Re: Dangerous Magic

In article
<05319040-11a2-4d7e-b516-ebd26652c0d0@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
DougL <lampert.doug@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Nov 15, 10:30 am, Alexander Forst-Rakoczy <alf...@xxxxxxxx> wrote:

If you start the fireball a little above ground, the radius is between
20 and 25 ft. In game terms this is still one additional square in all
directions.

BZZZ! Given that you need to hit the center of the target box from the
corner that has the impact point to count this also means you DON'T
get the square 25' out to the side if you start from as little as 6'
up. (Aim for the head, we're at short range.)

Either you use a grid or you don't.

If you use a grid you can ONLY hit the centre of a target box and
nowhere else. Technically you cannot hit at a height of 5' or 6'. For
game purposes it is always the centre of a box, thus the height is 2.5',
7.5', and so on. Just tick off boxes until you reach 268.


And in any case MANY squares are at distances not evenly divisible by
5' on a 5' grid. Which squares do you hit if the blast is at 5'? It
won't be the same as a blast at 1".

As above. Either use a grid or don't. If you use a grid then apply EVERY
action to the grid and not to a part of it.


Even underground given that ceilings are typically high enough for
humans to not bump their heads it should make a difference, 1" off the
ground fills the lower boxes of each square first. 5' off the ground
dumps stacks of two blocks on each square.

No. You don't fill up all the lower boxes first. You always start from
the point of origin and fill up evenly in all directions.

But the lower boxes are CLOSER to a low level impact point than those
immediately above them. You are doing a minimum distance fill aren't
you? That's what you claim. Fill the surrounding squares one level,
then fill in the tier above, then fill in the next ground level tier,
then fill in above, fill in the center to the next level as needed,
figure out what's next closest and put a box there, ext...

Doug! Use the grid, Doug! :-)

The impact point can EITHER be in the centre of the lower box OR in the
centre of the upper box. Nowhere else.


This ALWAYS comes down to GM fudging one way or another. Constant
volume on real shapes in the real world is simply too hard to do
accurately.

You are right. You cannot do this accurately in any way on a grid. The
granularity of your map is not high enough.

From my point of view the results are:

* If you use a grid then start from the box where the impact point is
and assign 268 boxes more or less evenly around it (in three
dimensions). Forget about "half boxes". If you can't decide where to
place the last boxes then roll dice.

* If you don't use a grid for battle maps then use a ruler, a pair of
compasses, and common sense. Persons and things near the edge get
bonuses to their saving throws. By no means do you have to be exact.
This is a game and magic is not an exact science. Even if the book says
that a fireball has a radius of 20 ft. that doesn't mean that it cannot
be 19 ft. or 21 ft. sometimes. It doesn't matter for the game except if
you, as a GM, are such an ass that you use this on purpose to kill of
PCs you don't like.

Alex

--
Dipl.-Ing. Alexander Forst-Rakoczy
<http://homepage.mac.com/alfora/>
substitute "web" for "-www-" to reply
.

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