Steve Jackson Games Forums - View Single Post - about aura, emanation, and reality bending

Anaraxes · 08-01-2016, 06:18 PM

Though it probably seems strange at first glance, the way auras with an area are built is to start with the standard Aura, which requires Melee Attack (range C), and then add Area Effect on top of that. The AE and Melee Attack may seem contradictory, but that's the way it's done. Certainly, without the Melee Attack you'd be left wondering what the range was, and starting at range C is likely the best value to start with.

Is there a reason they didn't just make Aura cost +50%, instead of +80% and require Melee Attack -30% always to be added to it, and just define it to have Reach C? I don't know. Though I have noticed on the forum that most times there's some complicated Advantage or Enhancement, people usually debate the cost of each piece of it and try to disassemble it. So perhaps they were just trying to keep from duplicating the effect of Melee Attack inside Aura, and just having people break it back out. Or it may be simply that Aura was never really intended to have a range in the first place, but it turned out for later books that adding AE to it was the simplest way to build a "damage field", and the playtesting showed the value was suitable. So TPTB just extended what they already had.

4e has been around since 2004, after all. SJG doesn't crank out a new edition every couple of years just to sell you slightly updated books; they tend to do it the other way around, and try to preserve the existing stuff as long as they can.

08-01-2016, 06:18 PM	#19
Anaraxes Join Date: Sep 2007	Re: about aura, emanation, and reality bending Though it probably seems strange at first glance, the way auras with an area are built is to start with the standard Aura, which requires Melee Attack (range C), and then add Area Effect on top of that. The AE and Melee Attack may seem contradictory, but that's the way it's done. Certainly, without the Melee Attack you'd be left wondering what the range was, and starting at range C is likely the best value to start with. Is there a reason they didn't just make Aura cost +50%, instead of +80% and require Melee Attack -30% always to be added to it, and just define it to have Reach C? I don't know. Though I have noticed on the forum that most times there's some complicated Advantage or Enhancement, people usually debate the cost of each piece of it and try to disassemble it. So perhaps they were just trying to keep from duplicating the effect of Melee Attack inside Aura, and just having people break it back out. Or it may be simply that Aura was never really intended to have a range in the first place, but it turned out for later books that adding AE to it was the simplest way to build a "damage field", and the playtesting showed the value was suitable. So TPTB just extended what they already had. 4e has been around since 2004, after all. SJG doesn't crank out a new edition every couple of years just to sell you slightly updated books; they tend to do it the other way around, and try to preserve the existing stuff as long as they can.