Spells Centered on You

[phindar]

This is off the top of my head, and I won't pretend to have thought it through at all, but it just seems giving larger casters bigger spells centered on them is a benefit that should have some cost. It seems like with your version, you could have a caster cast Enlarge Person on himself and then cast Antimagic Field, getting a much reduced Widen out of the deal.

Personally, I think Widen is a little overpriced (but then I've been playing a lot of AE), but that's what it's there for. (I also think "Widen" should be called "Enlarge", "Enlarge" should be called "Extend" and "Extend" should be called something else. Or they should be called "Increase" whatever it increases-- duration, AoE, range. That always trips me up. Still and Silent Spell are named fine.)

 

[Whimsical]

Three months after 3e came out, I ran a 20th level one shot and the colossal red dragon cast antimagic shell. I ran into the same quandry as the original poster. I ruled that it was on his claws, which allowed him to snatch someone with anti magic, but the rest of him was unaffected by the AMS. A bit rat-bastardly, I know.

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

It seems that one of the core, underlying issues to this problem is whether spells that affect an area should have that area set in stone or whether it should fluctuate with the size of the caster. Both have their pros and cons. If they fluctuate, it makes the way spells work make sense (especially re: radius spells). But the con to that is that there is potential for more creatures to fit into the affected area.

It's a tough call and one in which I think the game designers need to specifically address. In the meantime, I'm thinking that using the magic circle reference is a workaround to the problem.

 

[Hypersmurf]

It seems like with your version, you could have a caster cast Enlarge Person on himself and then cast Antimagic Field, getting a much reduced Widen out of the deal.

Note that strictly, Widen Spell won't have any tangible effect on an AMF.

You'll end up with a spell with an Area of '20 ft. radius emanation'... and a range that's still 10 ft. And any area that extends beyond the range is wasted... so you're left with the original 10 ft. radius emanation.

-Hyp.

 

[phindar]

That's a good point. Though if you had a Rod of Enlarge you could pull it off, casting the Antimagic Field as a 9th level spell with the Widen. (Though if you're burning through 9th level spells, you'd probably get better mileage out of a Miracle or Wish.)

 

[Hypersmurf]

That's a good point. Though if you had a Rod of Enlarge you could pull it off, casting the Antimagic Field as a 9th level spell with the Widen. (Though if you're burning through 9th level spells, you'd probably get better mileage out of a Miracle or Wish.)

Antimagic Field doesn't have a range of Close, Medium, or Long, so it's not valid for use with Enlarge Spell.

-Hyp.

 

[phindar]

Well, jeez, then I guess it can't be done. Considering that there is apparently no way to create an Antimagic Field larger than 10', seems like its all the more reason not to let larger casters make bigger versions of it.

You know, D&D does have a tendency to imbue magic with all the wonderment and awe of applying for a small business loan. (Hyp's responses are almost identical to the last conversation I had with my accountant, although in all fairness Hyp hasn't mentioned jail time yet.)

 

[Moon-Lancer]

How does one choose what corner of the 5 foot square the spell is focused on? It clutters the rules if 2 out of 4 sides only has a magic field of 5 feet while the other two sides has a magic field of 10 feet the rules get clunky and its really not a 10 foot radias from the character is it?

How do you choose what corner of the character 5 foot square to use? using squares corner isn't really centered so i think the only other way to look at it is size of the the spell (number of squares) increases with the size of the creature as it has a larger form to be centered on. While thats not perfect, i think its better to the alternative of lopsided "centered" spells

 

[Hypersmurf]

How does one choose what corner of the 5 foot square the spell is focused on?

The caster chooses.

It clutters the rules if 2 out of 4 sides only has a magic field of 5 feet while the other two sides has a magic field of 10 feet the rules get clunky and its really not a 10 foot radias from the character is it?

It keeps the rules uncluttered. We only need the one rule - the point of origin of an area is always a grid intersection.

-Hyp.

 

[MarkB]

The caster chooses.

And once it's cast, can the caster choose again, if he moves, or turns around, or changes size? If so, how often, and when?