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I really like the idea of the spell, but I'm having trouble implementing it.
The key bit here seems to be "Cone, Cylinder, Line, or Sphere". Cone and line have obvious (and nifty) applications. But the others...
The only spells I can find with Cylinder as the area can already be cast on any area in range - they don't need to be centered on you. So I guess this can be used add another Close range increment, but I'm not feeling it.
Sphere. Hmm. What exactly do they mean by this? There's a few things with an area of sphere, but they're rather high level things you want on your allies, not planted in the middle of your enemies. I suppose resilient sphere works, but not much else.
There's other sphere's listed, like flaming sphere, but those are small and can again, be cast anywhere.
Did they mean things with a radius about you? This is what seems to make the most sense. Detonate comes to mind. But that's still not very common. Most things with a radius, you can also cast wherever you like.
So, is it really just a range extender on Cylinder and Spheres, or does it have nifty positioning uses like with Cone and Line?
Okay, having looked up on my Line of Effect rules, you can use it to pull off shenanigans with line of effect and invisible (but solid) walls.
E.G. Cast that on an ally, wall of force yourself in, cast line of effect spells from them on enemies. This gets a little awkward because you still need line of sight and you won't have infinite casts of Eldritch Conduit of your wall of choice but you can do it in a boss fight or if you need to stall or something.
Edit: Emergency Force Sphere is an immediate action so you set this up in one round if need be, so long as you cast Eldritch Conduit first.
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It seams great for cones too. My biggest problem with Burning Hands and such is getting in a spot to hit more enemies than allies. Being able to cast it from an ally's square opens nice possibilities.
The fluff seemed like it was intended for using enemies as relay posts to hit further back, so maybe just adding a Close range increment is the intended effect. But getting around walls sounds like a great use.
Still not sure if it works with something like Detonate though. Seems like it should, but it lists Sphere, not Radius.
That's pretty funny, discriminating spherical explosions and non-spherical explosions, not to mention it really breaks immersion when you have to think about what radius vs sphere means in game terms.
Actually, now that I think about it you can use this spell to avoid taking cover penalties from firing allies if you fire it from their square. So you can add that to the list of potential uses too :O!
Rememeber that it also grants a faerie fire effect so you can also use it to reveal invisible creatures if you can pinpoint them.
I envision using this with a burning hands oriented sorcerer. Like a crossblooded Orc/Draconic sorcerer using burning hands with the magical lineage trait, throwing an intensified burning hands for 10d4+20 as a first level spell, or an intensified empowered burning hands for 15d4+30 as a third level spell. Add a rod of maximize and it becomes 5d4+70 and still only takes a third level slot. Once you get Spell Perfection it could get even more ridiculous. Of course the save DC will be pretty weak.
At higher levels you could use this in conjunction with cone of cold instead as that one is also a cone spell.
Also, fear is a useful cone spell that you could use with it. Put it on your dazzling display half-orc barbarian, who demoralizes everyone and then you cast fear which stacks with the shaken condition the demoralize attempt caused.
Peet