|
One of my players this weekend cast Firewall and when he drew it out he drew it in a Zigzag formation that would cause any creature going through the firewall to have to cross more than one to go through it.
Now I always though Firewall had to be a straight line from beginning to end but he pointed out to me it does not actually say that in the spell.
Am I missing something? Can it go in a Zigzag formation?
Personally, I think that the term "sheet" (as in "sheet of flame") implies something flat, but it's not 100% clear, I suppose.
Nothing RAW stops you from doing so.
The RAI, however, clearly intends for the wall to be a straight line, otherwise, there'd be no purpose for the Ring version of the spell, as the sheet version will always have enough length to make a ring larger than the Ring version.
Some walls are shapeable some are not, a Wall of Fire is not shapeable:
(S) Shapeable: If an area or effect entry ends with “(S),” you can shape the spell. A shaped effect or area can have no dimension smaller than 10 feet. Many effects or areas are given as cubes to make it easy to model irregular shapes. Three-dimensional volumes are most often needed to define aerial or underwater effects and areas.
So it has to be one of the 2 forms allowed, straight line or ring.
opaque sheet of flame up to 20 ft. long/level or a ring of fire with a radius of up to 5 ft./two levels; either form 20 ft. High
The wall will zig zag, but have some 1 square wide narrow points, if the wall is set at an angle. Look at the pictures for a line, that's basically what a wall is.
Also, unless the spell says shapable (s) in its descriptor then it isn't. It has to go with the listed area type.
So it has to be one of the 2 forms allowed, straight line or ring.
opaque sheet of flame up to 20 ft. long/level or a ring of fire with a radius of up to 5 ft./two levels; either form 20 ft. High
But it doesn't say "line", it says "sheet". I agree that a "sheet" should be straight, but it doesn't explicitly say so anywhere.
Exactly, while I think the intent is obvious, nothing about the word "Sheet" requires the wall to be straight--you'd be hard pressed to convince me that a sheet can't twist and bend.
looking in the dictionary under sheet, at the first definition that doesn't concern bedding or a covering of some sort we get:
3. a relatively thin, usually rectangular form...
That's what (S) says in the magic chapter, yep. And firewall doesn't have it...
Isn't (S) Shapeable for Area Spells?
Wall of Fire is an effect spell, not an area spell, but your point still remains -- it's not shapeable.
So if you can't shape it, it has to be in either the standard sheet or ring shape.
(See above comments about how "sheet" shape is undefined.)