On aiming cones...

[NunoM]

This recently came into play in one of our gaming sessions and got me wondering if i played it right...

Our group managed to pin a group of 5 bandits against a corner of a room. I'm playing a Duskblade and found myself next to a wall with all the bandits in front of me, ready for my well aimed "Color Spray".

I'll try to describe the situation:
- I had 1 guy directly in front, 2 more on the squares to the right, and 2 more behind him. (see the diagram below)
- I chose, as starting point for the spray (15ft cone), the intersection on my left and fired to the right


|X...
|X...
|XXX.
|D...

| = wall
D = Duskblade (me)
X = bandit
. = other squares in the grid
green = "Color Spray"'ed area

Here's the question: Could i do this? Or is the spell always aimed away from the caster and in the starting point's direction (i.e. I would have sprayed the wall and not the bandits)?

I re-read the spell aiming rules and i don''t think i did anything wrong, but i'd like your take on this...
Thanks!

[RedWarlock]

Looks fine to me.

[Garryl]

Yup. You're projecting one of the allowed cone areas from a corner of your space. No problems here.

[NunoM]

Ok, sounds good! Thanks for the input

[awaken_D_M_golem]

Cones always bugged me, because the maths
are usually more complicated than the game
needs to have.

But even 4e's ultra simplified approach still
has things people argued (and argued and ...)
about.  A 5x5 area isn't "5" in length at the corners.
It's 7 on a flat plane, and internetFlames if you
work it in 3 dimensions.  But it's not like you
can't handle 4/3TTr^3 with fudge factors,
except that the game has players and DMs
who really can't ... at least not on the fly.

[/was that a rant]