Can you turn a spell into an area spell?

Question

Let me preface this by saying I'm pretty much a complete newb when it comes to the Vancian spellcasting subsystem, so sorry if this one has an obvious answer I just don't know about.

Is there a way to make a spell that's not an AoE... into an AoE? Specifically, I'd like to be able to use telekinesis with the Eldritch Theurge class feature Spellblast, which lets you add an area of effect spell to your Eldritch Blast.

Answer 1

No, there is not.

The only forms of changing a spell’s range/area targeting, that I know of, are

\begin{array}{l|l} _\text{From} \quad\backslash\quad ^\text{To} & \textbf{Touch} & \textbf{Ray/Targeted} & \textbf{Area} \\ \hline \textbf{Personal} & \text{Spellguard}^1 \\ \hline \textbf{Touch} & & \text{Arcane reach,}^2 \\ & & \quad\textit{greatreach blast,}^3 \\ & & \quad\text{Reach Spell}^4 \\ \hline \textbf{Ray} & \text{Hold ray}^5 \\ \hline \textbf{Area} & & \text{Spellwarp}^6 \\ \hline \textbf{Area Around} & \text{Major esoterica}^7 & & \text{Imbue arrow,}^8 \\ \quad\textbf{Caster} & & & \quad\textit{spellblast}^9 \\ \end{array}

1. _{Class feature of the spellguard of Silverymoon prestige class from Player’s Guide to Faerûn.}

2. _{Option for the high arcana class feature of the archmage prestige class.}

3. _{Class feature of the eldritch theurge prestige class from Complete Mage.}

4. _{Feat found in numerous publications, most recently Complete Divine. Also found on the SRD.}

5. _{Class feature of the enlightened fist prestige class from Complete Arcane.}

6. _{Class feature of the spellwarp sniper prestige class from Complete Scoundrel.}

7. _{Abjuration-only. Class feature from the master specialist prestige class from Complete Mage, specifically the master abjurer.}

8. _{“Targets” an area by shooting it (or a target within it) with an arrow. Works with any area spell, not just those centered on the caster, but only “transformative” for caster-centered areas. Class feature from the arcane archer prestige class.}

9. _{Works like imbue arrow except the spell goes on the theurge’s eldritch blast rather than an arrow. Class feature of the eldritch theurge prestige class from Complete Mage.}

As you can see, none of these change something that lacked an area into an area spell. And I am fairly confident that nothing does, because how would that even work? What would an area-effect telekinesis even do? You would need specific rules for each of telekinesis’s three modes for clarifying that, and telekinesis isn’t the only spell like that—lots of spells are going to be weird and difficult to determine in this manner. All of the above effects take something that hits one target and turns it into something else that still hits just one target, with the exception of spellwarp and spellblast, which take something that affects an area and has it (basically) affect a smaller area. All of those transformations are easily defined in one single rule that applies to all of those spells (though they do sometimes still get in trouble). But transforming something into an area requires a lot more new rules and needs to handle a lot more cases and is going to run into a lot more problems. So I highly doubt they ever wrote such a thing.