What is the range on a spell affected with the Sculpt Spell metamagic feat?

[Hannibhaal]

Sculpt Spell (CA) is very clear about the area that the spell can be changed to, but what is the range for the non-cone-or-line areas? How far out can you place the cylinder, ball, or cubes?

For example, a player in my game (Wiz 5) wants to apply Sculpt Spell to his Burning Hands to get some reasonable distance without using his 3rds. Through a strict reding of the Range and Area entries for various cone spells, it would seem that a Sculpted Burning Hands would retain its Range of 15 feet, and thus he would have to place the effect within that range.

The Area and Range entries for cone spells have strange characteristics, with the Range entry having a given range and the Area entry simply saying "Cone shaped."
Lines however, as the other shape that must originate from the caster have numbers listed for both Range and Area.

As the entry for cones stands, they can benefit from neither the Widen Spell, nor Enlarge Spell feats, so something is clearly not well considered in how those entries were put together.

Basically a long winded way of saying, what is the range on a Sculpted cone or line given the confusion in their listed dimensions?

If there is no clear answer (I couldn't find any good answers online) As a DM I would like to hear your ideas.

[GoodbyeSoberDay]

A spell’s range is the maximum distance from you that the spell’s effect can occur, as well as the maximum distance at which you can designate the spell’s point of origin. If any portion of the spell’s area would extend beyond this range, that area is wasted.
The sculpted spell works normally in all respects except for its shape.So yeah, your player is boned, as the listed range is retained. If it's any consolation, Sculpt Spell is awesome anyway. Just remind your player that Glitterdust just got 4x as good.

[StreamOfTheSky]

Yeah, range remains the same.

If you want to help the player out, allow Enlarge Spell to apply to cones, but the area of the spell isn't expanded by enlarge (but sculpting it would allow it to be a different shape entirely).

[weckar]

Turning Fireball into 120ft. Lines is probably the coolest thing ever. After all, nothing says the line has to emanate from you. "You point your finger and determine the range (distance and height) at which the fireball is to burst." is still right there in the spell text. Pretty sure the same goes for cones.

[torrasque666]

I would rule that given the weirdness of the spell and how this would effect it, make a special application of Sculpt Spell that on spell with the area of "cone-shaped burst" you can affect the spells range by narrowing or widening the spell. A wider cone has less range, while a narrower cone has greater range. In the case of a 15 foot range spell, he can narrow it to a maximum of 30 feet, but it is now a line. He could also widen it to an area of 30 feet, but now has a range of 5 feet. Sliding scale type deal.


Turning Fireball into 120ft. Lines is probably the coolest thing ever. After all, nothing says the line has to emanate from you. "You point your finger and determine the range (distance and height) at which the fireball is to burst." is still right there in the spell text. Pretty sure the same goes for cones.

Except that the spell in question, Burning Hands, specifies coming from your fingertips, as do most "cone-shaped burst" spells specify coming from the hands/fingers/appendage. Its not in the descriptors, but in the effects themselves.

[weckar]

Meanwhile, I am looking for where in the book 'Cone' is actually defined, as a search of the SRD has proved fruitless. Specifically, the width of the cone is what I am after.

[torrasque666]

Player's Handbook, page 175.

[weckar]

Thanks you. It's interesting that by these rules Sculpt spell can also turn a burst into a spread, but I won't derail the thread further...