Monster movement: maxium effect and presence of traps |

Joseph Whitaker

(Mashing)

United States
Humble
Texas

So, a specific situation came up last night that is still bothering me.

We had a elite living bones monster with a Move -1 and Attack +1 ability card (it might have been a move 0, can't remember for sure).

It had two targets exactly 2 hexes away but there was a 6 damage trap between one of the targets (player A). Due to this we ruled that player B would be the focus due to lower initiative.

Easy enough to decide, but that was not the problem.

The problem arose because of the MAXIUMUM EFFECT rule. The elite version of this monster has a Target 2 on his stat sheet. Based on our interpretation of the rule we decided that it would move one space to attack player B so it would also attack player A. This means it had to move into a hazardous space (a trap in this case) because it would not have been able to maximize it's attack if it simply moved 2 spaces to attack player B only (there was an invisible player that was between player A and B). The trap didn't kill the monster (due to the shield 1 ability), so it was able to attack both player A and B successfully.

Was this a proper interpretation of the rules?

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Matthew Gardner

(mgardner0)

The monster would not move onto a trap just to maximize effect.

Quote:

Monsters without the Flying trait consider negative hexes (traps or hazardous terrain) to be obstacles when determining focus and movement unless movement through one of these hexes is the only way they can focus on a target.

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Richard Schofield

(scooph81)

Canada

I think that maximizing attacks comes in priority after not hurting himself in the trap, and therefore he wouldn't attack both but just the one without the trap in its way.

On a side note however Shield doesn't affect trap damage, only attacks

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Michael Lee

(ShinyFirefly)

United States
Los Angeles
California

Once the monster's focus has been established it will always move to attack it's focus. If the ONLY path to the focus is a trap, it will move onto the trap. Maximizing its attack by attacking a second target is secondary.

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Joseph Whitaker

(Mashing)

United States
Humble
Texas

Thank you. That is what I thought, so that is why it was bugging me.

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Jay Johnson

(JayJ79)

United States
Cedar Falls
Iowa

ShinyFirefly wrote:

Once the monster's focus has been established it will always move to attack it's focus. If the ONLY path to the focus is a trap, it will move onto the trap. Maximizing its attack by attacking a second target is secondary.

That isn't entirely true. The trap is factored into determing the focus.
If there is a trap-free path to a hex from which the monster can attack ANY enemy (regardless of path length), it will not step onto a trap (or hazard). Its focus would be the enemy which it can reach (trap-free) with the least amount of movement.

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M.C.Crispy

(mccrispy)

United Kingdom
Basingstoke
Hampshire

Mashing wrote:

It had two targets exactly 2 hexes away but there was a 6 damage trap between one of the targets (player A). Due to this we ruled that player B would be the focus due to lower initiative.

Because of the wording of this, I wanted to check that:

1) you were measuring "distance away" as the length of the unblocked path to a hex from which the attack could be made, rather than as the range to Player A's character
2) the only otherwise unblocked path to a hex from which Player A could be attacked was through the trap and that no - longer - path existed that went around the trap

It took me a while to get into the habit of determining the length of the path to a target hex, rather than measuring the range to a character. On occasion it makes a huge difference!

Last edited Wed Feb 28, 2018 10:42 am (Total Number of Edits: 1)
Posted Wed Feb 28, 2018 10:42 am
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Subject: Monster movement: maxium effect and presence of traps