Jigjo's page

OK, so my roommate and I have a bit of a disagreement when it comes to area spells. Now, I want to say first and foremost, we are not talking about fireball. It seems to be an exception to the rule. But here is the section I am referencing.

Area: Some spells affect an area. Sometimes a spell description specifies a specially defined area, but usually an area falls into one of the categories defined below.

Regardless of the shape of the area, you select the point where the spell originates, but otherwise you don't control which creatures or objects the spell affects. The point of origin of a spell is always a grid intersection.

I omitted the rules about what creatures are effected, because our issue is with the targeted area. Now it says that "The point of origin of a spell is always a grid intersection." The crux of the matter is, do you need line of sight or just line of effect to target that grid intersection. Here is an example spell.

SOUND BURST
School evocation [sonic]; Level bard 2, cleric 2
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S, F/DF (a musical instrument)
Range close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Area 10-ft.-radius spread
Duration instantaneous
Saving Throw Fortitude partial; Spell Resistance yes
You blast an area with a tremendous cacophony. Every creature in the area takes 1d8 points of sonic damage and must succeed on a Fortitude save to avoid being stunned for 1 round. Creatures that cannot hear are not stunned but are still damaged.

The reason is for situations like being in total 100% darkness and cant see, or being blind. Any help here would be appreciated, also, any links to Paizo staff regarding said topic would be amazing too. Thanks for the help in advance!

So in my campaign, there is a dungeon with a bunch of haunts, but they are all tied to one main haunt. Now if they skip to the end, defeat the final haunt and dispel it, should they get XP for the haunts they didnt defeat? Or do they just miss out on it all? Any help is appreciated.

Ok, so my party decided to explore the well outside the misgivings and thus skipped to the end without experiencing any haunts. They fought well, but the party Magus, who was the focus of Aldern's obsession, died in the fight. After the combat, they explored Aldern's room, experienced the haunt in the room, and defeated it. They then made the checks to determine how to end the haunts, and thus end the rest of the haunts in the manor.

So from there, they went back to Sandpoint in order to take care of the dead party member, recruit a replacement, and re-equip. At the same time, they found picked up a scroll of dispel evil (i gave it a 5% chance to be in the cathedral, and rolled a 3, go figure). So upon their return to the misgivings, they went straight down to the caverns again, and dispelled the haunt and cleansed the entire house.

And now, here is my question. By doing things in the way, they no longer have to encounter the haunts in the floors above. And thus, they are going to lose out on nearly 20k experience. So, do i reward them experience for defeating all the haunts? Or have they simply missed out and now I have to add in things to make up for the XP loss. Having not been in this situation before, I'm hoping to get some help. Thanks in advance folks!