Spells that hit two opponents and door/wall position

[cranberry]

I can't find this scenario in any rulebook, so I'd like to ask your view.

Last week my players came upon a room with two doors spaced 5 feet apart. Both doors were opened revealing two monsters that were on either side of a 30x30 room. Rolling the highest initiative, the wizard announced that he would cast a spell that could target multiple creatures. He stood about 5 feet from the doors.

I said that you can't see both creatures at the same time because of your position (the wall between doors blocking a full view), so you can't target both. He replied that the fog of war (on Foundry VTT) indicated that he could see both.

So, what are your thoughts? I allowed it, but upon reflection, I don't think that was the right call.

 

[dbm]

Depends on the nature of the spell.

If both effects were separate and came from the caster, I would allow this (e.g. like Magic Missile).

If the line of effect went from the caster, to target 1 then to target 2 (e.g. chain lightning) they would need line of effect between the two targets and it sounds like they didn’t have that?

 

[aco175]

I'm not familiar with fog of war but a spell like burning hands would work for me. We could discuss 5feet apart and if that meant the doors have a 5ft wall between them and the closest edge of each are 5ft from each other or is the doors measured from the center, but generally a blast spell would work for me.

Next question would be, why did you open 2 doors at once. Maybe the monsters opened both, but 5th rules of dungeon exploring is to never open more than one door at a time.

 

[cranberry]

It's an electric arc spell (PF2). I took a closer look at the spell description that indicated that the bolt leaps from one target to the other, so that means that the wizard only needed to see one of the targets. Line of sight wasn't specified.

So, I guess that's it.

Thanks guys.

 

[Edgar Ironpelt]

My snap ruling would be that if the wizard could see both monsters, then the wizard could target both monsters.

Was your take that the wall between the two doors - and (more importantly) partly between the wizard and monsters provided concealment/cover that prevented targeting? If there was only a 5 ft section of wall, with no doors and no other walls, would you have seen it the same way?

 

[GMMichael]

I said that you can't see both creatures at the same time because of your position (the wall between doors blocking a full view), so you can't target both. He replied that the fog of war (on Foundry VTT) indicated that he could see both.

Well, I don't like checkers-like combat. Combatants should be free to move where and when they want. So yes, the wizard might catch a glimpse of both creatures at the same time. Are they both going to stand around like archery butts while spells resolve? Probably not.

So, what are your thoughts? I allowed it, but upon reflection, I don't think that was the right call.

Allowing it was the right call - the game needs to move on and the players need to have fun. However, they also need to know what they can expect from you, so if you don't think it was the right call, explain to them what the guiding principle is so they can expect it in the future.