I was just looking at spell effect templates and it hit me: no official spell I know of uses a 180 degree arc. You would think that over time a mage that figured out how to make lines, and cones, and circles, and cylinders, and cubes would be able to think to themselves 'You know, if I sweep my hand in an arc while it's shooting fire I could get guys to my left and right. Is there a hidden balance issue I'm missing here? Or is that just too hard to deal with on a grid so they didn't include it?
A half circle will presumably have the caster at the center of the flat side, this means the caster has to be roughly in the middle of the front line. Some might get use out of such a spell, but most will try to avoid situations where it's useful.
I can't really see a situation you'd get much use out of it. It can be difficult enough to arrange a cone without hitting friendlies - let alone a full half circle.
A half circle will presumably have the caster at the center of the flat side, this means the caster has to be roughly in the middle of the front line. Some might get use out of such a spell, but most will try to avoid situations where it's useful.
True. Perhaps it's more of an arc shape then with the caster's square/hex outside of the effect that I am thinking of. Half a donut.
A half circle will presumably have the caster at the center of the flat side, this means the caster has to be roughly in the middle of the front line. Some might get use out of such a spell, but most will try to avoid situations where it's useful.
True. Perhaps it's more of an arc shape then with the caster's square/hex outside of the effect that I am thinking of. Half a donut.
I assumed you meant an arc with the flat side in front of the caster, it's still a situation most casters don't want to be in. If you find yourself in such a situation, a half circle isn't a whole lot different from a cube like Thunderwave.
I can see a basis for it being useful in some scenarios. A Druid could potentially do some cool things with it between Wild Shape usage. And a Bladesinger Wizard or melee Artificer will frequently find themselves in melee, as would a melee Hexblade Warlock.
However... several of the spells that come to mind as being useful in that configuration are already using a Cone for their AoE. Others target a point for their circular or cubical AoE, or have that AoE centered on a creature. I feel like the casting AoE is something that should probably be a change to the actual casting system, which would not happen (if at all) until a 6th edition is planned. It would likely be too disruptive to do before than, requiring too many special cases of "not this spell it would be too OP" and "should this spell? maybe I don't know...".
If you turned and moved your hand in an arc above your head you could hit someone in front, above, and in back of you as well. Like you were standing under an arch. Yeah this would probably introduce some new mechanic involving having one or both hands free (maybe you clap them together and draw them down to your sides to make an arc above you) but it seems like something that would fit. I just found it odd that a shape so often displayed in other genre/games, like when a swordsman slashes in an arc and hits many people or a wizard casts a large fan of flames, wouldn't be in play in this game system and wondered why.
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I was just looking at spell effect templates and it hit me: no official spell I know of uses a 180 degree arc. You would think that over time a mage that figured out how to make lines, and cones, and circles, and cylinders, and cubes would be able to think to themselves 'You know, if I sweep my hand in an arc while it's shooting fire I could get guys to my left and right. Is there a hidden balance issue I'm missing here? Or is that just too hard to deal with on a grid so they didn't include it?
A half circle will presumably have the caster at the center of the flat side, this means the caster has to be roughly in the middle of the front line. Some might get use out of such a spell, but most will try to avoid situations where it's useful.
I can't really see a situation you'd get much use out of it. It can be difficult enough to arrange a cone without hitting friendlies - let alone a full half circle.
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True. Perhaps it's more of an arc shape then with the caster's square/hex outside of the effect that I am thinking of. Half a donut.
I assumed you meant an arc with the flat side in front of the caster, it's still a situation most casters don't want to be in. If you find yourself in such a situation, a half circle isn't a whole lot different from a cube like Thunderwave.
I can see a basis for it being useful in some scenarios. A Druid could potentially do some cool things with it between Wild Shape usage. And a Bladesinger Wizard or melee Artificer will frequently find themselves in melee, as would a melee Hexblade Warlock.
However... several of the spells that come to mind as being useful in that configuration are already using a Cone for their AoE. Others target a point for their circular or cubical AoE, or have that AoE centered on a creature. I feel like the casting AoE is something that should probably be a change to the actual casting system, which would not happen (if at all) until a 6th edition is planned. It would likely be too disruptive to do before than, requiring too many special cases of "not this spell it would be too OP" and "should this spell? maybe I don't know...".
I think cube covers what you are wanting. A cube's point of origin is on the side.
If you turned and moved your hand in an arc above your head you could hit someone in front, above, and in back of you as well. Like you were standing under an arch. Yeah this would probably introduce some new mechanic involving having one or both hands free (maybe you clap them together and draw them down to your sides to make an arc above you) but it seems like something that would fit. I just found it odd that a shape so often displayed in other genre/games, like when a swordsman slashes in an arc and hits many people or a wizard casts a large fan of flames, wouldn't be in play in this game system and wondered why.