Hello,

3 things happened last game that I was not able to dismiss by using the rulebook. Both thing come from the lack of requirement to rule the adjacency of squares.

In each case the squares were adjacent but the movement and line of sight was prohibited by the presence of a door between the square.

But as the square were indeed adjacent :

1- One player use the Crackshot talent to fire from behind the closed door inside the room.

2- A Overlord skeleton une the Bone Head power to explode and hurt every player behind the door (that is not an Explosion, it just say it damage every player in adjacent square).

3- A Naga was spawned and sit behind the door, using the Grapple ability to unable the heroes to spend MP to opent the door.

Could please the rules be amended to add the following information : "Two square are considered adjacent if a flying creature can move from one to the other using a single MP" ?

That's a circular definition, since legal movement is defined in terms of adjacency. It would also mean that any rule that depends on adjacency is also dependent on the movement rules and the rules for the Fly special ability, which is pretty poor hierarchy.

There's actually already a definition of adjacency, though it's well-hidden and a bit vague: "Every space that is touching a given space (even at the corners) is adjacent to that given space." (page 4, under "Map Pieces")

Additionally, your proposal to make spaces on opposite sides of a closed door "not adjacent" seems to contradict an existing FAQ ruling, which states that "abilities with a radius" (such as Command) can go through closed doors. One could even argue that abilities that affect adjacent squares "have a radius of 1" and so they're covered by this, but I don't think that's intended, and it's a pretty flimsy argument since radius abilities affect their center square and "adjacent" abilities don't, per the FAQ (even though a space can be argued to be adjacent to itself by the definition above).

Going strictly by the rules-as-written, I believe Crack Shot, Aura, Grapple, etc. all go through closed doors. But I also doubt that anyone actually plays that way. I've always played that both walls and closed doors block absolutely everything, though that contradicts the most recent FAQ.

Regardless, I think it would be better to say that a closed door blocks certain (or all) effects, rather than to say it makes spaces be non-adjacent.

I am basically OK with you.

I suppose my need for a movement related adjacency come from ASL.

But I think you agree there is a current hole in the rules that need to be fixed. Grappling through door can be a game killer in campaign and probably some dungeon too.

Ivan Kerensky said:

While I tend to agree that Grapple through a door is thematically ridiculous and probably not a good idea gameplay-wise, either, it's worth noting that a monster (or character) with grapple can only grapple one character per space. That means that if there's a grapple monster behind a door, you can move up to the door with your first "sacrificial" character, have them get grappled, and then move a second character up onto the same space as that character and have them open the door up. They just can't end their turn there, obviously.

Ivan Kerensky said:

There are several holes in this game, unfortunately, and more get pointed out every day, it would seem. I agree in principle that none of the abilities you describe should function through a door, and the only one I can see a rules arguement to prevent would be the skeleton (it may not be a "blast," but if you're rolling dice for damage then surely it is an attack, right? Last time I checked, closed doors stopped attacks.)

In cases like this, my only personal recourse is to use the "appeal to common sense" approach. Not always as easy it sounds in Descent, but sometimes I just have to throw up my hands and say "COME ON!" =)

Cymbaline said:

Still doesn't prevent a single Naga from locking down the entire hero party if they're in the wrong place at the wrong time. At that point, they'd have to kill each other in order to even attempt to recover.

That's rather implausible, but I think it's more plausible than having every hero simultaneously grappled while in a pit, and the Grapple-pit loophole was considered important enough that they fundamentally changed the behavior of pits with an erratum.

Antistone said:

I don't see how this is possible, let alone plausible. the Naga would have to be behind two doors in a 2 space wide and 2-space deep room with all 4 heroes filling the four spaces behind the closed doors. Any other setup means the party can either kill the naga or open the door by sharing a space with an already grappled hero.

No, you just need one door that opens directly off of a room, instead of a corridor. All 4 heroes can be adjacent to the door (remember diagonals), and all on the same side of it, and they even have some incentive to do so in order to minimize the distance they need to move after opening it. There's also some disincentive due to a couple of AoE door traps, but the best AoE door traps can't even hit diagonals.

Ah, I'd missed that possibility. So imbeciles can cause the scenario by choosing to surround a door they've previously explored and know there's a naga behind, or by choosing to end their turns next to a closed door that the overlord can spawn behind. Given that I've never seen or heard of an entire group of heroes surrounding a door before opening it, I agree that it's probably never going to happen. Still, I'd laugh my ass off if it happened while I was OL.

Don't forget Knockback and Poltergeist. Also, it can be a rune-locked door that the heroes closed to prevent the monsters on the other side from attacking them...

Ivan Kerensky said:

Your focus is wrong.

Adjacency is clear, simple, and fairly well defined. What you actually want is a better definition for Closed Doors (and walls).

If , for example, a wall and/or closed door breaks adjacency , then all three of your issues are resolved. I struggle to think of any other issues that such a ruling would cause, save for the controversial (in that not everyone agreed beforehand) rulings about effects like Command, Spiritwalker, Black Curse etc passing through closed doors (indeed, aside from changing these later rulings, it would have made them unnecessary in the first place).
At present it is still sometimes necessary to point out that spaces that are very close to each other on either side of a wall (such as at the almost-touching corners of 2 connected 4x4 rooms are not actually touching each other and thus not adjacent. A lot of people see to think that they are very close, close enough to be touching and it is just because of the cardboard cutting that they don't touch (whereas it is the other way around).

Antistone said:

True, but still not gonna happen.