Combat: Area of Effect
Area of effect is specific to what is causing the effect. Based on what is causing the effect, typically the area is shown as a radius, such as ten feet or twenty feet. Anyone caught inside that radius must try to avoid the effect. While there are special situations, most of the time you are making a reaction check as an attempt to move outside the effects range.
When making a reaction check to avoid the effect in the area, you are physically moving out of its range or behind cover. This means on a successful reaction check; you can move quick enough to be outside of the area or behind cover before the effect takes hold. However, the closer you are to the origin point of the area of effect, the more difficult it is to avoid the effect. Every ten feet you take to move outside of the area of effect (or behind cover) the difficulty increases by one.
Every 10 Feet = +1 Difficulty
For example, say you are in the twenty-foot blast radius of a fireball. The center point of where the fireball struck is ten feet from you, making the end of the blast radius also ten feet from you. However, you need to move fifteen feet to clear the blast. You roll your reaction check versus the channeler’s spell difficulty. For this example, we will say the channeler’s spell difficulty is a fourteen plus one, since you need to move fifteen feet to clear the blast area. You roll your reaction check and get an eighteen. This means your character can move the distance needed to be outside the blast area (see the diagram below).
Avoiding Area of Effects
There are three different ways to either avoid the effect in the area or to reduce the damage taken. To avoid the area of effect, you need to succeed in your instinct check.
Clear the Area
By moving out of the area of effect, you can completely avoid the effects.
Full Cover
Being able to move into full cover allows you to avoid all the effects of the spell unless otherwise specified.
Half Cover
Half cover reduces the damage by half.
Note About Cover
Durable items take one tenth of the damage (divide the damage by ten) as durability damage (minimum one). So, if the fireballs damage is forty-two, the object used would take four points of durability damage. This is especially important to keep in mind when using shields.
Measuring Area of Effect on Grids
Often in combat, it is common to use a battle mat that has either squares or hexes. When determining how many squares or hexes an area of effect takes up, always measure from the center outward. Ignore diagonal measurements and only measure horizontally or vertically. The above diagram shows this, with the area represented by the circle being twenty feet (four squares) left, right, up, and down from the center.
Cover
There are two types of cover, half cover and full cover. Each one grants you a different protection. Cover can be objects, creatures, or natural structures/material (i.e. trees or rocks).
Full Cover
All your body is completely behind the cover. You negate all damage in an area of effect unless specified. Attackers cannot target you unless specified.
Half Cover
With half cover, only half your body is behind an object which halves the damage of area of effects and causes attacks against you to be unlucky.
