Area, Effect, and Targets

When a spell you cast comes into effect, you must make choices about what the spell is to affect or where an effect is to originate, depending on the spell’s type. A spell’s description defines the spell’s area, its effect, or its target (or targets), as appropriate.

Targets

Some spells have one or more targets. You cast these spells on creatures or objects, as defined in the spell’s description. You must be able to see or touch the target (unless the spell has an attack roll; see Spells with Attack Rolls below), and you must specifically choose that target. You do not have to select your target until you have finished casting the spell.

If the target of a spell is yourself (which is the case for all personal range spells), you don’t receive a saving throw and spell resistance doesn’t apply. The Saving Throw and Spell Resistance entries are omitted from the descriptions of such spells.

Some spells restrict you to willing or unconscious targets. A creature can declare itself a willing target at any time (even if it’s flat-footed or it isn’t that creature’s turn). Characters who are conscious but immobile or helpless can still choose to be unwilling.

Many spells affect “living creatures,” which means all creatures other than constructs and undead (artificially created beings that are not undead or constructs are considered living for this purpose). Creatures in the spell’s area that are not of the appropriate type don’t count against the number of creatures affected.

Other spells allow you to target other categories of creatures or items, such as construct, corpse, or object. This works like targeting a creature, and the target’s spell resistance, if any, applies. See page 265 for more details.

Some spells allow you to redirect the effect to new targets or areas after you cast the spell. Redirecting a spell is a move action that doesn’t provoke attacks of opportunity.

Spells with Attack Rolls: Some spells require an attack roll to hit. For these spells, you don’t need line of sight to the target, but you still need line of effect (see page 271). These spells can score a critical hit just as a weapon can, and deal double damage on a successful critical hit. If one of these spells has a duration, it refers to the duration of the effect that the attack causes, not the length of time that the attack itself persists.

Effect

Some spells create or summon things rather than affecting things that are already present. You must designate the location where these things are to appear, either by seeing it or defining it. The spell’s range determines how far away an effect can appear, but if the effect is mobile, after it appears it can move regardless of the spell’s range. For clarity, some spells specify the type or size of effect created in a separate Effect entry.

Area

Some spells affect an area. Sometimes a spell description specifies a specially defined area, but usually a spell’s area is described as a burst, emanation, or spread, and as a cone, cylinder, line, or sphere (see page 268). A spell’s area may also be shapable, which is indicated with “(S)” after the listed area.

Regardless of the shape of the area, you select the point where the spell originates. You don’t otherwise control which creatures or objects the spell affects; it affects all valid targets in the area. When determining whether a given creature is within a spell’s area, count out the distance from the point of origin in squares, just as you do when moving a character or determining the range for a ranged attack. The only difference is that instead of counting from the center of one square to the center of the next, you count from intersection to intersection.

You can count diagonally across a square, but remember that every second diagonal counts as 2 squares of distance. If the far edge of a square is within the spell’s area, anything within that square is within the spell’s area. If the spell’s area touches only the near edge of a square, however, creatures or objects within that square are unaffected by the spell.

Other: A spell can have a unique area, as defined in its spell description.