Questions about Innate Attack (Wall)

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Kelly Pedersen

Yes, sorry, that's what I meant. I was trying to find a useful shorthand, but failed to explain that.

That's fine, just wanted to make certain I understood your intent.

Originally Posted by Kelly Pedersen

The thing is, the +60% version of Wall says that you can "form it into any shape you choose". I don't see why that shouldn't include shaping a vertical wall into a curve.

With a battlemap, it's easier to simply do things a hex at a time, as then there's no confusion about exactly where the Wall blocks (with a hemisphere, you're only taking up part of each hex, so it's hard to say if such can be entered/occupied by a character or not). Without a battlemap, I don't think there's likely to be any serious problems with allowing for hemispheres and the like (although I might still require the enclosed area to be 4 yards tall, for more of a hemiellipsoid).

Originally Posted by Kelly Pedersen

In another thread where we were discussing this, I came to the decision that by default, a Wall needs at least one anchor point. If you take the Drifting enhancement, you can create it floating in midair, and "drift" with gravity - i.e., falling down and possibly crushing anyone it lands on. I'd also allow a "Hovering" enhancement for +10%, that let you create the wall at any point, without an anchor, and then it would just stay there without moving.

Thanks, that thread, while not official, gives some pretty solid options. I don't think I'd allow Drifting to cause damage from a fall (although with the low HP of walls - only 1 per 2d - it's unlikely to be a serious problem), however, so I'd be tempted to price it and Hovering at the same value - each has advantages and disadvantages to its use (Drifting can let you drop a line of walls to block off or give protection to an area that is outside of your Range, while Hovering lets you create better aerial barriers/hazards). Maybe call it No Anchor, with Drifting or Hovering in parenthesis. +20% sounds about right.

Also, the mention in that thread of making an ice wall underwater sort of gives me a solution to the underground problem. For the underwater wall, you simply need to give it the Underwater +20% Enhancement. Underground is similar, but of course forming within a solid should be harder than forming in a liquid, so I'm thinking +50% (same as Adding Utility with Cosmic, which also seems about right).

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

I don't think you need an app, the area of a half-sphere is 2(pi)r^2. So you need a wall with area [(pi)r^2]/6 to make any half-sphere of radius r in yards with the +60% Wall (note that if you plan to stand in the center, r should be at least your height).

An app or spreadsheet or similar might speed things up compared to inputting that in a calculator (although rounding that down to (r^2)/2 would probably get you close enough and be quick to do). Additionally, sometimes you might want something other than a hemisphere, in which case an app might be useful. Still, while spheres and the like may be doable, I honestly favor the hex approach, so I'll stick with that.

...

So, here's how I think things should work for each of my questions. Let me know if anything here contradicts RAW.

Height was answered by Bruno in the other thread, and is indeed 4 yards. The +30% version is stuck with walls that are 1 yard thick per 1d and always 4 yards tall (for taller walls, build on top of the initial one), but I think I'll allow the +60% one to be arbitrarily thin, allowing them to be spread out. When doing so, you need to adjust DR and HP linearly.

For shells, I'm going to stick with my hex-based approach. Optionally, when filling in the empty slot on top, you don't need to build an entire second level for the wall - you may instead have each "roof hex" take up two hexes worth of wall, which covers both that section and the connections to the other sections. A Wall that is able to manifest underground (but note this doesn't damage anything down there, and things return to normal once the Wall expires or is destroyed) needs an Enhancement, Underground +50%.

For climbing, you may set a modifier between -4 and +4 as a Feature. If you can choose the modifier when you create the wall, that's a +20% Enhancement. The GM may allow for greater penalties or bonuses - +5% per additional -1 (maximum +30% for -10), +10% for +5 total, +20% for +6 total, or +30% to require no roll (Wall functionally has a built-in ladder). Climbing a sharp wall requires a Climbing roll every second or suffer thr/2 (use climber's HP as ST, damage cannot exceed nominal damage for Innate Attack) cutting damage to the arms. This can be avoided by going at half speed, or by wearing sufficient protection to avoid damage.

Walls are functionally weightless - you need to break through them (at which point the destroyed section ceases to exist) and cannot pick them up.

For hybrid walls, I'd say it should be fine to allow overlap. In fact, I'd simply define part of the Wall's damage as rigid (for determining DR and HP) and part as permeable (for determining damage dealt).

Walls are by default visible but don't impede vision - you don't need to worry about accidentally running into one, but at the same time there's no penalty for looking through one. To change this, you need to Link Obscure (Vision) to the Wall. If you want a truly transparent Wall, I'd argue for Surprise Attack - and if you don't want anyone to notice that you're doing something (even if they can't see the Wall), you'll also need No Signature. Being able to see your own invisible wall (and/or those of your close allies - that is, others in the party) is a Perk.

Walls by default require contact with an "anchor" of some sort - at the very least, they need to be connected to the ground on each end of the wall (or possibly in the middle, provided the result is balanced). Avoiding this requirement calls for an Enhancement, No Anchor +20%. You must choose between No Anchor (Drifting), in which the Wall will drift based on magnetic fields, gravity, or similar (set it when creating the Advantage), and No Anchor (Hovering), in which the Wall will simply hover in a set location in the air. No Anchor (Variable) +30% may also be available, letting you set if a given Wall drifts or hovers when creating it.