Lunatic Laugh: Creeper can use Incapacitate, but only as a close combat action. When he does, the area of effect is all opposing characters within 2 squares.



Several questions came up when i played him last night

1) does he have to be adjacent to activate this or can he use it with just opponents 2 away?

2) Does he have to have line of fire to the characters?

I believe that he does not need to be adjacent and he does not need line of fire.

You'd still need a target for the close combat attack, to use the Incap, which generally means he's gonna need to be adjacent to someone (or give him giant reach).

AoE doesn't need LoF by default.

He has charge so he can charge in to adjacent and incapasaquake

Can someone explain why he needs to be adjacent to some opposing character? Since the Special is generating an area of effect, I would think that any character within that would satisfy the need for a target. I know there have been weirder things, like OOS Batman declaring an illegal action that then becomes legal when you place him for Out of the Shadows.

Lunatic Laugh: Creeper can use Incapacitate, but only as a close combat action. When he does, the area of effect is all opposing characters within 2 squares.

The bolded part is the action you are giving Creeper, and as per the rules for a CCA, he needs to be adjacent. One you have legally initiated the action, the text in Italics will then take affect. Area of affect is generated after selecting a target and making a successful hit against said target.

I'm with Ignatz on this one, because when his is given the close combat action, the area of effect is each opposing character within 2 squares instead of an adjacent opposing character. I get where you're coming from with the fact that he must be given a close combat action, which according to the rulebook is: A close combat action can be given to a character to activate a close combat attack that targets an adjacent opposing character. However in this case Creeper is being given a close combat action to activate Incapacitate with an area of effect that includes all opposing characters within 2 squares, but that is still affected by Combat Reflexes and anything else that depends on whether it is a close combat attack or not.

The Close Combat Attack still requires a Legal Target, otherwise no Area of Effect is generated. Their is nothing in the language of the Power that over rides the need for a Legal Target for the Close Combat Attack, which requires adjacency. All the power is doing is adding an AOE to a CCA. As stated, LOF is not needed, as per the rules of AoE as found in the Rulebook.

If they wanted to allow him to activate it without being adjacent, I don't doubt they would have instead written:
"Creeper can use Incapacitate, but only as a close combat action, even if he is not adjacent to an opposing character. When he does, the area of effect is all opposing characters within 2 squares."

The same way that Pulse wave specifically states that the character can make a ranged combat attack, even while adjacent. Why wouldn't they have written this power the same way but with CCA.

I don't doubt that their may be an Errata that allows it to be used without adjacency somehow, but until there is, it seems to be CCA Incap, that happens to generate AoE as well.

Since the condition says it creates an area of effect he most definitely does not need to be adjacent

AzureArcher, your logic is wrong

AREA OF EFFECT
Some powers and abilities use the term “area of effect.” An area of effect allows a power or game effect to target more than one character. Characters within the area of an effect are affected even though they may not be within the character’s range or line of fire. When it includes an attack, only one attack roll is made and the Attack Total is compared to each target character as well as any other characters specified by the area of effect. When a character is attacked exclusively as a result of being in an area of effect, it is not considered a target of the attack and it may be friendly to the attacking character.

The only reason he does not affect friendlies is because the power specifically states otherwise

An area of effect overrides the normal requirement of adjacency

Ok I understand. I think I was misunderstanding/over looking this line "An area of effect allows a power or game effect to target more than one character."

Thank you.

My new favorite word!

Incapaciquake*