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Spells such as "stone rain" are often called area denial spells, since they make an area very bad to stay in.
Would a character who starts outside of the spells area, pass though the area, but exit the area all within their movement and without the casting magician getting an action, suffer the damaging effects of the spell?
Stone Rain for example says " Each round, more stones rain down on the targets, who continue to take
damage as long as they remain within the area of effect.", which causes me to think that only those within the area when the magician has his action suffer the damage. I mean you are not really denying a choke-point to the enemy are you?

Comments?

You determine targets when the spell is cast. This is true for most AoE spells. Everybody that enters AoE and wasn't one of the initial targets remains unaffected

I guess the summary for I'm saying is:

Spells that affect an area affect all people that enter or remain in the area, regardless of whether they were there at initial casting, unless the spell explicitly says otherwise. The TMD for casting is just to determine if the spell can manifest in that area in the first place.

I second that Undying.

Kosmit is taking his arguments from 3ed, there was much difference between "target" and "creature". Targets meant those you choose to be affected, and Creatures that you have no choice and will be affected.

But in 4ed there is no more such difference as all in AoE are affected (target or creature, wording does not matter anymore), unless you weave aditional threads to exclude some creatures/targets from spells effect.

Kosmit just to remind you
viewtopic.php?f=17&t=1826&p=18081&hilit=fireball#p18075