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Something about the range of 3.5 Turn Undead and PFRPG Channel Energy always bothered me. Burst effects are generally given in terms of powers of 2 (20', 40', and 80'... radius), and cone effects in powers of 3 (30', 60', 120'... cone (they skipped 90' for whatever reason)). 3.5 Turn Undead had a 30' radius, though, and PFRPG Channel Undead has a radius of 15' (30-foot burst). Here's my thing-
1) In PFRPG the area of this effect is cut in half. If "burst" rather than "radius" a typo, or is the reduced area intentional (perhaps because of the added benefit of healing living creatures in the area with the positive energy)?
2) In either case, the radius of the effect is odd. As a fan of my Steel Sqwire templates it saddens me that I won't have a quick way to determine the area of effect on the map. Maybe if the radius of effect is changed to 20' (closer to the PFRPG version, and slightly larger) or 40' (3.5 version, slightly smaller) radius then not only would the AoE be more aligned with the apparent trend in burst effect dimensions but it would also potentially sell more Steel Sqwire Spell Radius Templates (hint-hint, Marketing people :) ).
I might be the only person bothered by this, but I'm always looking for ways to speed things up at the gaming table and the Steel Sqwire templates work wonders for that.
(If this has been addressed somewhere else, sorry to repeat it. I checked but couldn't find anything on it.)
(If this has been addressed somewhere else, sorry to repeat it. I checked but couldn't find anything on it.)
Actually this is a good point, and one I hadn't really thought of yet, probably because when the cleric in my party used the ability, there was only one undead that everyone was clustered around, so it didn't come into play.
I wouldn't mind the standardizing of this to one of the "traditional" burst sizes.
"A burst's area defines how far from the point of origin the spell's effects extend."
-PHB, p. 175
A 30 foot burst is 60 feet across. It's already a standard area.
-Frank
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Actually this is a good point, and one I hadn't really thought of yet, probably because when the cleric in my party used the ability, there was only one undead that everyone was clustered around, so it didn't come into play.I wouldn't mind the standardizing of this to one of the "traditional" burst sizes.
It really struck me how large the range of Turn Undead was when the cleric in a party I was running a few weeks ago used the ability in a graveyard I had set up on a GameMastery FlipMat and the AoE was two-thirds of the map. On the other hand, PFRPG's AoE for Channel Energy is a mere fifteen feet from the cleric, and if you have a swarm of undead that close to a cleric things have gone Horribly Wrong. I think the AoE needs to be somewhere in between.
The ones that always screw me up are the buff spells which target a number of creatures, no two of which are more than 30' away from each other; this essentially translates to "creatures of your choice in a 15' burst", but there isn't really a 15' burst template that I'm aware of. If it was "no two of which are more than 40' away from each other", I could use a 20' Fireball burst, and everybody's life would be easier.
There was also the encounter in Maure Castle where the guards pull down the tapestry revealing the three Symbols of Pain... which have a 60' activation radius. Gameplay shut down while I tried to figure out which characters were subject to how many symbols. First time I ever actually needed to use a 60' burst for anything.
It's still an unusual size for a burst effect. That was really the main point of the post."A burst's area defines how far from the point of origin the spell's effects extend."
-PHB, p. 175A 30 foot burst is 60 feet across. It's already a standard area.
It's not though.
Fairie Fire: 5' Burst
Freezing Sphere: 10' Burst
Confusion: 15' Burst
Fireball: 20' Burst
Ice Burst: 30' Burst
Circle of Death: 40' Burst
Bless: 50' Burst
Symbol of Death: 60' Burst
Sunburst: 80' Burst
It's totally normal, I have no idea what you are going on about here. No, if you want a weird burst area - order's wrath. It's a burst that fills a cube 30' on a side. Not hard to adjudicate, and certainly flavorful, but certainly weird.
-Frank
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Fairie Fire: 5' Burst
Freezing Sphere: 10' Burst
Confusion: 15' Burst
Fireball: 20' Burst
Ice Burst: 30' Burst
Circle of Death: 40' Burst
Bless: 50' Burst
Symbol of Death: 60' Burst
Sunburst: 80' Burst
You prove my unspoken point. Perhaps burst ranges need to be standardized to fit neatly into 5', 10', 20', and 40' radius AoEs. Or new Steel Sqwire templates need to be made to speed up measuring the AoE. There's enough that slows down combat. This needn't be one of them.