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d and D players let's talk about how
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areas of effect work i posted a video
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last week following the new Sage Advice
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FAQs and um I specifically pointed to
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Cloud of Daggers and how the 5-ft cube
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works and uh the the comments were
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pretty varied um and a lot of people had
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the rules very very wrong and I had a
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couple of things wrong myself so I spent
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some time digging in learned a few
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things thought I would bring back that
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knowledge and share it but chances are
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however you're running areas of effect
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in your D&D game is probably wrong in at
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least one way because the rules very
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very confusing so to understand how
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areas of effect work in D&D 5e you're
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going to need a few books you're going
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to need the 2024 players handbook the
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2024 Dungeon Masters Guide Xanithar's
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Guide to Everything and the 2014 Dungeon
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Masters Guide because no this couldn't
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just be easy no that's not how this
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works so four books you need all four of
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them to understand everything uh I'm
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going to do my best to help there's a
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companion article on rpgbot.net that
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I'll try to link in the comments this is
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going to have to be a multi-part series
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where I go into the different areas of
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effect because they all have different
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rules but the long and short of it is
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essentially there are three methods for
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doing areas of effect the default method
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is theater of the mind in 5e 5e
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technically doesn't assume a grid but it
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is very much written to work for a grid
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so if you're playing theater of the mind
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how you place areas of effect is
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essentially just narrative method is
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entirely up to the players and the DM to
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agree upon method two is playing on a
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grid with miniatures so like you have
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the five foot squares and all of the
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things that that make that work option
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three is you're playing on a battle map
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of some kind but you're not using a grid
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so this is essentially like tactical war
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games rules and works very much the same
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that one's not really discussed in the
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rules but technically you can absolutely
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do it with what is provided and if
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you're if you're coming from like O D
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and D this used to be chain mail then
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that might be what you're used to
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playing but I'll post follow-up videos
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explaining the different areas of effect
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under the three different methods so