| From: | "Wendy Wanders, Subject 117" <KGGEWEHR@******.ACS.MUOHIO.EDU> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Re: Area Spells |
| Date: | Tue, 29 Jul 1997 01:41:18 -0500 |
> OK, I have to bring this up, because it's just been bugging me. Now if
> a spell isn't able to affect people that the magician can't see, as you
> suggest, then how does the area of effect get handled? For example: The mage
> that loves to hit people with fireballs from around corners is being chased by
> a mob of angery people. He ducks around a corner, and whaits for his victims.
> The moment the first person walks around the corner, he can now see them and so
> lets loose with a fireball. The person he could see is obviously a dead duck,
> but what happens in regard to the rest of the mob that was right behind him?
> They are, for the sake of argument, still within the normal radius of the
> spell. Are these people supposed to be affected by the spell or not? I would
> say that they would be affected based on the fact that they weren't the targets
> of the spell, they just got caught in the blast. But from your argument, it
> would seem that they should be unaffected since the caster can't see them.
This isn't the way Combat spells work. Damaging Manipulations, yes, they
affect anything in their area, but Combat spells affect auras directly, and so
only burn (or whatever) targets the caster can see (seeing the target is
necessary for the spell to be channeled into that target. Spells do not affect
anyone they caster cannot see unless they are damaging manipulations. Period.
Fireball, as written, is not a blast of flame in the shape of a sphere, rather
it sets afire any targets in the area of effect that the caster can see,
damaging them through their aura, not from outside. The Fireball doesn't even
extend outside the caster's LOS, thus doesn't affect anything 'around the
corner' but leaves off at the corner. And it makes perfect sense, since the
spell can't affect the aura of anything that is out of LOS. Use a Damaging
Manipulation like Flame Blast intead. That spell creates a blast of flames
which will extend to its full radius, even outside the caster's LOS.
losthalo
