Offensive spells and Friendly Fire

[bariumdose]

I apologize if this sounds like an obvious question, but does anyone have a list of spells (even if it's off the top of your head) that are particularly prone to freindly fire incidents?

I can think of the obvious ones like fireball, ice storm, even entangle. I'm assuming spells like color spray and burning hands would cause friendly fire if I'm casting it from the back of my party where my mages are hiding behind my tanks.

Are there some spells that have a delayed release that allows your party to get away from the blast area before the full effect of the spell is felt? Any insight on how long is each spell's delayed release?

Thanks.

[Ravager]

[QUOTE=bariumdose]Are there some spells that have a delayed release that allows your party to get away from the blast area before the full effect of the spell is felt? Any insight on how long is each spell's delayed release?
[/QUOTE]

Spells like Skull Trap and Glyph of Warding can be set on an area and will only activate when someone comes close (whether that's one of your character's or an enemy). IIRC Death Fog does weak damage at the beginning allowing your characters to retreat and does more damage as it goes on (not sure about that one though).

[krunchyfrogg]

This is what makes Paladins and Rangers great tanks.

Have them cast "Protection from Fire" on themselves and charge the enemies. If there are a lot of them, have your Mages and Bards cast "Fireball."

[Ravager]

Thieves can be used for that purpose too (if HoW is installed and the configuration option is turned on). They then get the opportunity above a certain level (7th IIRC) to avoid all damage or take half-damage if they fail a save.

[krunchyfrogg]

[QUOTE=Ravager]Thieves can be used for that purpose too (if HoW is installed and the configuration option is turned on). They then get the opportunity above a certain level (7th IIRC) to avoid all damage or take half-damage if they fail a save. [/QUOTE]
Great point. I'm really considering making one of my tanks a Thief7 -> Fighter just for this ability (although I think I'll be handicapping my hitpoints a bit too much... 28 HP, assuming an 18 constitution, is a lot of hitpoints).

[Aerich]

Don't do it.

It's possible to get better than 100% fire resistance from casting Protection from Fire (3rd lvl cleric spell) and Resist Fire/Cold (2nd lvl cleric spell). It's less risky than banking on evasion, and more than 100% fire resistance means you heal if hit by a fire spell.

And Ravager has it right with Skull Trap, Glyph of Warding, and Death Fog.

Generally, any spell with an area of effect is prone to friendly fire. Strategies to get around it include the decoy draw and fire (drawing enemies with a decoy and pulling back to the party while casting so as to be out of the AoE when the spell goes off) and taking advantage of natural resistances or immunities of summons. Fire Elementals are immune to fire (Fireball, Flamestrike), and undead are immune to poison (Cloudkill) and cold (Snilloc's, Cone of Cold). Mages with Mirror Image are also immune to many AoE spells while the Mirror Image lasts.