Spellcasters that go OOPS

[JacktheRabbit]

I wanted to get some ideas here or have anyone who can relate from past experience.

How do most parties deal with spellcasters that have a habit of going oops and including fellow party members in their spells area of effect.

In our last battle the party sorcerer threw out two spells that hit other characters. The first was an NPC guide who he did enough damage to that he was easily finished off by the foes around him. The second was the party fighter who was not hurt too badly and survived the combat.

The fighter confronted the sorcerer over this after the battle. The result was an "oops, you have to break some eggs..." type of responce that leaves me as the DM feeling that his erratic spell casting will only continue.

So what do most parties do about this in the long run?

 

[Sagan Darkside]

Salutations,

I only have anecdotes- my current players are allergic to playing spellcasters.

One of my first times playing 2nd edition- the wizard in the group delayed the start picking spells. Eventually he just told us to start and he would finish up.. so we did.

Later on- during a tough combat, he cast chain lighting. It took him and the dm a good amount of time to figure out what happened- which ended up the pc's getting nuked.

When we finally won the battle.. barely alive, he looks up and announces "Guys! This is great! I am not high enough level to cast that spell!"

We beat up his character, tied him up, and threw him in a goblin latrine.


Another time when I was dm'ng- a pc was wrestling with the captain of a scro in a small highway. The wizard threw a fireball- and I ruled since they were grappled.. no dex check. The player got up, ignoring the Scro, and went to kill the wizard.


One final time- in Al Qa *FRICKEN* Dim, all but one of the party was on small boats fighting crabs while the last player was in a desperate fight on the shore. The archer, who had just joined the party, decided to help the shore-bound pc and shot at a crab.. hit the pc and killed him. My character who was really close to the shorebound one pushed the archer overboard. The crabs ate him.

SD

 

[aliensex]

Hasn't happened too much with me. Options would be for the party to either kill him or deal with it.

 

[I'm A Banana]

I've found that it's QUITE difficult to accidentally hit PC's without some good house rules in place regarding the aiming of a spell.

The range on a fireball is HUGE. In any outdoor environs, you can easily center the spell on the opposite side of the party, thus nuking the guys in the back of the enemy camp and coming nowhere near the PC's.

Even if there's two engaged in melee, a wizard can usually aim it so that the fireball ends just short of the teammate.

Where it starts to hit PC's is when there's a BIG group of monsters and the PC's are scattered among them. It's harder to hit a bunch of the monsters without nicking at least a few. And then, the wizard generally aims at whatever is least likely to be hurt (the monk, the barbarian, the fighter, the rogue...), and just yells "DUCK AND COVER" (with an OOC apology usually).

So it hasn't really happened very often to me. The only time of accidental hitting has been when I've used grappling extensively, which, well, is kinda normal when you're grappling.

 

[Seaver]

We typically encourage him. AOE spells are for use against numbers. Hordes usually consist of weaker creatures which have less hps.

Wizard opens with a nuke of some sort.
Fighters and rogue move in.
Wizard hits the entire melee with another nuke which the fighters soak up easily and the rogue usually evades.
Fighters and rogue polish off the bad guys.

Cleric heals, buffs, and tosses out Blade Barriers as necessary to cut off reinforcements or avenues of retreat.

Oh and the rogue also carries a couple healing type magic items to support the clerics abilities so what damage the fighters take in the thick of it the rogue can touch up if necessary.

We love our out of control casters.

 

[smetzger]

The result was an "oops, you have to break some eggs..." type of responce that leaves me as the DM feeling that his erratic spell casting will only continue.

So your the DM...

Therefore, its not your problem. Just make sure that everyone handles it in character and it doesn't effect OOC friendships and feelings.

 

[blackshirt5]

The mage in my current game crafted rings of Major Fire Resistance for everybody in the group. They don't care as much about getting caught in the blast radius of his fireballs anymore. They've learned to accept it as a necessary sacrifice for winning some battles.

 

[DDK]

If I was playing the fighter character, I'd chop the spellcaster with my sword each and every time my character got hit and would claim, "Well, you break some eggs, I'll slice some ham... before you know it, we'll have an omlette..."

 

[Thresher]

Some years ago we where playing through ToEE and this one particular nob head, a fighter mage I think, was fond of getting my character and both the dwarf fighter and a pally at the time in the AoE of some spells. We didnt die a lot, think it was mostly out of GM's sympathy for having to put up with the idiot but it didnt help the cause. He was also fond of shooting into melee with a bow and not taking called shots to avoid hitting friendlys, so we'd cop a bit of wood in the back every now and then. We where glad he didnt have a magical bow.

"Im being chaotic, its part of my alignment" and he'd laugh.

The other part of his alignment was 'good' but that didnt seem to stop him.
Anyway, some months pass and we end up in a bit of a 'pickle', otherwise known as the Slavelords series, amongst other names we called it, none of them nice. But we come to a place where theres lots of statues so Sir Nob Head the impetuous sticks his head down the hole where the funny noises where comming from. The basilisk there turns him into stone.

We laugh.

The dwarf player at the time was being an NPC run by the GM, decides that he'll take the git up to someone that can do the restoration and loads up the fighter mage in a wheelbarrow and starts the trek up 'north'. (through several hundred miles of orc infested badlands)
He's a dwarf, theyre tough.
At some stage or another the dwarf player comes over that arvo when we're still playing, finds out what we're up too, what he's up to and says.
"Bugger walking that far!"
And dumps the petrified idiot into the nearest swamp where it will be 'safe' and it promptly dissappears under the slime.

'But you cant do that!" Laments the now petrified player.
"Im being chaotic, its part of my alignment" mumbles the dwarf

We laughed a lot.

 

[Muaddib]

edited to cover temporary brain freeze.