I recently got into an argument about how the second level feature for evocation wizards Sculpt Spells works. For those who don't know what sculpt spells does, "Beginning at 2nd level, you can create pockets of relative safety within the effects of your evocation spells. When you cast an evocation spell that affects other creatures that you can see, you can choose a number of them equal to 1 + the spell's level. The chosen creatures automatically succeed on their saving throws against the spell, and they take no damage if they would normally take half damage on a successful save." I said that the chosen creatures succeed and take no damage from the spell, while the other person said that you succeed and take half damage, but they can make a save to take no damage? I couldn't find any threads on any forums talking about this so I decided to make a thread here.
Spells like Fireball do full damage on a failed save and half on a success. With Sculpt Spell - you can choose to fireball one of your party members and choose for them to automatically succeed. If they succeed then - as per the Fireball spell - they would take half - but Sculpt Spell says they don't take any damage if the spells says they take half on a success - which Fireball does. So they take none.
My party's wizard drops fireballs on me all the time for this exact reason. I'm usually in the clump of enemies and have really good dex saves. It's quite fun!
The wizard can't count as one of the creatures as it explicitly says other creatures. This means that if the wizard is in the AOE, they have to save normally and still take half damage on a successful save if it's that type of a spell.
Friendlies don't provide cover to enemies in the first place, but Firebolt is a single-target spell that uses an attack roll rather than a saving throw, so Sculpt Spell does nothing with it.
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Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Friendlies don't provide cover to enemies in the first place, but Firebolt is a single-target spell that uses an attack roll rather than a saving throw, so Sculpt Spell does nothing with it.
The question of cover is more up for interpretation; I’ve had DM’s go both ways on it and the rules arguably support the idea that shooting over/around allies can count as cover. However, as you said, Sculpt Spells doesn’t interact with attack rolls.
Friendlies don't provide cover to enemies in the first place, but Firebolt is a single-target spell that uses an attack roll rather than a saving throw, so Sculpt Spell does nothing with it.
Creature provides half-cover whether its an enemy or a friend.
Cover: The obstacle might be a low wall, a large piece of furniture, a narrow tree trunk, or a creature, whether that creature is an enemy or a friend.
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I recently got into an argument about how the second level feature for evocation wizards Sculpt Spells works. For those who don't know what sculpt spells does, "Beginning at 2nd level, you can create pockets of relative safety within the effects of your evocation spells. When you cast an evocation spell that affects other creatures that you can see, you can choose a number of them equal to 1 + the spell's level. The chosen creatures automatically succeed on their saving throws against the spell, and they take no damage if they would normally take half damage on a successful save." I said that the chosen creatures succeed and take no damage from the spell, while the other person said that you succeed and take half damage, but they can make a save to take no damage? I couldn't find any threads on any forums talking about this so I decided to make a thread here.
Spells like Fireball do full damage on a failed save and half on a success. With Sculpt Spell - you can choose to fireball one of your party members and choose for them to automatically succeed. If they succeed then - as per the Fireball spell - they would take half - but Sculpt Spell says they don't take any damage if the spells says they take half on a success - which Fireball does. So they take none.
tl;dr - you're right - they're wrong.
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Lets take fireball for example.
You can choose up to 4 creatures to gain this benefit.
Per the class feature, they pass the saving throw and per the spell description they take half damage.
Per the class feature, since they are taking half damage on a successful save, they instead take no damage.
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My party's wizard drops fireballs on me all the time for this exact reason. I'm usually in the clump of enemies and have really good dex saves. It's quite fun!
The phrasing there is to differentiate between spells that save for half damage and spells that do other things on a successful save.
Does the Wizard count as one of the Creatures?
The wizard can't count as one of the creatures as it explicitly says other creatures. This means that if the wizard is in the AOE, they have to save normally and still take half damage on a successful save if it's that type of a spell.
The way I think about it is auto-Evasion.
So say there are friendlies in the line of a firebolt. Would the wizard ignore partial cover by using this and make it a normal roll?
Friendlies don't provide cover to enemies in the first place, but Firebolt is a single-target spell that uses an attack roll rather than a saving throw, so Sculpt Spell does nothing with it.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
The question of cover is more up for interpretation; I’ve had DM’s go both ways on it and the rules arguably support the idea that shooting over/around allies can count as cover. However, as you said, Sculpt Spells doesn’t interact with attack rolls.
Creature provides half-cover whether its an enemy or a friend.