Line of Sight from within a Pit
Posted: July 9th, 2016, 5:40 pm
[This post was split from the Courage Spell topic on 7/13/16.]
In the Daggers topic, I waxed on about line of sight over furniture and short figures. A key concept discussed there regarding the application of A Good Rule of Thumb was a 50/50 visibility limit defined not only by a vertical dividing edge, but also a horizontal one.
The edge of a pit trap serves as such a horizontal dividing-line for line of sight. I'd say the depth of a pit trap is no more than 6 1/2 feet deep, or a bit over 2 meters. Were it any deeper, the Dwarf would be unable to climb out unaided-yet the rules permit this.
Back to the Dwarf, the shortest Hero, his LoS should originate about 3 1/2 feet up, or about 3 feet from the height of the edge of the pit. That allows him to "'see" (center square to adjacent center-square) half of a figure at least 6 feet tall. For simplicity, I'd rough this out to any human-sized monster. A shorter Orc or Goblin already adjacent to the edge wouldn't be seen, so a Courage spell on the Dwarf would end with these monsters. A monster would need to be at least 12 feet tall to be visible two squares away.
A human-sized Hero is 6 feet or nearly so. That puts his LoS about a foot or less from the height of the edge of a pit. He would "see" at least 50% of any monster adjacent to the pit 2 feet tall or more, and he would see any monster 4 feet tall or more one square further away. That would mean a Goblin couldn't be seen beyond a square adjacent to a human-sized Hero in a pit. Human-sized monsters could be seen by a human-sized Hero in a pit up to three squares away, and the Gargoyle and similarly large monsters could be seen four squares away. Of course all cases require no blocking figures or furniture in between.
Tl;Dr: A Dwarf in a pit only has LoS to monsters at least as tall as a human and in an adjacent square. An Elf, Barbarian, or Wizard in a pit has LoS to a Goblin in adjacent square only, an Orc up to two squares away, human-sized monsters up to three squares away, and large monsters up to four squares away.
Count Mohawk wrote:...
Incidentally: Pit traps are counted as separate rooms for the purposes of Searching. Would you therefore break Courage if the enchanted Hero fell into a pit? (or more bluntly: what kind of Line of Sight does a Hero in a Pit have?)
In the Daggers topic, I waxed on about line of sight over furniture and short figures. A key concept discussed there regarding the application of A Good Rule of Thumb was a 50/50 visibility limit defined not only by a vertical dividing edge, but also a horizontal one.
The edge of a pit trap serves as such a horizontal dividing-line for line of sight. I'd say the depth of a pit trap is no more than 6 1/2 feet deep, or a bit over 2 meters. Were it any deeper, the Dwarf would be unable to climb out unaided-yet the rules permit this.
Back to the Dwarf, the shortest Hero, his LoS should originate about 3 1/2 feet up, or about 3 feet from the height of the edge of the pit. That allows him to "'see" (center square to adjacent center-square) half of a figure at least 6 feet tall. For simplicity, I'd rough this out to any human-sized monster. A shorter Orc or Goblin already adjacent to the edge wouldn't be seen, so a Courage spell on the Dwarf would end with these monsters. A monster would need to be at least 12 feet tall to be visible two squares away.
A human-sized Hero is 6 feet or nearly so. That puts his LoS about a foot or less from the height of the edge of a pit. He would "see" at least 50% of any monster adjacent to the pit 2 feet tall or more, and he would see any monster 4 feet tall or more one square further away. That would mean a Goblin couldn't be seen beyond a square adjacent to a human-sized Hero in a pit. Human-sized monsters could be seen by a human-sized Hero in a pit up to three squares away, and the Gargoyle and similarly large monsters could be seen four squares away. Of course all cases require no blocking figures or furniture in between.
Tl;Dr: A Dwarf in a pit only has LoS to monsters at least as tall as a human and in an adjacent square. An Elf, Barbarian, or Wizard in a pit has LoS to a Goblin in adjacent square only, an Orc up to two squares away, human-sized monsters up to three squares away, and large monsters up to four squares away.