# Can a blast hit targets vertically above the caster?

Can a blast hit targets vertically above the caster?

... trying to draw the situations in text mode ...

Assuming we have a map like so ...

A | B | C
D | E | F
G | H | I


and the caster is in square A, they could do a Close Blast 2 into B + C + E + F, or E + F + H + I, etc.

However can they do the blast upwards into A + B + D + E, but one and two squares upwards ?

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I don't know of a written rule on this, but my group hits this situation a lot and our interpretation is this: A blast must start in an adjacent square, and vertical squares are just as adjacent as horizontal ones, so why not? But then you get into more complex situations like casting a Close Blast 5 over the heads of your party members to only hit the large enemies, which for some reason seem less clear... Anyways, good question! – dpatchery Apr 12 '12 at 18:54
And welcome to the really quite vile world of 3d in 4e. It's painful. – Brian Ballsun-Stanton Apr 12 '12 at 18:55
Oh I second the woes of 3D in 4E ... but at least we've not got 5F :-) – SteveC Apr 12 '12 at 19:36

Yes, it can. Blasts and bursts extend in the third dimension as they do in the second.

And now for proof.

First, the discussion where this comes up is in dimensional scramble, here:

A Large creature occupies a 2X2X2 cube, and so would be in a burst 1 centred 2 squares up. If any single square (or cube, in this case) of a multi-square creature is in a burst, it is affected as normal.

As DDI notes in burst:

A burst starts in an origin square and extends in all directions to a specified number of squares from the origin square.

Therefore, it extends a number of "squares" in the third dimension and makes math majors cry.

The way to think of D&D (all editions) handling of flight as stacked 2d grids. moving from grid to grid is always poorly supported and takes effort. A sphere is cubed.

Therefore, from this understanding, if you're supporting (effectively) 2.5d and target "up" X squares, it extends "down" from the "up" you targeted as per the rules. Be prepared for a giant headache though.

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Yes, but not in the ways you have specified.

The blast will create a 2x2x2 cube of effect, however the origin square is not included with blasts (as it is on bursts).

The blast must be adjacent to its origin square, which is a square in your space. The origin square is not affected by the blast.

There is no way to hit square A with a blast. You can aim upwards and hit A+1, B+1, c+1 and D+1 (as well as the +2 versions of all those).

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"You can aim upwards and hit A+1, B+1, c+1 and D+1 (as well as the +2 versions of all those)." I'm pretty sure that's all he was asking. – Jason White Apr 12 '12 at 20:43
Sorry, my bad ... I was not meaning could the blast hit A, it was A+1 and A+2 as you correctly pointed out – SteveC Apr 12 '12 at 20:48