sigh, sorry for bothering you more.... Having some troubles with large monsters moving in outdoor encounters. An ogre is moving, he has speed 3. Entering a space containing 1 tree will not cost him more than one movement, but with 2 trees in front of him, will it then require him to spend 2 movement points, or can he still only spend one?

According to the most recent FAQ:

Large Monsters and Terrain
When large monsters move, they can sometimes find themselves moving across hazardous terrain (lava, scything blades) twice as often as other figures. Further, it can often be confusing whether or not beneficial terrain (trees, elevated terrain) should affect a creature only partly standing on it. Use the following guidelines to arbitrate these instances.
The overlord may choose to have a monster affected by any terrain it partially occupies. A monster MUST be affected by any terrain it completely occupies. If the monster is completely occupying multiple terrains, the figure has to be affected by one of the terrains (Overlord's choice).

So... basically, if you want the figure to be affected by the terrain, then you pay the cost for the movement and magically, you're affected. If you don't want to be, then I would guess you don't pay the movement cost, and suddenly they're empty spaces... unless, of course, the terrain is large enough to completely cover the figure.

Personally, I have issues with this, and much prefer the previous ruling... that you have to pay the movement/other costs for the space when the front half of the figure enters the space, and you gain the benefits or penalties of the terrain if the total can cover half of the figure. (House Ruled )

Nakarashi said:

At first glance this ruling seems easy enough. It's not perfectly logical, but I've long since given up on the idea of Descent being perfectly logical. =P

As long as the ogre is not completely standing in trees (and/or other hindering terrain) then he can choose to spend 1 MP per step, but he will not gain any benefit from the trees. If he chooses to spend the extra MP, he also gains the Shadowcloak benefit of the trees. If all four spaces he occupies are trees or other hindering terrain, then he must choose to be affected by one type of terrain.

I don't have a problem with that mechanic personally, although I am somewhat upset by the fact that this requires me, as OL, to remember how many MPs I spent for each monster standing in terrain that costs more than 1 MP to enter, so that I know whether or not it is affected by the terrain for incoming attacks.

If I were to house rule this (and I'm not saying I would) then I'd probably just go with the original pit rule for all terrain. ie: a large monster is not affected by terrain unless it is entirely within that terrain. This means a large monster will not be affected by most types of terrain (beneficial or not) most of the time, but I think I can live with that. It's easy for a big monster to step over a small pit and hard for him to hide behind a single tree. I'd also want large monsters to get hit by some traps (scything blades comes to mind) so I'd have to think further on that point.

Our house-rule for large monsters are as follow:

- Monsters cannot enter blocking props (unless they have fly).
- If a monster's base enters any square that requires extra MPs, the monster must spend the MPs to move.
- "Entering" a square is when a creature moves into unoccupied spaces. The spaces *it* is occupying don't count as entering, but count as if the creature lingered for an entire turn in that square (so if a spider is moving East 1 space, only the 2 spaces directly east are being "entered". The two it currently occupies are still occupied by the spider as it moves).
- If a monster movement takes it into multiple squares that have movement penalties, the monster only has to pay ONE movement penalty, the greatest of which (I don't think there's anything that costs more than 2MPs, so pretty much 2MPs is the most it would pay for one movement).
- If a space deals damage (such as lava), every space deals its own damage (so if a spider is standing on 2 lava spaces, it would suffer 2 wounds twice (i.e. 4 wounds total, from two different sources)).
- When a monster attacks from a square that affects an attack (like a Table from RtL), then the monster only applies the effects if LOS is traced from that square (i.e. as if the monster was attacking from that square so gains the raised elevation bonus).
- When a hero attacks a monster in a square that has a special effect (like a Tree), then the monster only gains that special effect IF the space that the hero is attacking contains that figure.

If these don't make sense, I can probably make diagrams in TileSystem...

-shnar

shnar said:

Makes sense to me, and sounds good too =)