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Message: <blockquote data-quote="StoneAnvil" data-source="post: 488229" data-attributes="member: 8129">Area of effect uncertaintyWhere did you hear that Dungeon and Dragon plan on doing some spell patterns?As for diagonal casting, that deserves some thought.  A caster can theoretically choose any angle at which to cast the spell.Should burning hands have 12 patterns, one for each "hour" on a clock as it were?  I say rotate the pattern, and make your judgment.  Burning hands is one of the few spells with an anomalous area of effect, and requires a judgment no matter how the pattern is designed.On page 69 in the DMG, the burning hands grid show the caster "between squares", which no character is theoretically allowed to be.  And, apparently you may not cast it on the diagonal, or at least they don't show you how it could be done.Some guidelines to determine whether or not something is affected could be the following:If more than 1/2 the 5' square a character/creature resides in is covered by the effect, the character/creature *is* affected.If less than 1/2, but at least 1/4 of the square is covered, a saving throw could be given for a spell that normally has none, and a +2 or even +4 bonus could be a circumstance bonus to the saving throw, if the spell already allows one.If less than 1/4 of the square is covered, the character or creature is unaffected.Those are simple, easy to remember rules for the anomalous area of effect spell like burning hands.For other spells, the reason why a grid was not printed on the SEPs is because the caster may not choose to aim the spell that direction, rendering the grid useless as a reference point.  But grids can be useful if one is sticking to only vertical/horizontal and diagonal castings.I'll consider adding a grid to future SEPs, so gamers can have a choice of how to have their spellcasting adjucated.  If GMs are limiting casting to only vertical/horizontal and diagonal castings of spells, then the existing SEPs can be implemented that way, by drawing a grid on them.Thanks.</blockquote>

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