We owned Rob Heinsoo last night

[The_Pugilist]

It would also be quite reasonable to give the PCs whatever the prone bonus for cover is and still make the Wizard roll "attacks" against them.

 

[Piratecat]

Charles, this sounds like an glorious game. There's nothing quite like taking the DM's ridiculously hard encounters and jumping up and down all over them!

Nicely done.

 

[Pbartender]

Wizard player: "Since the ceiling is so high, and the shock sphere is a sphere, I'm going to center it high in the air to catch the standing orcs but not the prone characters."

Too bad spheres are cubes in 4E...

 

[Storminator]

Too bad spheres are cubes in 4E...

That just makes it easier...

PS

 

[CharlesRyan]

Too bad spheres are cubes in 4E...

How the sphere shape is approximated on the gaming table isn't the point. The point is that the spell is described as occupying a specific volume, rather than an area on the floor. Thus, by implication, that volume can be elevated above floor level.

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

How the sphere shape is approximated on the gaming table isn't the point. The point is that the spell is described as occupying a specific volume, rather than an area on the floor. Thus, by implication, that volume can be elevated above floor level.

If one of my players came up with this idea I would absolutely go with it, and be happy to do so, especially as it's a novel solution to the "everyone is prone" problem.

 

[Steely Dan]

This could only be more awesome if they had laser beams coming out of their eyes.

Don't you mean: frickin laser beams attached to their heads?

…I'm throwing ill-tempered carp at my party next week.

 

[Wormwood]

If one of my players came up with this idea I would absolutely go with it, and be happy to do so, especially as it's a novel solution to the "everyone is prone" problem.

Exactly.

The *last* thing I'd want is official rules for this kind of thing.

 

[Pbartender]

How the sphere shape is approximated on the gaming table isn't the point. The point is that the spell is described as occupying a specific volume, rather than an area on the floor. Thus, by implication, that volume can be elevated above floor level.

It was a joke...

However, since you brought it up...

Any volume can be elevated above floor level. But the resulting effects are determined by the shape the rules use to approximate it. A sphere can be targeted in the air, so that it has a smaller "footprint" at floor level. A cube cannot (unless you tip it on a corner, but that's another story).

The point being, either use the rules or don't... Or make it an official house rule so the effect can be used all the time.

It's bad form to define a spell's area of effect as a square (or cube) in the rules, and then occasionally change it to a sphere just because some flavor text describes it that way -- especially so, when your name is on the cover of the rulebook. If Mr. Heinsoo wanted a shock sphere to be a spherical area of effect, why didn't he include spheres in the rules? Ostensibly he could have.

The problem arises when players or DMs start abusing this sort of ruling at every opportunity. (Now, I'm not saying, Charles, that you or Rob or anyone else you were playing would, only that I've seen it happen before and it's not an uncommon problem amongst gamers.) If a bad pulls the same trick against the PCs, you run the risk of the players complaining. Or, the Wizard in question may start imagining all his bursts and blasts as spheres... "If the shock sphere really is a sphere, then I can target it here, hit all the bad guys, but miss my allies, who are standing at the corners of the square." I know it might be a bit of hyperbole, but do you see what I mean?

Don't get me wrong, I do think it was a neat idea... We used to do it all the time in 3rd Edition. I'd pop off an air-burst Fireball, so I could catch the tops of really tall creatures like giants or dragons in the area without hitting my friends standing adjacent to them.

Maybe it's just me... House rules and such are fine, if they're made ahead of time and everyone is aware of them. I don't mind rules that are purposefully vague so as to give leeway to the players (I think that's a great strength of the new rules), and put the judgment into the hands of the DM. DM ruling made at the table for things that rules don't cover don't bother me in the slightest.

But I can't stand it when the rules get changed unexpectedly in the middle of the game. Regardless of who it benefits, it's unfair to everyone at the table.

 

[Festivus]

I really hope someone can clarify this as it would be ten thousand types of awesome-sauce if it was an official rule.

Rule 0, isn't that still an official rule.

One of the things in 4E I am really starting to like is the whole "winging it". I said more than once at the 4E table, just tell me what you want to do and I will tell you what skill or check is involved.

I found at WWGD that a lot of the players were stuck in the 3.5 mindset, I don't have Knowledge Arcana so I can't roll on this. The only thing I can figure that you have to be trained in is Arcana (Detect Magic), beyond that, anyone can roll.

I first realized this when I played my first 4E game and there was a skill challenge... I looked at my pregen and only saw Dungeneering... I thought that was what I could choose from.