Doh! I Charged into fireball

[Yemin]

So I put this in discussion instead of suggestions because I'd like to gather the consensus on wizard players on what types spells they keep memorized. As for myself, being fairly high level I only really have AOE ones set up 99% of the time in terms of offense which becomes an issue of course if people aren't quick on the draw about grouping with you.

I'm reluctant to suggest the idea that maybe spellcasters on FK should have a friends list that they can add players onto while so even out of groups, an AOE spell won't hit them. But after some thought, I've come to the realisation that grouping isn't really an accurate method of representing the limitation of AOE.

I recognize that there isn't really an easy way to represent the dangers of AOE on a mud because of the constraints of *rooms* and the like. However, if we're sporting for as close a tabletop experience as you can go, most of the time spellcasters get around hitting allies by designating the centerpoint of AOE spells2 or 3 squares into empty space so the only affected squares are the one the true target is in.

This, as stated above now means that wizards and the like for the most part, don't usually have to worry too much about the fighter that doesn't hold action to charge after the wizard gets his turn. So I'm not sure why it shouldn't be possible for the friend's list to be a thing, or for AOE to have an altered syntax to hit only designated targets.

[Rhangalas]

Instead of a friends list, I think the best way to do it would be to allow syntax targeting. So, say you cast an AoE as 'cast fireball' %, it would hit the PC you specified along with whomever is present and in their group at the time.

[Althasizor]

Personally, I'd rather just see the fighter get nailed with the fireball, and have sent one my friends' way before. If you're already in a combat situation, and you aren't formed up properly, bad things can/should happen.

[Yemin]

True enough, bad planning should lead to bad results.... but missing a group invite request because of sudden amounts of large spam often leads to wizards and some clerics just going.... ooops, for some reason I can't aim my spells so I'm going to leave my wife to die / Ooops, I just killed my fiancee just because.

I'm not attempting to be sarcastic there either because thats usually what i've seen happen and I've been put in that cenario in the past when its killed me a little oocly to be forced to it.

I like the idea of specific syntax added to AOE spells that would also hit target's group. Honestly i'd settle just for them being able to hit a specific person since that would mitigate alot of the issue and its not a bug so the less actual work in the solution if accepted the better.

There are a few exceptions of course such as earth quake cast underground. Chain lightning cast underwater and so on though some of these are easily mitigated via common sense. I for example have never used earth reaver when flying over bodies of water.