BlueSalamander wrote:How is a fireball targeted in AD&D 2nd edition? Do you simply assume that every enemy is affected and not your allies (as in Bard's Tale)?
Spells like fireball would work just like in dnd 3.5.
Example, one of the player decides that he'll cast fireball and must declare where will be point of origin. Now if that player is first on initiative, he is the quickest and he cast fireball before anyone else manage to do anything (because they are slower, just like dnd 3.5)
If that player is in the middle or even last on initiative, he still cast the spell but now the positions of everybody are not the same. And so if allied player is in the area of effect of fireball, he'll be hit by it. Or if enemies get out of the area of effect, spell is cast but hits no one. So this is just like turn based in dnd 3.5 just the actions are declared before you know when your turn will be. Also if two or more have same score on initiative, they act simultaneously. According to this, it is possible for two guys to killed each other in the same turn.
If your warrior wanted to push a goblin into a patch of lava but the goblin is killed before the warrior's action, would the action be lost?
Yes the action will be lost. This is perfect example of chaotic nature of combat.
This type of turns is maybe little hard to implement in computer game, but as I remember it was really good when we used to play old AD&D.