Area Effect and Wall height

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by Not another shrubbery

I think that many games make the volume of an AE more consequential than its simple area, the idea generally being that the effect needs to extend upward enough to have the potential for Large Area Injury (for attacks) or provide overhead cover (for defenses). If a player wants to manipulate the area affected by an ability (during character creation) in a way that leaves the volume constant, I would assume that they either are building to concept or have a clever use in mind that probably will not get exploited often.

Area Attacks already pretty clearly qualify for Large Area Injury (or I thought they did - they seem to be pretty classic examples of it) and I honestly can't think where a straight, non-Wall Area doesn't provide it's normal advantage or effect from overhead, unless limited to not provide it. Obscure obscures from all angles, Illusions are illusionary from all angles, and Temperatures remain controlled regardless of your angle of entrance into the area.

And Walls already allow for stacking or making into funny shapes.

My brain is full of perl code and the guts of AFP files right now, so I'm feeling very blurry, but I guess I'm just not quite seeing the point other than "Affect more targets"

Originally Posted by Not another shrubbery

I would just keep it simple and allow the height to be quadrupled while halving the radius.

How is that simpler than just setting radius and height?