I own both the English and German version of the D&D 5e Player's Handbook.
On pages 204 and 205 it talks about area of effect spells and whether or not the point of origin is included in it.
The English PHB states:
A [cone,cube,line]'s point of origin is not included in the [cone,cube,line]'s area of effect, unless you decide otherwise.
and
A [cylinder,sphere]'s point of origin is included in the [cylinder,sphere]'s area of effect.
While the English version differentiated between two types of point of origin, the German version states the same sentence for all 5 types. Which is a translation of the sentence used in the English version for the cone, cube and line.
Der Ursprungspunkt [des/der] [Kegels,Linie,Sphäre,Würfels,Zylinders] ist nicht Teil [seines/ihres] Flächeneffekts, es sei denn, du möchtest, dass er es ist.
Both the Basic Rules PDF and the System Reference Document use the same wording as the English PHB.
My English PHB says its version is:
Tenth Printing: October 2018.
While my German one says:
- überarbeitete Auflage, 2019
Is this a mistake in the translated version? If so, who can I report this too?
Best Answer
That does appear to be a mistake. A line/cube/cone's origination point is defined to be on the exterior surface of it (at the end point of the line, the tip of the cone, or anywhere on a cube face), so it makes sense that the effect could include the point or not; but a cylinder or sphere's point of origin is by definition inside the area, so it doesn't make much sense to be able to not include that point.
Realistically, it probably doesn't matter; even if the exact origin point is excluded, the effect still hits the square the point was in, so it's not like this change would allow you to avoid the effect. Setting off a fireball at the tip of your finger and excluding your fingertip won't save the rest of your body.
As far as where to report it, I would probably look for a customer service form on the D&D website, but you could also tweet this to Jeremy Crawford.