Hi All,
The following question has come up in our gaming group and I am helping our DM try to find the answer. Here is the scenario as per the DM:
"Bard is in melee combat 100 feet away with a zombie 105 feet away. Sorcerer wants to fireball the zombie and not splash the fireball damage onto the Bard and therefore needs to detonate the fireball (20 foot radius) behind the zombie and only catch the zombie. Is there a game mechanic, skill, feat, or spell that allows you to do so without a house rule?
In the past...every DM I had used house rules to figure it out one way or another...did Paizo fix this or is this still an issue we could help correct? I have found nothing that gives this information. It willeffect all specc caster since cleric spells like Flamestrike have same issues."
Thanks for your help!
-Matt
This was never really an issue.
"You point your finger and determine the range (distance and height) at which the fireball is to burst. A glowing, pea-sized bead streaks from the pointing digit and, unless it impacts upon a material body or solid barrier prior to attaining the prescribed range, blossoms into the fireball at that point."
That range can be 400+ feet from the caster so the you can easily specify a point 125 feet away (just clipping the zombie but not the bard).
Unless the spell is give a Target and a ranged touch attack (such as a ray), it will most often let you pick the point at which the effect starts without an attack roll. If your DM wants to add a house rule requiring that you 'hit' the target he could use the same rule for throwing a splash weapon (alchemist's fire) at a point, "You can instead target a specific grid intersection [a.k.a. attack the floor]. Treat this as a ranged attack against AC 5. "
The question in point is, does the caster have the know it all to judge that kind of distance? So the blast is a 20 foot radius and the caster wants to drop a fireball exactly 20 feet behind the zombie. He just automatically does it? No DC Spellcraft Check to see if he guessed it correctly? It is a standard action so he casts the spell in 3-4 seconds and he can look up and very accurately do it? It seems to me that there must be some mechanic to have a chance for error when casting or measuring it. Same would hold true for dropping a Flamestrike in 10 foot radius or any area of effect spell. Because there is not touch attack, it seems like you could incorrectly guess the spot of detonation.
My thought would be to do a Specllcraft DC check of like 15+spell level + modifiers (like moving etc) or DC 10+ spell level + distance modifiers.
I am looking out my window now 300 feet(a football field) away as to launch my fireball…I can not tell 300 feet from 310 feet from 290 feet. There is a chance for error.
Every DM I played with always had a house rule of some sort to accomplish this. Just looking for direction within Paizo rules.
other than house rules, all spellcasters have an innate laser range finder :)
with all the changes made to combat in the PFRPG to speed it up by reducing die rolls, why add in a new roll to determine distances and such.
yeah, it lacks in believability, but this is not a simulator, its a game. some corners need to be cut to keep it that way.
but if anything, maybe make a perception check of some sort but use Spellcraft instead of the Perception skill. but again, this will still strain credibility for the long range spells. the mage cant even see that far but they have pin-point targeting.
We use a battle map with no grid, so I usually just ask the wizard's PC to point to the spot he wants to hit, then if necessary I check with the ruler to see how well he suceeded.
The easy way! I like it.
It's also easy to assume that the caster knows the range of the spell simply as part of having it. If there's any doubt, the caster can whip out the ruler, or count squares, and decide from there.
If the spell won't do what he wants, he can do something else.