Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Techsmithy 12-13-06, 07:52 PM	I am lost and can't find the answer, plus no books here at work. Any help would be great. What is the area of effect for, lets say Cone of Cold, when fired from above. Say I am flying above the battlefield and I fire straight down with CoC. What is the radius, if there is one, that gets affected? Is it just a flat plane that is a 60' cone spread, or does it 'cone' and affect an area 60' wide (or what ever it is, math is hard)? If you can make any sense of that ramble and have answer please help. I am just checking so that I see if I will be killing my party from above.
briantmar 12-13-06, 10:05 PM	Hmm. A cone spell fired straight down would create a circle area of effect at the ground level. The radius of the circle would depend upon the height of where is was fired. The radius of the circle created would be 5' per foot of height. The only problem I see is if you fire from a height that is higher than the range of the cone. If a spell were fired that reached 80' from a height of 60', it would prodce a circle on the ground that had a 60' radius. If the same spell were fired from 10' in height, it would produce a circle of 10' radius. There would be some reduction in the radius if used from close to the spell max range. It has to due with the outer edges would not extend as far vertically as the center does. This is part of the cone effect. Check the back of the books to see the effect done for fixed lenght cones. Hope this helps. Brian
taski 12-13-06, 10:32 PM	It's a cone, so if you're shooting down vertically, the part that hits the ground is a circle. Cone spells are 90-degree cones, and that means that the circle's diameter is twice as much as the height: diameter = 2 x height. If your creature is trying to hit the maximum area, he will cast from 60ft up. If he wants to make the area smaller (perhaps to focus on fewer characters), he can cast from a lower height. That will make the area of the circle on the ground smaller. Otherwise, you may want to have some NPC warn them to spread out when facing cone-happy dragons. Maximum cone-age: C /|\ / | \ / | \ / | \ / | 60ft \ / | \ /____________|____________\ 120ft When casting from half that height: C /|\ / |30\ /____|____\ 60ft Okay, I had a look at the back of the DMG, and yeah they aren't plain cones, and they're not measured the same way I did. Crud. Anyway, you can look in the back of your DMG and count squares to determine the radius when it's cast from any given height. Use the < shaped one and count the horizontal squares from the caster to figure out what height you're at, then count up until you run out of spell, and that's your radius.
maxxrox 12-14-06, 05:09 AM	This question has been addressed correctly, and I would know: I like playing druids, especially when they wildshape into Dire Vultures, and then with a feat (I forget which one) cast cones straight down onto opponents. If your DM allows it, you can also cast the cone at an angle, creating an elipse.
Techsmithy 12-14-06, 01:34 PM	Thanks for the help. My group and I just got out of the WLD and I am ready to reign death from above now.
punching bag 12-15-06, 07:07 PM	This question has been addressed correctly, and I would know: I like playing druids, especially when they wildshape into Dire Vultures, and then with a feat (I forget which one) cast cones straight down onto opponents. If your DM allows it, you can also cast the cone at an angle, creating an elipse. I suppose you could be clever and use a cone spell to create ellipses, parabolas and hyperbolas too. I really wouldn't want to try to make if fit the squares on the battlemat though. Even the representations of a circle translated to 5' squares is pretty coarse...
Animae_Draconum 12-15-06, 08:58 PM	my personal favorite is to use a ray spell through a magical lens or prism(they must be magical) or a combination of the 2 you can effectively hit all your enemies with a single ray spell for some pretty insane effects. Or the reverse turning a cone spell into rays I dont feel like working out the physics at the moment but its possible but heres how the breakdown works you need a polyhedral prism with enough facets facign the general direction of your opponents, enchanted masterwork diamonds work well but tend to get stolen a lot if your DM is smart. Also an animated 2-way mirrior with some powerful effect of spell turning is fragile but may have contingent spells(wall of force if anything is going to strike it) and will make you immune to incoming rays from enemy casters but I suppose will be quite expensive. A_D