AoE to hit

So, for Area of effect spells, are we going to be rolling for each character within the blast, or rolling once for every character in the blast?

AoE is 1 roll to hit 1 roll of damage.

The key is the difference between AoE and 1, 2,or 3 creatures. The 1, 2,or 3 creatures power is multi target, and therefore separate rolls for each target. Note, this also means it is effected by things like invisibility and concealment.

AoE on the other hand targets an area and only does a single attack and damage roll. In addition AoE is unaffected by invisibility and concealment (note that concealment and cover are similar but different, mostly in regard to AoE).

Of course, the final say is that of our illustrious DM.

I thought the same but as it was pointed out in page 271 in the phb you make one damage roll but seperate attack rolls for AoE effects

When you make an area attack, you make a separate
attack roll against each target in the area of effect,
but you make a single damage roll that affects all
the targets. A Large or larger creature hit by an area
attack is affected only once by the attack, even if
multiple squares of the creature’s space are in the
area of effect.

Hmm, somewhere I missed that... I posit that that is dumb. I had originally thought the change from saving throws to defenses was great, because it cut down on the rolling.

The deal about concealment still applies though.

KiaD wins this round of rules lawyering. One point to him and the right to lord his 4e rules knowledge over everyone else on the forums for one day.

Think of it this way (and it's probably a bad example and on second thought you shouldn't compare 3.5 to 4e ever cause it will probably have changed a lot, but I digress:) In 3.5 if you were a wizard and cast fireball into a group of bad guys, this was settled by a saving throw. Each bad guy got to roll a reflex save against the DC of your spell. Then you rolled damage and everyone who didn't dodge took full and everyone else took half. Since saves were converted into defenses in 4e, it makes sense that you would roll an attack versus each person in the area (similar to the saving throw they received) and then one damage to see how powerful the spell was.

Sean brings up a good point about invisibility, concealment, and cover. Two major things in 4e for targeting people are Line of Sight and Line of Effect. Pages 270-273 are a good reference for distinguishing between the four types of attacks that now exist (Melee, Ranged, Close, Area) and laying out the rules for each. Any more questions ask away.

The key point I was trying to make was that I liked the change from the 3e number of rolls. Oh well... at least all the rolls are on the attacker's side now.