I interpret the meaning to be that you can choose a cylinder with a radius of 30 feet up to 120 feet away. Within this space you can have 6 pillars of stone erupt from the ground.
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"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
I maybe wrong but I don't think this spell has much room for interpretation:
You cause up to six pillars of stone to burst from places on the ground that you can see within range (120 feet). Each pillar is a cylinder that has a diameter of 5 feet and a height of up to 30 feet.
I'm assuming we have to wait for an admin to see this post so that he can modify the spell if it is incorrect?
I interpret the meaning to be that you can choose a cylinder with a radius of 30 feet up to 120 feet away. Within this space you can have 6 pillars of stone erupt from the ground.
You’re thinking of it like fireball, where you “pick a point” within 120’ and then the AoE is the enter are within 20’ of that point. That’s not how this spell supposed to work at all. For Bones of the earth, the caster is “the point” the AoE is anywhere within 120’ of the caster, but each pillar is only 5’ across. If you’ve been keeping the pillars you create clustered within 30’ of a specific point, you have been limiting the flexibility of the spell needlessly. Your character can make one pillar 120’ to their left, another 120’ to their right, another 120’ ahead, another 120’ behind....
Call Lightning isn't really an example, because it uses completely different language. An actual example is meteor swarm, so it's not really unprecedented at all.
It's also worth pointing out that that "30-foot cylinder" in the Range/Area field of the spell here on DDB does not exist in the actual book. It's helpful meta-information that D&D Beyond provide, and D&D Beyond can occasionally make mistakes.
We DO know the intent of the creator, because it's extraordinarily unambiguous.
The range is 120 feet, full stop. Then, "you cause up to six pillars of stone to burst from places on the ground that you can see within range." That's six places of your choosing within 120 feet of you. Then, "each pillar is a cylinder that has a diameter of 5 feet and a height of up to 30 feet." That is the only place "30 feet" is ever mentioned in the actual text of the book.
For spells with a cylinder template, it seems the area tag convention is to use the radius (see spells like Conjure Volley and Dawn). So the actual value should be 2.5 feet radius instead of 5 feet of diameter.
XGtE Bones of the Earth spell
The cylinder diameter in the area tag is set to 30 ft. This represents the height in the text. The correct value should be 5 feet.
I never noticed that before.
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I interpret the meaning to be that you can choose a cylinder with a radius of 30 feet up to 120 feet away. Within this space you can have 6 pillars of stone erupt from the ground.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
I maybe wrong but I don't think this spell has much room for interpretation:
I'm assuming we have to wait for an admin to see this post so that he can modify the spell if it is incorrect?
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D&D Beyond StaffGood catch! I've passed this along to the team. :)
If you change the area to 5 feet, you can only produce the pillars in the same 5 foot square/hex. That doesn't make any sense.
If you remove the cylinder, then the pillars have to be in a line. That limits the flexibility of the spell.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
The cylinder diameter is in the RANGE/AREA tag in parentheses. The range is still 120 feet. The cylinder is not removed.
You burst up to six pillars of 5 feet diameter and up to 30 feet in height where you can see and within 120 feet.
You’re thinking of it like fireball, where you “pick a point” within 120’ and then the AoE is the enter are within 20’ of that point. That’s not how this spell supposed to work at all. For Bones of the earth, the caster is “the point” the AoE is anywhere within 120’ of the caster, but each pillar is only 5’ across. If you’ve been keeping the pillars you create clustered within 30’ of a specific point, you have been limiting the flexibility of the spell needlessly. Your character can make one pillar 120’ to their left, another 120’ to their right, another 120’ ahead, another 120’ behind....
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
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We don't know the intent of the creator. But looking at the rest of the spells in the game, having a spell touch that large an area is unprecedented.
We also have Call Lightning as an example.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
Call Lightning isn't really an example, because it uses completely different language. An actual example is meteor swarm, so it's not really unprecedented at all.
It's also worth pointing out that that "30-foot cylinder" in the Range/Area field of the spell here on DDB does not exist in the actual book. It's helpful meta-information that D&D Beyond provide, and D&D Beyond can occasionally make mistakes.
We DO know the intent of the creator, because it's extraordinarily unambiguous.
The range is 120 feet, full stop. Then, "you cause up to six pillars of stone to burst from places on the ground that you can see within range." That's six places of your choosing within 120 feet of you. Then, "each pillar is a cylinder that has a diameter of 5 feet and a height of up to 30 feet." That is the only place "30 feet" is ever mentioned in the actual text of the book.
If the only resource a person has is DDB, how are they to know what's in the book?
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
That bit is really interesting. I was using my imprinted 1e version of that spell. Just goes to show that knowing isn't always knowing.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
Well, the fact that DDB are mistakenly providing misleading information is why this thread exists to begin with :p
For spells with a cylinder template, it seems the area tag convention is to use the radius (see spells like Conjure Volley and Dawn). So the actual value should be 2.5 feet radius instead of 5 feet of diameter.
Please check my previous post. The correct value should be 2.5 instead of 5.