a subset of an area effect spell so the area effect rules are the base requirement with any extra details or "changes" given by the subset description.

Area: Some spells affect an area. Sometimes a spell description specifies a specially defined area, but usually an area falls into one of the categories defined below.

Regardless of the shape of the area, you select the point where the spell originates, but otherwise you don’t control which creatures or objects the spell affects. The point of origin of a spell is always a grid intersection. When determining whether a given creature is within the area of a spell, count out the distance from the point of origin in squares just as you do when moving a character or when determining the range for a ranged attack. The only difference is that instead of counting from the center of one square to the center of the next, you count from intersection to intersection.

You can count diagonally across a square, but remember that every second diagonal counts as 2 squares of distance. If the far edge of a square is within the spell’s area, anything within that square is within the spell’s area. If the spell’s area only touches the near edge of a square, however, anything within that square is unaffected by the spell.

Other: A spell can have a unique area, as defined in its description.

(S) Shapeable: If an Area or Effect entry ends with “(S),” you can shape the spell. A shaped effect or area can have no dimension smaller than 10 feet. Many effects or areas are given as cubes to make it easy to model irregular shapes. Three-dimensional volumes are most often needed to define aerial or underwater effects and areas.

I didn't see where Stone Spikes has the (S) descriptor.


So an area effect spell starts at the point you select and then spreads out by counting squares. Since the spell description gives the maximum number of squares it includes "1 20 ft square/level" then you count out areas of 20 ft squares starting from the point of origin until you meet the limit of the spell.