RQ: Elemental Attack, What range to allow? Options

[knasser]

Hi,

Just wondering what range people allow for the Elemental Attack power. It states LOS which is fine for Air Elementals shooting lightening, etc, but seems a bit silly when applied to, for example, a Hell Hound's fire breathing.

Assuming I don't want a pack of Hell Hounds spitting fireballs at players across a vast corporate enclave while the players shoot back with sniper rifles, what would be a reasonable range in people's opinions? What would be the range increments?

I'm asking what numbers other GMs would pick if put on the spot, please.

Thanks for all replies,

-K.

[knasser]

23 topic views so far and no-one has any suggestions? I don't think this something you can get "wrong". I'm just trying to get a feel for what people think.

The same question would apply to dragons, I would think. And I'm sure that must have come up in people's games. Or have I just missed a great big line saying range values for Elemental Attack are 'X' somewhere?

[HappyDaze]

Treat it as a bow but replace Strength with Magic. This prevents the LOS silliness, but the range may still not be what you want.

[Eryk the Red]

Personally, I'm okay with leaving it as just line of sight. I had a scenario where I had hell hounds as guard dogs where the runners were going, and it didn't really cause any kind of problem. I guess it's also just a matter of what sort of imagery you have in your head. If you see hell hounds breathing a gout of flame, like a flamethrower, you'd want to limit the range. I liked the image of the firey projectile myself.

[Slithery D]

I'd leave it at LOS and for extreme distances handwave a dice penalty for perception/dodging (does even the lightning bolt move at light speed?).

[James McMurray]

Depends on the critter, but usually "close" with that being defined as needed (usually vaguely).

[knasser]

Urk! I don't think I can give it range as a bow. Even if you picture it as the hound gobbing a fireball at someone, rather than a breath of flame as I do, I can't visualise it working over 200 feet. It's a good idea basing it off substituting magic for strength, though. Perhaps using the Thrown Knife category instead.

It sounds like people generally just hand wave it according to style. That's okay. I was just wondering what people generally did when put on the spot with players demanding how far away they have to be to shoot it safely.

Cheers,

-K.

[James McMurray]

Tell them "where do you go? I'll let you know as soon as you're there and he tries to hit you."

[knasser]

[James McMurray]

I don't think a rangefinder or other distance measurer would work, at least not reliably. If you're within range and hit you can't be sure that they spit the fire (or whatever) out as far as it can go. If you're outside of range they probably won't be breathing (or whatever) anyway. The only time it would come into play is if you were just barely out of range and they tried anyway. I'd definitely give them an approximation of distances used because of it, but don't think they'd ever learn the actual distance without some sort of experimentation (which there usually isn't time for when you're in a situation where elemental attacks are coming your way. :)

[HappyDaze]

[hobgoblin]

i would not worry about the range of the attack, but at what range a animal would consider someone a threat. getting a hellhound to attack something it can barely see would be quite hard i think. but a air elemental doing the same thing (atleast with a high enough force so that it get some usefull mental stats) could be possible.

hmm, earlyer magic books had a "extreme range" table of modifiers for spellcasting. is this still around in street magic? if so then i would apply it.