WDS wrote:

> Loren Pechtel wrote:

>> Harold Groot wrote:

>>

>>> Last night we had a discussion on a Rules Interpretation that was a

>>> new one on me.

>>>

>>> One person believed that casting a Ray Spell when in a threatened

>>> square (even if you successfully cast it defensively) triggers an

>>> Attack Of Opportunity.  Everyone else was going "WTF?" when this came

>>> up.

    I recall things like that coming up early in 3e, AD&D players not quite 

believing how easy spellcasting had become. 8]

>> Add me to the WTF? group.

>>

>> His interpretation makes no sense.

> 

> You usually see something like this when the DM is getting frustrated

> with a player being overly effective with some tactic.  We had a DM who

> for a short while required wizards et al to make "targeting rolls" for

> fireballs and such.

    That's basically what you were supposed to do in OD&D, with Fireball and 

Lightning Bolt, as they were targeted like catapults and ballistae in 

Chainmail.

    In AD&D and 2nd edition the wording still insisted players picked a 

range and height to aim at, though most ignored it. By 3e it had dropped to 

making an attack roll to squeeze the fireball seed through small openings 

(which is an advantage, such small openings block line of effect).

    Anyhoo, usually no malice, the weird old rule interpretations get dug up 

most often when a player is wreaking havoc with some spell or another. DMs 

just get to thinking they've missed something. That's my excuse anyway. 8]

-- 

    tussock