Dice Rolls on Area Effect Spells

[druid zook]

Suppose a wizard casts fireball on a group of creatures with Spell Resistance. Would the player roll a single caster level check for the group, or separately for each creature? Also, does the player roll damage once for the group, or separately for each creature? Imagine if you rolled 10d6 and got 52, but then rolled a 1 on your caster level check! That would suck.

[OldTrees1]

As your DM. Personally I have AoEs be uniform (aka you only roll the 10d6 once and the caster level check once).

The alternative would be to roll the 10d6 and caster level check together for each target.

The 52 was rolled with the 1. Just live with it. A different roll would retain neither the 52 nor the 1.

[ZamielVanWeber]

We always do one roll for everyone in an AoE. Makes book keeping a lot simpler.

[Frostthehero]

As far as I am aware, there is no RAW that covers this. I usually rule that players roll damage once while rolling SR for each individual. This gives the players maximum benefit and is not appropriate for every campaign.

I would just house rule it.

[KillianHawkeye]

I say that if you roll the saving throw for each creature, you should also roll spell resistance against each applicable creature. It makes it less "all or nothing", which is a good thing.