So the spell that was recently published, electric light Show has its area radius listed as a 5ft diameter burst... It being a burst, it would be centered on a grid intersection.
So what effect does this actually have?
Should it be 5ft radius? And therefore hit all 4 squares next to the intersection as usual for similar spells.
Or does the spell not actually do anything since it's radius is not actually large enough to do anything?
It seems like the intent may have been to hit a 5ft radius, but it may actually have been to hit a single creature, though if that was the case a burst isn't quite the correct area lol.
Any opinions here?
ELS is a Starfinder-ization of the Pathfinder 1E spell "Snapdragon Fireworks", with basically identical flavor and very similar mechanics. As a result we should expect similar functionality - ie. not affecting multiple creatures per burst.
ELS's spell description notes:
Once per round as a move action, including on the round you cast this spell, you can target a 5-foot-square within range and launch a spark in that direction.
So it seems clear that the intention is that this is an exception to the normal burst effect targeting rules. It targets a single 5ft square and the 5ft diameter burst affects that square.
The exception would be that normally burst effects are targeted at a grid intersection, and this isn't.
Yeah that's the problem basically. It's either a burst as it says it is, and so it targets and intersection as normal, or it's a single target as the text suggests, like the Pathfinder equivalent.
I guess I'll play it as a single target and ignore the burst quality, since a 5ft diameter burst wouldn't do anything anyway (especially if you consider rounding since the area covered would be less than 1/4th of each adjacent square).