Quick question, does the spell Thunderwave work as a nova blast with the spell caster in the center of a 15'x15'? Or does it affect a 15'x15' area adjacent to the caster? It seems the spell could be read either way, and I have seen different DMs run it both ways.
Quick question, does the spell Thunderwave work as a nova blast with the spell caster in the center of a 15'x15'? Or does it affect a 15'x15' area adjacent to the caster? It seems the spell could be read either way, and I have seen different DMs run it both ways.
Thank you
I've interpreted it both ways before. I don't recall where (I suspect it was a sage advice, but I don't have time to search for it now), but I think that I saw something where the caster doesn't have to be in the center.
Reading Thunderwave now and looking at the rules in the PHB Chapter 10 Casting a Spell, it appears to me that Thunderwave encompasses 9 squares on a 5 foot grid and that at least one side has to be adjacent to the square that the caster is in. Whether your square is included in the area is up to you regardless of where the spell is centered.
Thunderwave produces a 15-foot cube that originates from the caster. That means you take a cube with sides 15 feet long and place it so that it's touching the caster's space at 1 point on its surface. The cube can be rotated in any direction, and the point that forms its origin can be absolutely anywhere on the cube's surface: the center of a face, on one of the edges, on a corner, or anywhere in between. The cube effect rules don't place any restrictions on how it's placed (unlike the rules for cylinders, which force you to place it flat at ground level.) The spell explodes outwards in straight lines from the origin point to fill the cube; these lines are what you use to determine cover.
When playing on a grid you can plop down a square shape next to your character and whatever grid spaces it overlaps with are within the spell's area. Obviously the precise number of spaces affected is going to vary based on how you place the square relative to your character.
Note that, while it's actually possible for a cube to envelop yourself (to hit everyone around you), you don't have any inherent immunity to it, so you generally don't want to do that (in a pinch, it should be possible to drop prone and then cast it upwards, hitting everyone taller than your prone form).
Quick question, does the spell Thunderwave work as a nova blast with the spell caster in the center of a 15'x15'? Or does it affect a 15'x15' area adjacent to the caster? It seems the spell could be read either way, and I have seen different DMs run it both ways.
Thank you
I've interpreted it both ways before. I don't recall where (I suspect it was a sage advice, but I don't have time to search for it now), but I think that I saw something where the caster doesn't have to be in the center.
Reading Thunderwave now and looking at the rules in the PHB Chapter 10 Casting a Spell, it appears to me that Thunderwave encompasses 9 squares on a 5 foot grid and that at least one side has to be adjacent to the square that the caster is in. Whether your square is included in the area is up to you regardless of where the spell is centered.
Thunderwave produces a 15-foot cube that originates from the caster. That means you take a cube with sides 15 feet long and place it so that it's touching the caster's space at 1 point on its surface. The cube can be rotated in any direction, and the point that forms its origin can be absolutely anywhere on the cube's surface: the center of a face, on one of the edges, on a corner, or anywhere in between. The cube effect rules don't place any restrictions on how it's placed (unlike the rules for cylinders, which force you to place it flat at ground level.) The spell explodes outwards in straight lines from the origin point to fill the cube; these lines are what you use to determine cover.
When playing on a grid you can plop down a square shape next to your character and whatever grid spaces it overlaps with are within the spell's area. Obviously the precise number of spaces affected is going to vary based on how you place the square relative to your character.
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Note that, while it's actually possible for a cube to envelop yourself (to hit everyone around you), you don't have any inherent immunity to it, so you generally don't want to do that (in a pinch, it should be possible to drop prone and then cast it upwards, hitting everyone taller than your prone form).
Another reason to roll up a gnome wizard, great...