I'm wondering what a 15 foot cone looks like when you send it straight to your left.
I noticed some discrepency between the Spell Area and Effect Templates on PFSRD and what maptools does with them.
This one is how it looks on PFSRD:
XX
CXXX
XX
hope this makes sense if not click link above.
C is the character, X is the cone area, and O are empty spaces.
Now Maptools does it a bit different.
X
XXX
CXXX
X
It uses a grid intersection to start the cone, which by RAW I guess is correct.
But TBH, the first one looks "realer". Is there any official word or something on which one is right?
No the top example actually counts from the character square, and just counts a 15 ft distance as if you were moving.
The bottom example uses the top right grid intersection of the square the character is in.
Using lower right it would look like this:
X
CXXX
XXX
X
The two X right of C are both 5 foot away from that grid interesection.
The easier way is:
5 ft wide, then 10 ft wide, then 15 ft wide, regardless of direction.
I'm wondering what a 15 foot cone looks like when you send it straight to your left.
SpellAreas (sic)
The 15 foot cones are the top example. Just tilt the one on the right 90-degrees clockwise.
The 15 foot cones are the top example. Just tilt the one on the right 90-degrees clockwise.
Interesting. Unlike the 30-foot cone, they let the straight 15-foot cone originate from the middle of the caster's square, rather than from a corner of it, contradicting their own wording of how a cone works...
Interesting. Unlike the 30-foot cone, they let the straight 15-foot cone originate from the middle of the caster's square, rather than from a corner of it, contradicting their own wording of how a cone works...
It starts at the top left or top right corner of the caster's square. You can't create a grid-based cone that starts at the caster without (1) appearing as shown in the diagram, or (2) starting 5 feet away from the caster.
Cones can't be perfect on a square grid. Just pick one, drop it on the map so its origin point is the corner of one of the caster's squares, and that's what area the spell effects.
The reasoning behind the way the area effects are shaped the way they are is because grids are squares, and when you measure distances by squares and go in a direction other than one of the four sides of a square, things get weird.
When tracking movement along the grids, remember that every 2nd diagonal movement counts as double. The spell areas are funny shaped because spell effects follow the same pattern when they count out distances from their points of origins.
The templates in the book are accurate, in other words, even though they look weird.
Grick, please compare the start of the 15' cone with the start of the 30' cone. See any difference?
Now, since the cones should differ only in length, there must be some mis-match somewhere...
If you created a 15' cone like the text describes, the Maptools version Quatar posted would result.
I do not say you should use it (for me, the graphical templates trump the text)... but the creation routine is... inconsistent.
My suggestion:
Take a deep breath, calm down, and use the diagrams, they're clearer than the text, and better show the intent of how they're supposed to work.
That sounds almost insulting out of the context of that thread (where people were going crazy over lines) but he's basically saying the intent is the templates in the image, and the text is just trying to explain why.
