I was reading a thread for the topic of "Full Melee Party", when I read a statement that gave me pause:

(this note posted by Corbon in "Full Melee Party" towards the bottom)
1. Unless you have Telekinesis (very unlikely with your party composition) then you can't run away from
Soaring creatures. Two Razorwings or one demon will completely block a corridor and they never have to
attack at all. The heroes can't run through them, although if one hero is lucky enough to have Acrobat
(with your party mix possible, but not likely) then that particular hero may escape. The rest will die,
eventually, with no risk to the OL.

I am not sure I understand the point here. Is this person saying that heroes cannot attack soaring creatures
from the ground, but the soaring creatures block movement of heroes still? As a new OL, I'd like to
better understand how the soaring creatures work to my benefit. Thus far, I have treated them as normal
monsters, except for their ability to move through enemy characters when moving. Am I missing a key
advantage here?

The key advantage you're speaking of is the mind-numbingly absurd ruling on Soar, with the monsters being at range 4 for most purposes, yet still emitting something lovingly dubbed "cast iron shadow". You simply can't move below them, despite nothing being there. Other fun stuff is that for the purposes of attacks, the range is 4, except blast or breath, which affect the squares it hits to the height of a million miles. At least.

Other choice bits are that a Soaring demon's Aura affects the squaes around its position (yes, despite the thing flying above), but does not affect the squares below it, because.. yes. The Razorwings essentially get 8 free moves by being able to descend, bite, and ascend again, and all that for free.

So, yes, The main ability of Sir Alric Farrow is to keep reinforcing upgraded Razorwings, take out the ranged types, and then whittle down the melee guys who cannot reach him because they're afraid a razorwing would poop on them if they passed below it.

I only have the core game: Journeys into the Dark. So, in the core game am i able to block movement and have a range of 4? I cannot find anything about this in the core game. Is this only for expansions?

So, for the core game only, do the razorwings get any abilities beyond moving through enemies?

No, this is all part of the "Road to Legend" expansion.

It is evil, but please remember that the melee heroes can still fight back using Guard orders. The rules state that you may use a Guard after the swoop, but before the attack to melee attack the Soaring monster.

They can still block your path, and if the OL is being this evil, then the Demon will just use it's ranged attack at +4... but it can be helpful.

Goes to show that you should always have at least a couple backup weapons just in case... then find a new OL who isn't covered in cheese.

valoren said:

This was answered briefly, but to clarify:

In the core game, heroes cannot move through monsters unless the hero has the Fly ability or the Acrobat skill. It doesn't matter whether the mosnters have Fly or not. However, heroes can also attack all monsters just fine; if you're standing next to a razorwing, you can hit it with your axe just as easily as you could hit a beastman.

In the Road to Legend expansion, they added outdoor areas, and any monsters (but not heroes) with the Fly ability, if they are in an outdoor area, also gain a new ability called " Soar ." The Soar ability allows them to hover 4 spaces "above" the board, and either rain destruction down on the heroes from above or "swoop" down to attack. However, while Soaring monsters are treated as being 4 spaces further away for purposes of attacks, they're still treated as being at ground level for purposes of movement and other abilities, which leads to some rather... interesting situations.

Hi,

Xandria said:

Thanks for that hilarious summary about how stupid soar is! That made my day.

-Kylearan

I think any rational OL (me ) will houserule that if you can't attack him then it means that he's not in front of you so you can pass beneath, if you can't pass beneath him, then it means he stands in front of you blocking your way and you can attack it.

DuskDweller said:

You, sir, are a brave man, not afraid of Razorwing poop. Alas, the simple folk of Terrinoth share neither your wisdom nor courage, and the though of being defecated upon terrifies them to no end.

(Yes, I likewise houseruled that you can pass below a soaring critter, you just cannot end your move underneath.)

This is a very similar situation to another personal beef, which is when a Deep Elf (or other model with shadowcloak) still blocks LoS to the models behind it.

"Alright men! Hide behind the incorporeal thing! It'll protect us!"

I ruled that if it, for all purposes, is not there, it does not block LoS. So, a Deep Elf in front of a Beastman protects it about as much as a wet toilet paper. Wet transparent toilet paper.

One house rule I use to Balance Soar is that a Soaring Creature cannot claim cover from Trees or Obsticles because they're flying above those features. If they end their space in a Tree Square they must declare if they're flying above it or in it. Above it they don't get a shadowcloak, in it they do but they also are ground level so can be targeted. I also allow PC's to move under soaring creatures, they just can't end their move UNDER a soaring creature.

Darkfire14 said:

Technically, Soaring Creatures ignore all terrain benefits as long as they're soaring.