OneRedRook
Explorer
Some random observations.
You tagged this thread with '[2E]', but the text you've posted I'm pretty sure is specific to 1E, which may account for some of the discrepancies in the replies you've received. On the other hand, I don't have an early printing of the 2E Player's Handbook, so if your quote was from that I'd be interested to hear it. Nevertheless, for the moment I'm going to assume 1E AD&D for the rest of my reply.
On Transmute Rock To Mud, the 1E PHB says:
1E PHB said:
That was intended to be read as '2 cubic inches per level'* - that is, the ["] symbol is not signifying inches as a unit; instead it's a sort of shorthand or abbreviation for the word 'inches'. Otherwise it doesn't really make sense: the ["] symbol is out of place, and the use of the word 'cubic' is not grammatical, if the intent 'one 2 inch cube per level'. As a term it's super unhelpful, and my brief perusal of the PHB only found it used in one other place (see 'Sticks To Snakes', 4th Level Cleric spell).
On Fireball, the groups I played with accepted that the spell needed to be used with caution; see also the range-and-AoE shenanigans with Lightning Bolt. So to answer your inital question in general we noticed it, and adjusted our use of the spell accordingly. I say 'in general', as there were certainly individual cases where someone found out the hard way.
It wasn't perhaps as limiting as you might expect. You're quite right that the default ceiling height in dungeons was typically 10 feet, but that's just the default. The games I remember had all sorts of areas where Fireball could be used judiciously, the obvious ones being that if the DM wants to use large monsters or flying monsters in a dungeon environment, those areas had to have high ceilings. In your 30 foot by 40 foot example, a 20 foot ceiling gives you a volume of twenty-four 10 foot cubes, and now there's a real chance of getting off a Fireball. You'd still have to stand back, though.
I'm not sure I follow your outdoor example. Even if you assume that the volume converts to cubic yards outdoors, the range is still 150 yards minimum, which is more than enough room to avoid incinerating yourself with just a minimum of care in casting the spell. Like others, I also suspect that the mention of 'yards' in the spell description is simply an error, although I absolutely grant you that's what it says, and even that the wording apparently survived the 1E errata.
* There's a frustrating lexical note here: I've written out '2 cubic inches per level' in words for clarity, but that's really meant to be interpreted as something more akin to '2 cubic scaled inches per level'. In the PHB, when the word 'inches' is written out, the intent is that the measurement isn't subject to scaling. I'm sure it's this sort of thing which caused them to drop the convention entirely for 2nd Ed.
