Is it poor form to nail the entire party with a Fireball in an

>>54400537
>getting fireballed with no warning or ability to evade

Yes

Better way to do it is

>SUDDENLY YOU SEE A MAGE SWOOP OVER THE TOWN SQUARE ON A FLYING DISK. THEY'RE CASTING A SPELL DOWN ONTO THE CROWDED SQUARE

Then you get their reactions/actions as people look up in confusion. Then, you dump a fireball into the crowded square.

>>54400569
300-400 feet away is a long distance to spot a casting from.

>>54400537
>Is it poor form to nail the entire party with a Fireball in an open town square to "send a message," assuming the entire party can survive it 99.99% of the time and a durable note is tossed in afterwards?
>Innocent bystanders can be caught too and die.
nope

>if spell-sniping
I suggest that you make a note of everyone's perception skills and have them roll immediately before the ball fires.

>if big-dick city mage
he swaggers up and the party mages maybe get a chance to detect "the gathering energies"

Unless the message is "I'm fucking insane and wield the power of fire" I would say it falls under poor form. In terms of BBEG taunting it seems fine to me, but I would probably just hand wave the damage to get rid of the small chance that the mailman murdered a PC with no chance to escape

>>54400537
Ask yourself if it's poor form to shot somebody with a nailgun in the leg.
Yes, with modern medicine it is very unlikely to kill him, but it is still considered a dick move.
You better have a real good reason to hurt your own team and having hurt feelings isn't one of them.

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In a D&D game I ran ages back I did what >>54400569 suggests.

The party were waylaid by bandits, a young novice cleric and a Chaotic Moron Fighter as dumb as a rock but convinced stealing to give to the poor was a good deed.

As the party fought the pair, one of the PCs noticed movement in the trees, and "a young sorceress in red clothes with fire red hair is preparing an incantation from her vantage point on a tall branch"

Now, none of them spoke Abyssal, so they couldn't work out what she was saying, but it was pretty much this:

>darkness beyond twilight
>crimson like blood that flows
>grant me the power you possess

And that's how the PCs met the campaign villain after she blew up the bridge they were fighting on with a fireball, and while they were resting up on the riverbank robbed them of all their gold and food.

It should be a fireball that explodes over everyone but doesn't harm anyone, alongside a letter that reads "Next time I won't miss."

>>54400537
If you're not doing lasting harm to ANYONE, it is about as poor form as a firm slap.

If above but you could do some property damage, you'd better pay for it and then some.

If you might really hurt someone, upgrade to the poor form of punching them in the nose (potentially breaking it), pushing them down a flight of stairs, or other injurious mischief.

If you're potentially killing bystanders, ABORT.

If your genre is comedy, whatever, nobody cares.

>>54404889
What's wrong with killing bystanders?

>>54405141
Arcane manslaughter is generally frowned upon. As such it is at very least always in poor form, and will usually be considered criminal, in a "Local authorities will probably put a price on your head, adventurers are now gunning for you" sort of way.
Are you prepared to BE a level-appropriate encounter?

>>54400537
Great way for the villain's organisation to start a fight.

>>54402144
>campaign villian
My group would have spent the rest of the campaign trying to waifu her. Males and females all.