Area of Effect (AoE)

[Bareheaded Warrior]

Area of Effect (AoE) is a simple concept and present in many, if not most, RPG style and other games but not really present in HQ at least in the base version.

By ‘Area of Effect’ I’m suggesting that certain spells and artefacts (and even one or two treasure items) could be modified to have an area of effect rather than be directed at a single figure or the square upon which it is stood i.e. “…may be cast on any square and affects monsters in that square and the surrounding eight squares, if the effect causes damage, roll for each victim separately."

There are a few Dread spells that have a sort-of area of effect type description like Firestorm

This spell creates a roomful of fire that inflicts 3 Body Points of damage on all Heroes and monsters in the same room with the spellcaster. The spellcaster is unaffected. All victims immediately roll two red dice. For each 5 or 6 rolled, the damage is reduced by 1 point.
Not used in corridors.

It sounds potent as written but in-game it is a limited spell. Your Dread spell caster has a limited lifespan when facing Heroes so usually only a narrow window of opportunity, unlike a Wizard for example where spells that are only useful in limited situations can be saved until that occasion arises at some point during the quest. Your Dread caster can’t use this spell if the Heroes are outside the room and door-blocking as it is room-only, he can use it with only one Hero in the room but that would be under-utilising a spell that could hit all four, equally he could use it when the room is full of his allies, but the adverse effect of that might be that the couple of BP lost by the Heroes as a result of the spell may well be less that the potential BP loss that would have occurred had they been attacked by the monsters in the room that the Dread caster has just emptied for them.

So really, to make best use of this spell, the Dread caster must wait for 2-3 Heroes to be in the room, most of his monsters to be dead or on their last legs and for it to be his turn and then having used his action to cast this spell and emptied the room of his allies, the likely next event will be his death.

The “Not used in corridors” addition sounds to me like an after-thought when a designer has had a great idea, implemented it and then someone has said “so how does that work in a corridor,” answer – “Bugger, err… let me just edit that card…”

Ball of Flames and Fire of Wrath were distinguished from each other in the UK edition by the fact that one was a weaker, ‘hunt down target anywhere on the board’ – guided missile style attack, the other, a more powerful direct attack, with the US edition that distinction go lost

Whilst I don’t necessarily disagree with losing the ‘anywhere on the board’ style attack for this spell (a stronger case can be made contextually for that functionality for the ‘Genie’ spell) that change blurs the distinction between the two fire spells so I would propose the following

Fire of Wrath – higher AD direct attack on a single monster, Ball of Flames – lower AD direct attack with area of effect

With regards to the forces of Dread, they also get Ball of Flames so same change there, but not Fire of Wrath, so I propose changing Lightning Bolt to be the Fire of Wrath equivalent and Firestorm to be an enhanced combination of them both, higher AD AND area affect.

Like so

Ball of Flame - Cost 400gc
This spell creates a fireball that may be cast on any square and affects all Heroes and monsters in that and the surrounding eight squares, enveloping them in a ball of fire. Roll two attack dice for each affected. Each skull rolled inflicts 1 Body point of damage with no defend roll allowed.

Fire of Wrath - Cost 400gc
This spell may be cast on one monster, blasting it with flames. The number of attack dice rolled is equal to half the current Mind points of the caster, rounding up. Each skull rolled inflicts 1 Body point of damage with no defend roll allowed.

Lightning Bolt
This spell may be cast on one Hero, zapping him with a bolt of lightning. The number of attack dice rolled is equal to half the current Mind points of the caster, rounding up. Each skull rolled inflicts 1 Body point of damage with no defend roll allowed.

Firestorm
This spell may be cast on any square and affects all Heroes and monsters in that square and the surrounding eight squares, enveloping them in a firestorm. The number of attack dice rolled is equal to half the current Mind points of the caster, rounding up. Each skull rolled inflicts 1 Body point of damage with no defend roll allowed.

Incidentally, I always imagine the Heroes fire to be the good honest traditional orange hue, whereas the fire of the forces of Dread would be an unnatural blue fire like ball lightning (not sure of why this is the fact that the lightning bolt spell is Dread only or maybe it’s a hangover from Star Wars and the Emperor’s powers) but that is cosmetic