Sorry if this has been already discussed, a search did not bring up anything specific!

Some questions about Spot keep coming up when playing RtL here and I hoped someone could give me a 'for idiots' version.

The word 'within' keep getting debated. With Spot 'within 3 spaces' is used, and it is obvious that we are setting up a ranged attack, with the intention it seems to get in range but stay out of melee, perhaps I am wrong? The question, then, is does 'within' mean between the number and engaged (in this case 1-3) or you need to be 3 away.

Example, when it says 'Spot as many heroes a possible', accepting line of sight, can one hero be 3 away and the other 2? What about ending adjacent to one of these heroes in this example, after all 1 is 'within 3'?

I believe that 'within' must mean 'within': 1-3 spaces.

Second and perhaps more important question, when a monster ends up somehow within the number, lets say two away or even adjacent (perhaps after a Hero has moved), when it commands 'Spot' do the Monster move to the ideal 3 spaces away (if possible) or stay put? (It being, again, 'within 3').

Thanks, and sorry if this has been beaten to death. I honestly couldn't find it!

RTL Manual Page 8:

SPOT: ... It performs a move action and moves toward the closest space that is within 3 spaces and line of sight of the target. It stops when it arrives in that space or when it runs out of movement points.

RTL Manual Page 9:

TOWARD: When moving toward a target, a figure is attempting to decrease the number of spaces between it and the target. During the movement, the figure can increase distance if by doing so, the end result allows it to be closer.

So, in combination, when a command is given to SPOT a particular hero, a monster will move toward that hero (decreasing the distance while doing so), and will stop when it is 3 spaces away, and has line of sight. If it has moved to within 3 spaces, and still has movement points, but does not have line of sight, it will continue to move toward the target until it does have line of sight or until it has exhausted its movement points, whatever comes first.

The monster will do the same thing if the action tells it to SPOT as many heroes as possible, with the exception that doing so may put it at varying distances from each of the heroes, but always at least within 3 spaces, and always with line of sight to as many of the heroes as possible.

For example, if all 4 heroes are aligned in such a way that you can move the monster towards a particular space on the board that will allow you line of sight to all 4 heroes, and be within 3 spaces of all 4 heroes, you do so. It doesn't matter if you are 3 spaces away from 2 heroes, 1 space away from another, and 2 spaces away from the last.

If the monster's movement points only allow you to do so for 3 of the heroes, or 2 of the heroes, or 1 of the heroes, you will attempt to move for 3 of the heroes, so that you are affecting as many as possible.

In essence, you are trying to get within a reasonable attack range (range 3) for further actions that may occur further down the command tree. This would include attack actions, any monster abilities that affect heroes within 3 spaces, etc. Keep in mind that 3 spaces is a very key distance in D2e for many skills, OL cards, monster abilities, etc.

And yes, you can consider the fact that you don't move closer yet, even though you may have remaining movement, because that monster does not want to be itself threatened by attacks from heroes, or to have skill cards played on the monster that allow melee counterattacks, nimble to move out of the way, etc. Further, often times a command further down the tree will tell the monster to attack, and then use any remaining movement to retreat. By stopping at a distance of 3, it potentially allows the monster additional movement to retreat further away from the target.

Finally, if a monster is already within 3 spaces of a hero (or 2 or 1) and is given a spot command, it DOES NOT move further way to get to a distance of 3. This is because SPOT requires you to REDUCE the distance to the target. In this case, you skip the SPOT command, both due to rules, as well as to allow multiple actions to be executed (not spending one on SPOT) since you are already within the distance required.

I hope the above helps and makes sense.

Crystal clear! And thank you for the time to write all this out.

This is exactly what I needed!

Thank you again!

This was one of my questions as well after playing RtL. Thanks for the well written answer.

do appleas this rule to pod too? the pod rule spot does not say how many spaces we should approach the target

do appleas this rule to pod too? the pod rule spot does not say how many spaces we should approach the target

I assume you must be asking if the spot rule also applies to something else. I am not sure what you mean or are referencing by the term "POD".

I think he means Print On Demand, aka the co-op expansions.

The PODs (Co-Ops: Forgotten Souls, Nature's Ire, and Dark Elements) work somewhat differently. They do not have the requirement that you be within 3 spaces.

The rules for SPOT for the co-ops say:

The PODs (Co-Ops: Forgotten Souls, Nature's Ire, and Dark Elements) work somewhat differently. They do not have the requirement that you be within 3 spaces.

The rules for SPOT for the co-ops say:

Spot: When an effect instructs a monster to spot a target, that monster

performs a move action and moves toward the closest space from which

it would have line of sight to the specified target. If a monster already has

line of sight to the target, that monster does not perform this action. If

there is no space on the map from which the monster could have line of

sight to the target, a different target is selected.

Basically, the moment that the monster has LOS to the hero, that figure stops moving. If it already has LOS at the start of its activation, it doesn't do the SPOT at all and moves on to the next action.

Yes, I know it. But I thought the spot rule of RTL was an upgrade the spot rules of co-op expansions too

sorry double post

The PODs (Co-Ops: Forgotten Souls, Nature's Ire, and Dark Elements) work somewhat differently. They do not have the requirement that you be within 3 spaces.

The rules for SPOT for the co-ops say:

Spot: When an effect instructs a monster to spot a target, that monster

performs a move action and moves toward the closest space from which

it would have line of sight to the specified target. If a monster already has

line of sight to the target, that monster does not perform this action. If

there is no space on the map from which the monster could have line of

sight to the target, a different target is selected.

Basically, the moment that the monster has LOS to the hero, that figure stops moving. If it already has LOS at the start of its activation, it doesn't do the SPOT at all and moves on to the next action.

Yes, I know it. But I thought the spot rule of RTL was an upgrade the spot rules of co-op expansions too

RtL's release hasn't changed the rules of the PoD co-ops. and currently there's no FAQ entry to errata it. That said if you want to play with the RtL version of spot go for it. I'm leaning towards it making the monsters a bit more dangerous though.