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Agnazzar's Scorcher, a spell from the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, reads as follows:

A jet of roaring flame bursts from your outstretched hand, scorching any creature in a 5-foot-wide path to the edge of the spell's range. Aganazzar's scorcher deals 1d8 points of damage per two caster levels, to a maximum of 5d8 points of damage.

I'm wondering - what are the rules regarding path spells? Does the path have to be a straight line? Is there any rule text on paths?

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If anyone remembers the ancient CompuServe game Islands of Kesmai, you might recall that wizards had a Firebolt spell that had a path that could go in any direction (even turn back on itself). Overlapping the path three or four times was very effective. This is probably not what you would want out of Agnazzar's Scorcher. – Ichoran Apr 23 '12 at 17:51

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It should be.

For the simple reason that, if you remove the straight line requirement, you can then make the path a spiral that originates from the caster and covers all the circle enclosed by the spell range.

This is the intended spell effectYouTube.

The wording of the spell, however is not clear. What is called a path is actually a line (as per Lightning BoltPFD20SRD).

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I think so to, but I asked because I would like rule text regarding this. – Mala Apr 20 '12 at 14:12
'Path' is not a keyword in the dnd-3.5 nor in the pathfinder rule set. The presence of that word in the effect line of text is, in my opinion, a design mistake. – Erik Burigo Apr 20 '12 at 14:23
It's a 3.0 spell. As I don't have any of the 3.0 core books, I asked here. – Mala Apr 20 '12 at 15:07
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"Jets" don't go in spirals. Contrary to popular wisdom, 3e is not what is called complete: it systematises a lot of things but not everything, and it still expects readers to apply common sense to places where the rules are not explicit. So, "jets" go in straight lines, and that's the only place in the text you'll find a canonical answer. – SevenSidedDie Apr 20 '12 at 16:32
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I thought maybe path was a type such as line in 3.5, with specific rules. Well, I accepted the answer. – Mala Apr 20 '12 at 19:25
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