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I have two scenarios with this spell that cropped up. It lead to a heated debate between one of my players and me(GM).
First scenario, flying target: Said target is flying, flaming sphere jumps or ascends and hits target mid-air. The flaming sphere comes to rest wherever it hits a target
Ok, jump I assume a bouncy ball action of some sort, but how would it ascend? Does it fly? Levitate?
When it comes to rest, my thoughts were it has mass, and thus is affected by gravity since I'm not seeing any anti-gravity affect with the spell. So my thoughts are it falls after hitting a mid-air target and lands directly below it.
2nd scenario: Staircase or other 3d terrain.
Ball meets top of stairs. Since it states it goes in a straight line, does it continue two dimensionally and follow the upper ledge of the stairs out into the air, or does it follow the landscape up or down as long as the step itself isn't more than 4 feet? in this scenario goes down the stairs?
My two cents: A flaming sphere obeys gravity. The only exception is that it can jump up 30 feet or rolls over a 4' high obstacle, after which it falls down.
Jump or Ascend.. means it would shoot up and hit the target 30 feet up. I would NOT give it any other label, so No fly or No levitate.
The whole it stops when it hits a target thing, does leave it hanging in the Air funny. So could see a GM ruling one of two ways
A) It hangs there in the air for remainder of round, and next round is spent with it descending/dropping back to ground but able to hit any target within 30 feet, downward ark. I really do not like this option, as i see some player just trying to argue even more way to break the spirit of the spell.
B) It hangs there for remainder of round, but right before you use it again it drops back down to the ground, at which point you can have it work like normal, even shooting back into the air 30 feet to hit the target again.
I prefer option B by the way :)
""Since it state it goes in a straight line"".
...sorry i do not see this listed in the Spell entry on page 284 PF phb.... all i see is ""A burning globe of fire rolls in whichever direction you point and burns those it strikes""... and ...""The sphere moves as long as your actively direct it (a move action for you); otherwise, it merely stays at rest and burns.""
A round is only 6 second, and when you figure the time it shoots up, hits a target,
and just hangs there for 1-2 second before falling back to the ground. Makes me think of a beach ball kind of.
Just tell your Flying Carpet guy to fly 40 feet off the ground, and the ball can not reach him.
I have two scenarios with this spell that cropped up. It lead to a heated debate between one of my players and me(GM).
First scenario, flying target: Said target is flying, flaming sphere jumps or ascends and hits target mid-air. The flaming sphere comes to rest wherever it hits a target
Ok, jump I assume a bouncy ball action of some sort, but how would it ascend? Does it fly? Levitate?
When it comes to rest, my thoughts were it has mass, and thus is affected by gravity since I'm not seeing any anti-gravity affect with the spell. So my thoughts are it falls after hitting a mid-air target and lands directly below it.
2nd scenario: Staircase or other 3d terrain.
Ball meets top of stairs. Since it states it goes in a straight line, does it continue two dimensionally and follow the upper ledge of the stairs out into the air, or does it follow the landscape up or down as long as the step itself isn't more than 4 feet? in this scenario goes down the stairs?
Hmmmm.. technically the ball enters the other persons space and ends its movement there. I think we can assume that that rule is if its rolling along on the ground.
Bouncy ball: If its allowed to fall you have the potential for it to damage two creatures on the same round (jump up to the wizard, fall down and land on his minion)
The ball could be "stuck" on the person in mid air, or turning over enough to "peel out" on the wizard enough to maintain its position. (providing a rational basis for the strict raw). This would however enable the ball to keep jumping from one flying creature to another from round to round, "wall jumping" from one opponent to the other and achieving a height greater than 30 feet.
I think the bouncy ball interpretation is easier and more in line with what was intended. If you see a giant ball of fire hopping up to someone and you're dumb enough to stand under them you probably deserve 3d6 fire to the brainpan.
I think the bouncy ball interpretation is easier and more in line with what was intended. If you see a giant ball of fire hopping up to someone and you're dumb enough to stand under them you probably deserve 3d6 fire to the brainpan.
Orc looks up .... Dauuuuuuu
"" I see the light, i see the light comeing towards me ""
The sphere rolls along the ground, gently bouncing over small barriers (NMT 4 feet high). When it gets to the "square" underneath the flying target, it can bounce upward, damage the target, and come back down, ending its movement in the same square. There is no horizontal velocity during the bounce.
The sphere follows the stairs down, since the stairs aren't a barrier. Going up, I could see a ruling where the stairs are a barrier, but that wasn't the question.
If the BBEG was directly above the minion, the sphere would roll until it hit the minion, and then stop. No additional bounce to get the BBEG.
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Flamming spheres are described os being solid yet spongie.they can role over objects of sertine sizes ect.. They supose to stop opone impacting a target.If that target is 30ft off the ground it is logical it would fall in the deration of a 6sec round.
if there were some one below they could posably be hit but could possably get a reflex save to aviod damage. Just an idea.
As for going 'up' stairs it can jump 30ft upward .Stairs are not an obstical.
must resist urge to edit, must resist the urge...
The Borg taught me, resistance is futile, prepare to be assimilated....
Hehehe