Lightning Bolt AoE

[mhossom]

Greetings All,

I am trying to figure out how to determine the AoE for line attacks such as Lightning Bolt. The other pointers are kind enough to shade the squares that are affected. Does anyone have a suggestion for me?

Thanks,
Mike

[Kelrugem]

Greetings All,

I am trying to figure out how to determine the AoE for line attacks such as Lightning Bolt. The other pointers are kind enough to shade the squares that are affected. Does anyone have a suggestion for me?

Thanks,
Mike

The rule is the following:

A line-shaped spell shoots away from you in a line in the direction you designate. It starts from any corner of your square and extends to the limit of its range or until it strikes a barrier that blocks line of effect. A line-shaped spell affects all creatures in squares that the line passes through.

But the SRD are sadly not so clear about how you draw that now; in the PHB (3.5e) you can somewhat read the following (it is not a citation because my book is in German ): Choose one of your vertices around your square, and choose another vertex on the grid to which you aim. Then draw a pointer between both vertices and extend that pointer until it hits the max range or some barrier. The spell then affects every square it goes through or touches, especially the latter is not really written in the SRD rules sadly (or I couldn't find a clarification in the SRD, maybe Pathfinder SRD is clearer about that). That implies when a lightning e.g. just follows a line of grid, then it affects all squares adjacent to that line! (so, no need to clarify which side of the grid line it affects) Or when it goes directly through a vertex (like the one you aim to (but not the initial vertex)), then it affects all four squares around that vertex

[mhossom]

Thank you for the response. Prior to switching to FG, I used D20Pro and it had a line template that would shade the affected squares. I was hoping FG had the same thing. It is not a big deal for me or my players. We will figure it out as best we can. It is not as though they are casting Lightning Bolts all the time. In fact, they don't even have 3rd level spells yet. I'm just trying to be proactive.

[Kelrugem]

Thank you for the response. Prior to switching to FG, I used D20Pro and it had a line template that would shade the affected squares. I was hoping FG had the same thing. It is not a big deal for me or my players. We will figure it out as best we can. It is not as though they are casting Lightning Bolts all the time. In fact, they don't even have 3rd level spells yet. I'm just trying to be proactive.

I understand

Yeah, I would like to have highlighting as well (or the possibility to code it in an extension) For this may need to wait for unity, the highlighting does not work well in FGC, it is often wrong at the boundary for the pointers which arleady have it

[mhossom]

I understand

For this may need to wait for unity, the highlighting does not work well in FGC, it is often wrong at the boundary for the pointers which arleady have it

I've noticed that. We just go with it. We are not a very strict group and tend to focus on RP and having fun. In fact, I tend to be pretty loose with the rules.

[Kelrugem]

I've noticed that. We just go with it. We are not a very strict group and tend to focus on RP and having fun. In fact, I tend to be pretty loose with the rules.

Understandable, probably the best way to handle this while still making use of the highlighting

[damned]

I draw a pointer line and anything within half a square ether side of the line - eg 5' wide in total - is struck by the lightning

[Asgurgolas]

I just draw the line ON the square (not on the intersection) for "Line" effects P:
I also tend to not mention the "touched" part (since if I do that, players start getting very, very creative as how to angle a lightning bolt to actually cover more squares than it's supposed to)

[Kelrugem]

I just draw the line ON the square (not on the intersection) for "Line" effects P:
I also tend to not mention the "touched" part (since if I do that, players start getting very, very creative as how to angle a lightning bolt to actually cover more squares than it's supposed to)

I somehow like it when players try that, gives some "sharpshooting" feeling (maybe with a homebrew rule that when you need too much time with aiming, then the next round starts then they may do this between the rounds ) but I understand the issue. When I am not mistaken, then in 3e it was without touching but there was the rule that either 5 ft. width (basically only using one side of the line for example) or 10ft. width (e.g. then both adjacent sides of the grid line) but only half range

[Kelrugem]

For such things I personally hope that FGU somewhen fully supports a non-grid mode like in Warhammer tabletop. Since we play on a vtt we do not really need a grid (together with a line pointer with adjustable width) then the template stuff would be way easier to use