Murderous Mist spell

[Jqspin]

One of my players wanted to use this in our game recently and we butted heads on how it actually seems to work. The description makes the spell sound like a breath attack, but the stat block shows a 30ft radius that moves away from the caster.

To me it would seem he chooses where the spell is centered then the 30ft radius spread affects and hits whoever is caught in the cloud (which in his case would be himself, 2 allies and 2 enemies).

Am I wrong on this? He got very confrontational on how he wanted it to work. I want to have a definitive ruling for this spell for next session.

[Deophaun]

The flavor text is just flavor; you can fluff the spell however you want. However, you are correct: he chooses a point in range of the spell, the 30' radius cloud emanates from there, then it moves at a speed of 10' away from him until it's out of range. Which makes this one of the many spells that were obviously written with the area/range rules not in mind, as you would have to have a CL of 14 before you got the full area (for one whole round) without burning yourself.

[Crake]

The flavor text is just flavor; you can fluff the spell however you want. However, you are correct: he chooses a point in range of the spell, the 30' radius cloud emanates from there, then it moves at a speed of 10' away from him until it's out of range. Which makes this one of the many spells that were obviously written with the area/range rules not in mind, as you would have to have a CL of 14 before you got the full area (for one whole round) without burning yourself.

why would he need CL 14? It's 30ft radius, so if you place it at least 30ft away, you won't be caught in it. To have 30ft range on a close range spell, you need CL2, and the minimum CL of the spell is 7, as a 4th level spell, so it's well within the capability of not catching yourself in the spell. The range simply determines the point of origin, the spell's effect can spread beyond that range. If you place the spell at the edge of your range, it wouldn't be cut off, it would still emanate out.

[Allanimal]

The range simply determines the point of origin, the spell's effect can spread beyond that range. If you place the spell at the edge of your range, it wouldn't be cut off, it would still emanate out.


Actually, that's not true


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.

[Deophaun]

why would he need CL 14? It's 30ft radius, so if you place it at least 30ft away, you won't be caught in it.
And then 30' of the spell is wasted as it's outside the range.

[ArendK]

Actually, that's not true

Which is why we can throw Fireballs/lightning bolts into small rooms without concern RAW; some GM's I've met will "channel" a fireball so it walks down hallways and such. Doesn't make much sense sometimes, but such is life.

[Jqspin]

Seems like they really didn't think the spell through. I didn't even realize that any part of the spell outside the range would cause the effect to be wasted.

To make it a more viable spell, would a medium range instead of close be more balanced? Medium range with 2d6 damage and potentially blinded in a level 4 spell?

[Deophaun]

Seems like they really didn't think the spell through. I didn't even realize that any part of the spell outside the range would cause the effect to be wasted.

To make it a more viable spell, would a medium range instead of close be more balanced? Medium range with 2d6 damage and potentially blinded in a level 4 spell?
You could just make it operate RAI and keep playing as you were. Though I'm comfortable saying that upping the range to Medium wouldn't break it; there are still much better spells at that level.

[Zanos]

Seems like they really didn't think the spell through. I didn't even realize that any part of the spell outside the range would cause the effect to be wasted.

To make it a more viable spell, would a medium range instead of close be more balanced? Medium range with 2d6 damage and potentially blinded in a level 4 spell?
I usually just ignore that rule, to be honest. There are a lot of spells that don't work correctly with it in place. I believe there's a handful of aura spells that have Range: 0 ft or something similar but create 10ft emanations, so they don't actually do anything if you use RAW.