jmax
2022-07-23, 03:42 PM
Effect: Opaque sheet of flame up to 20 ft. long/level or a ring of fire with a radius of up to 5 ft. per two levels; either form 20 ft. high
...
An immobile, blazing curtain of shimmering violet fire springs into existence.
It just struck me that Wall of Fire (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/wallOfFire.htm) doesn't specify whether it has to be straight when not deployed in ring form. It doesn't have the (S) to indicate it's meant to be shapeable, but unlike Wall of Force (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/wallOfForce.htm), it doesn't specify that it must be flat (or even vertical). So could you snake it along the ground in a curve of your choice? That would suddenly make it a lot more powerful - the damage is still light (except against undead, for whom it's moderate), but depending on how finely you can draw the line, you could potentially hit all enemies on the field by making it an irregular shape that covers all of them.
None of "wall", "curtain", or "sheet" implies rigid or flat (or even vertical for that matter, but we can infer that from how fire behaves in real life), so we don't get any clue from that. We only get two clues from the provided text:
The ring form creates a circumference smaller than the allowed length of the "sheet" version. If the wall could be a flexible shape, it wouldn't be necessary to specify the ring form (which works out to 15.7 linear feet per caster level) except to speed up gameplay.
Medium range doesn't actually allow you to fit the whole available length in range past 10th level if it has to be straight, and even then it would have to pass through your own square. When it first becomes available at 7th level, you'd still have to place the wall quite close to yourself to get the full range. Defining a range smaller than the spell's area would be odd, though not unheard of.
"Wall" is not defined as a standardized shape in the Area (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicOverview/spellDescriptions.htm#area) rules, so that doesn't help.
I'd be concerned about a curvy interpretation being applied to Blade Barrier (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/bladeBarrier.htm) as that has similar verbiage with more damage, but Blade Barrier allows a Reflex save to negate the damage when placed in a creature's square, so that's probably ok.
What do you all think?
...
An immobile, blazing curtain of shimmering violet fire springs into existence.
It just struck me that Wall of Fire (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/wallOfFire.htm) doesn't specify whether it has to be straight when not deployed in ring form. It doesn't have the (S) to indicate it's meant to be shapeable, but unlike Wall of Force (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/wallOfForce.htm), it doesn't specify that it must be flat (or even vertical). So could you snake it along the ground in a curve of your choice? That would suddenly make it a lot more powerful - the damage is still light (except against undead, for whom it's moderate), but depending on how finely you can draw the line, you could potentially hit all enemies on the field by making it an irregular shape that covers all of them.
None of "wall", "curtain", or "sheet" implies rigid or flat (or even vertical for that matter, but we can infer that from how fire behaves in real life), so we don't get any clue from that. We only get two clues from the provided text:
The ring form creates a circumference smaller than the allowed length of the "sheet" version. If the wall could be a flexible shape, it wouldn't be necessary to specify the ring form (which works out to 15.7 linear feet per caster level) except to speed up gameplay.
Medium range doesn't actually allow you to fit the whole available length in range past 10th level if it has to be straight, and even then it would have to pass through your own square. When it first becomes available at 7th level, you'd still have to place the wall quite close to yourself to get the full range. Defining a range smaller than the spell's area would be odd, though not unheard of.
"Wall" is not defined as a standardized shape in the Area (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicOverview/spellDescriptions.htm#area) rules, so that doesn't help.
I'd be concerned about a curvy interpretation being applied to Blade Barrier (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/bladeBarrier.htm) as that has similar verbiage with more damage, but Blade Barrier allows a Reflex save to negate the damage when placed in a creature's square, so that's probably ok.
What do you all think?