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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Pbartender" data-source="post: 4289469" data-attributes="member: 7533">It was a joke...However, since you brought it up...  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" />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.</blockquote>

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