[Powers] Melee Cone?

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by evileeyore

The problem with Cone is that in order to hit 3 hexes across the target has to be at least 3 hexes away...

I don't see anything in the description of Cone that indicates this. An undefined cone, as for a weapon, spreads at a rate of 1 yard of width gained per yard of range, but there's nothing indicating this is the fastest it can spread. Even with that, I certainly prefer the Arc+Emanation route instead.

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by Varyon

An undefined cone, as for a weapon, spreads at a rate of 1 yard of width gained per yard of range, but there's nothing indicating this is the fastest it can spread.

Yeah, that's where it came from. undefined.

I suppose if the cone were 1 yd maximum range and 3 yd wide at range... then it's a 3 yd wide arc.

Huh.

[Rindis]

Originally Posted by evileeyore

Yeah, that's where it came from. undefined.

I suppose if the cone were 1 yd maximum range and 3 yd wide at range... then it's a 3 yd wide arc.

Huh.

Which is what I did with Burning Hands. It's not RAW, as it requires extending the Reduced Range limitation, but otherwise it's fine.

In the case of a flaming blade, as described in the OP, I'd look at the Jet solution that was mentioned earlier.

[Varyon]

While I believe I mostly have the build I want, something else occurs to me. The Blockable Limitation is really only meant to be used with Ranged attacks, not Area Effect attacks (which Arc fits under). Additionally, with the latter (as well as Cone) you don't really have the option of Dodging, rather you can just try to use Dodge and Drop to get out of the area. A melee cone/arc, however, is going to be possible to Block, Dodge, or Parry, just like a melee attack.

Blockable has each additional legal defense be -5% (-5% for Block or Parry, -10% for both), implying adding Dodge to the mix might also be -5%, for a total of -15%. However, part of the cost of Area Effect/Arc/Cone is, arguably, the fact that you can't defend against it normally. For those, I could see justification to double the worth of Blockable, to -10% per additional legal defense. In this case, that's -30% total, or -20% net compared to the previous builds. That would change things to +40% and +80%, respectively, for -4/-8 as Imbuements (assuming a cost of 1 FP). I think that should work out just fine for my purposes.

Originally Posted by Rindis

In the case of a flaming blade, as described in the OP, I'd look at the Jet solution that was mentioned earlier.

As previously mentioned, Jet is unusable unless we ignore the rule about not decreasing Max Range independently of 1/2D. If we do ignore that rule Jet isn't needed, as we can just make it like your Burning Hands example, but with appropriate Limitations for being able to be blocked, dodged, and/or parried. Or, as I think I prefer, we use a limited version of Area Effect - Arc - and modify it appropriately.