Yesterday we had an issue (small one, but still left me wondering) with cylinders, particularly with Ice Storm.
The relevant bits:
Area cylinder (20-ft. radius, 40 ft. high)Great magical hailstones pound down upon casting this spell, dealing 3d6 points of bludgeoning damage and 2d6 points of cold damage to every creature in the area.
The zone had a small house in it, with an undefined height ranging maybe between 10 and 15 ft. (GM said just that it was less tall than Ice Storm's 40 ft.).
We were outside, like most of the enemies except one, who at that moment was just inside the open door. So he was exposed to the outside world horizontally, but not vertically, having the roof just above his head.I'll speak in terms of X, Y, Z axis to give a more clear idea (with a perspective from above, so that the Z axis is exactly the line of sight of the viewer, X is horizontal and Y is vertical).
Ice Storm was cast so that the guy in the house was inside the circle of the spell on the X/Y plane, but as said he had the roof above his head.
Now, since the spell says "Great magical hailstones pound down", the GM ruled it that the hail goes straight down and hits the roof, so the enemy was unaffected (as well as the floor of his space, so the ice sheet of Ice Storm didn't form either), and that would look fine, even supported by the CRB rules on line of effect:
A burst, cone, cylinder, or emanation spell affects only an area, creature, or object to which it has line of effect from its origin (a spherical burst's center point, a cone-shaped burst's starting point, a cylinder's circle, or an emanation's point of origin).
From the circle straight down along the Z axis, line of effect is blocked by a solid barrier.
However, the entry for cylinders themselves in the CRB says:
When casting a cylinder-shaped spell, you select the spell's point of origin. This point is the center of a horizontal circle, and the spell shoots down from the circle, filling a cylinder. A cylinder-shaped spell ignores any obstructions within its area.
Which seems to say that even if the hail cannot rain down from straight above, it still manages to reach inside the door (since its space is still within the cylinder).
So, what's the actual meaning of that "ignores any obstructions within its area"?
Is it just a contradictory artifact that should be ignored or what?