In the rules of Sea of Blood is mentioned that a tentacle can grapple a hero if it is in the same space. I know that in Descent you attack spaces instead of figures. Does this mean that if a grappled hero wants to kill the tentacle, he must also attack itself. Or if another hero wants to free his fellow hero, he must attack both his fellow hero and the tentacle. This would make the tentacle powerful, but I wonder if this was the intended purpose???

Any comments!!!

Hard to say anything without actually reading the rules in question, and FFG hasn't posted the SoB rules.

But heretofore, the Grapple ability can't grapple any figure that is currently moving through the space of another figure.

This rule would imply that tentacles are not figures....

Antistone said:

I believe the tentacles can grapple something in the space it is in. I guess that would mean tentacles are not figures.

Thundercles said:

There are not you are right!

I don't remember any specific ruling for Descent, but I do remember a ruling for Doom that said multiple targets in the same space will all be hit by an attack that targets that space. It makes a certain amount of sense that if a tentacle is grappling someone (ie: wrapped around him) then it would be difficult to attack the tentacle without also hitting the guy inside. I think these tentacles sound nasty, but not necessarily broken.

Yes, attacks target spaces and hit everything in that space. If there are two figures in a single space they will both take the damage. this can also be good for the heroes, as it means a guard action can strike two enemies if one of them moves through the other. It's rare, but fun when it pops up.

Tentacles are not, in the classic sense, figures/models. They are cardboard counters, similar to RtL's peasants. What that means though to LOS and Movement, I don't know, since I do not have the rulebook yet

Come on Sally! Get that marketing department to publish the PDF!!!

-shnar

From the GLoAQ:

Can a creature’s movement be halted by a Guard call while it is in the space of another creature? If so, are both creatures now legal targets for a Single Target (Non AoE) attack? And how would damage be dealt?
If the OL is foolish enough to have more than one monster in the same space in front of a hero with guard, then yes, the hero can attack both monsters in that space at once with a single attack. This is a pretty rare case, however, in that it only applies during the OL's turn when he's moving monsters through each other. After all, monsters cannot end their movement on the same space as another monster.

Here's another relevant entry:

Can a hero target his own square?
No. (Except via Dark Charm.)

So apparently, if a tentacle can move into your space and than grapple you, not only do your allies need to hit you in order to target the tentacle, but you can't target the tentacle at all, even if you're willing to hit yourself.

Barring special attack effects, of course. You can still hit yourself with a Blast attack. Also, "sweep attacks affect all enemy figures within melee range of the attacker," so that could hit the tentacle without hitting the grappled hero (if you're playing Eliam or draw the right feat). Leap attacks are also specifically limited to enemy figures, but AFAIK there's no way for a hero to gain the Leap ability, and you can't Leap while grappled anyway.

And I'd need to check the wording on the Word of Vaal...

Are tentacles a 1 space counter or are they a 1x2 counter?

When I was looking at the pictures on BBG previously I had the impression they were 1x2. This would allow the grappled hero and other heroes to attack the tentacle without hitting the grappled hero.

And IF they are 1x2 (or larger) can they grapple more than one hero at a time??

Antistone said:

Even without owning Sea of Blood, it seems obvious to me that since a tentacle is attached to a body of some kind (for instance the body of a giant kraken), the hero should be able to hit at least one square of tentacle adjacent to him, or the body of the monster where the tentacle originates from.

Ispher said:

From a narrative/thematic perspective, yes, that makes sense. From a game mechanics standpoint, it would not be remotely surprising to me if the tentacle tokens represent the tip of the tentacle and the rest of it is abstracted and assumed to be too deep underwater to have any direct interactions with the otehr game pieces.

Betrayal at House on the Hill represents tentacles (and other vine-like creatures) with a "root" token and a "tip" token that are completely separate monsters for all mechanical purposes except that killing the root kills the tip, and they don't even have the "underwater" excuse.

The tentacles are 2 to 3 squares long so there is always one you can attack! Their goal is to bring you closer to the mouth of the ennemy or to constrict you.

Ispher said:

I could easily see the situation where the tentacle is coming up behind the hero, so any strikable parts outside "his own space" are out of reach behind him and the tentacle is holding him too high to hit the main body. So it's not necessarily a logcial conclusion that the hero should be able to hit something. This is, of course, setting aside the fact that Descent is not exactly known for being logical in the first place.

Anyway the arguement seems to be moot as other posters have already mentioned that the tentacles are larger than 1x1, so the grappled hero will in fact have at least one targetable space.

Steve-O said:

I confirm!

Sounds like the heroes had better be careful not to end up in a position where a tentacle can move so that every space it occupies contains a hero...

Antistone said:

In that case couldn't you attack a square containing tentacle and hero? The hero would take damage, but...

Titeman said:

Yes, you could (based on the information given so far). So it's not possible for the tentacles to grapple the heroes in such a way that they're totally helpless forever with no dice rolls, but it sounds like it would still be a tactical disaster.

Yeah, friendly fire should be a group's last choice.

If the tentacle is really 2x3 spaces big (as stated below), if would be 6 in total, and thus you are unable to fill all of them without leaving no spaces open.... So in that case you will always have 2 free spaces that at (some) heroes can attack on......

grouik said:

Shmoozer said:

I meant 1*2 or 1*3 squares long!

grouik said:

That would be the first 1x3 monster in Descent. Do they have special movement rules? Because I don't relish the thought of trying to extrapolate the current abominably-worded non-square movement rules to a 1x3 creature.

From the sound of it, tentacles are props, not monsters.

Oh. Here I assumed that grappling a hero in the same space meant that the tentacle would be moving into the hero's space; if it has to sit there and wait for the hero to move onto it, that seems rather less dangerous.

I'm going completely on conjecture, but if it's a prop then maps which use it would either spawn it via na OL card, put is in places where you have to pass through it to get to the goodies, or have critters with knockback.