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how do you determine how many creatures
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are hit with an area of effect in fifth
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edition Dn D In my first video talking
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about areas of effect I mentioned how
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you need the 2014 Dungeon Masters Guide
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to fully understand the area of effect
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rules and it's for exactly one table On
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page 249 there's a table called targets
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in an area of effect It's right here
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down in that bottom right corner And it
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discusses both the shape of the area of
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effect and the size and how many
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creatures you can hit It gives you a
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pretty simple algebraic formula It's the
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size divided by some number round up and
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that's your number of expected targets
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for that area of effect Now it's not
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clear how accurate this actually is It
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seems like most of 5's math just assumes
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two targets per area of effect but
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that's really not a great assumption
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because a lot of spells can have really
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really different areas of effect Like
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for example cloud of daggers is
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technically an area of effect but you're
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not going to hit as many creatures with
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cloud of daggers as you're going to hit
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with fireball So when you're using
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theater of the mind you can use that
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table to estimate how many creatures you
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can reasonably hit with an area of
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effect without turning it into an
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argument with your players Now there's
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there's absolutely going to be some
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fiddly bits like if you cast lightning
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bolt it's a line You're going to hit two
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creatures because that's how lines work
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The the crazy crazy length on lightning
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bolt is what 200 feet And so take 200
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feet A line is length divided by 30
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round up which should tell you that you
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hit six creatures with a 200 foot line
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Sorry round up seven Uh have you ever
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hit seven creatures with lightning bolt
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No me neither Uh so that is the only
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thing that you need out of the 2014
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Dungeon Masters Guide but that table
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wasn't replicated in the 2024 Dungeon
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Masters Guide So if you're playing
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theater of the mind that's a really
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really helpful tool that was just left
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in the 2014 rules But fortunately it you
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can probably find it on Beyond or you
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can just pause this video at the right
