We're about to start a new campaign. One hero we selected was steelhorns. His skill is:

"Steelhorns can make one Melee attack when he declares a Run action.

He must move in a straight line and end his movement after making the attack."

I'm a little curious how other people interpret his skill.

Assuming he declares a run action: how do you interpret:

"straight line": Can he attack if he moves like a rook? a bishop? a queen?

"must move": Can he only move? Could he attack after he drinks a potion? opens a door? jumps a pit? hands a hero an item?

"end his movement": Can he spend any remaining movement after his attack on actions other then movement? could he drink a potion, trade an item, re-equip, etc..

I interpret it like this:

Steelhorns must move like a rook...they often mention diagonal moves when they apply, and if you took it to mean simply a straight line (like line of sight) almost any move would be valid.

Steelhorns may spend movement points for other actions at any time, including after the attack, so long as the spaces moved are in a straight line and he does not spend a movement point on actual movement after the attack.

Steelhorns must move at least one space. Otherwise he would not technically have moved in a straight line. (though this last one should never be a factor as in that case he would just declare a battle or ready action)

I believe you are over-thinking this, and that the rules can be interpreted exactly as they are stated.

- he can't move diagonally

- he can spend movement points on any normally allowed actions just as you can with a standard Run

- the only catch is that after his attack he must stop moving.

snacknuts said:

snacknuts said:

Yes to all three.

snacknuts said:

As long as his actual movement is in a straight line, it doesn;t matter what else he does with his movement points.

snacknuts said:

Yes to all. It ends his movement, but it doesn't end his turn or take away hir remaining movement points.

A diagonal line is a straight line. Had they meant for him to be unable to move diagonally, they would have worded it like Leap.

Yep, a diagonal is straight. However, just because you can draw a straight LOS to a target does not mean you move straight, as movement is by squares. Example:

0X0

0X0

0X0

0X0

is straight

x0000

x0000

0x000

0x000

00x00

00x00

Is not straight (even though you can draw a straight LOS from the bottom row x to the top row x), as the staight movement is broken in rows 3 and 5.

Also, this was discussed a couple of weeks ago. Just look back a few pages and there will be a lot more explanation of this.

I think the majority of posters I've seen comment on Steelhorns have allowed him to move diagonally, though it doesn't make a lot of difference, because you don't often encounter a place where you want to move in a straight diagonal line further than you could do with an Advance. Corner-to-corner on the largest room (without ToI pieces) barely qualifies. It comes up a little more if you take into account spending movement points on other things, but it's still quite rare.

It could be useful if you have that fatigue recovery skill from running, but even then, not too likely.

I picture it as "straight", like a rook, no diagonals. I also picture it as ending his ability to spend movement points. Do whatever he wants with the MPs before the attack *except* move. Once he's ready to move, all his movement must be in a straight line, and then when he stops, he makes his one melee attack.

-shnar

SamVimes said:

Movement is space by space. As long as every space moved in the turn is in the same direction (there are 8 directions available for each 1 space move) then the requirements for Steelhorns have been fulfilled - for straightness of move at least.
This means that Steelhorns can use his ability when moving diagonally.
He can not, however, move like the second example above because that is not a 'straight' diagonal. It contains movement south as well as movement south-east. Thats two directions and therefore not straight, despite it being a legal LOS.

Examples
XOO
OXO
OOX 'straight' - all movement SE

XOO
OXO
OXO not 'straight' - both S and SE movement

I am certain that this was the concensus recently, despite the above misrememberance.

It is not a particularly great ability, but it does have its uses - especially with a Reach weapon.

SamVimes said:

I'm fairly certain there is no official skill that only works on a Run action. Relentless and Battle Cry restore fatigue on an Advance and a Battle, respectively, but there's no Run equivalent.

Corbon said:

Yep. My point exactly. Diagonals are definitely straight.

To Anti-stone: I thought there was a skill that restored 2 fatigue for a run action, but I'm not too sure as I play OL exclusively, and no-one in our RTL campaign has anything of the sort. If there isn't a skill like that, no biggie. Steelhorn's special isn't much better for my potentially non-existent skill anyways.

I made use of his abilities once... In Quest 4 or 5, I forget which of the base set. Had someone open the door to the final boss, i charged in and hit him for half his life. Proceeded to die, then came out of the portal and charged in a second time to hit him again and kill him.

SamVimes said:

I agree with this assessment. Mainly because it's very simple.

In the past, I believe we always played with his skill requireing him to move as a rook. Moving diagonally doesn't seem to "break" his ability though, I suspect this time we'll let him run like a queen (lol!) and be able to attack.

The last time we played we got into a disagreement about him running, "moving" to town (via a glyph) and using his skill to attack. It seems it only makes a difference if his target is not in a "straight line" from the glyph or is further then 4 spaces away from the glyph (fatigue not withstanding.)

I'm planning on posting the party we drew for out campaign; I'm interested how other people rate its strength. I will do so in a new thread, since that's a little off topic.