Played a 300pt home game eariler today and these two questions came up regarding his special:

1) Can the alternate option work with Charge? Can this allow "ranged" attacks even though Charge specifically needs a "close combat action"?

2) Does this power need Rictor's Line of Sight, since it is technically a close combat action? The text says that it hits all people within the direct line of fire, but not specifically that it must be within Rictor's line of sight, but only his range. For example:

R = Rictor
o= clear space
B= Blocking Terrain
T= target characters


ooooooooo
oRoBBToTo
oooBBoooo

Could Rictor (R) target the opposing characters (T) with his special quake? They are within range and in a direct line of fire, but not within Rictor's line of sight.

1. Yes, it is a close combat action. It works with charge. It is a pseudo-ranged punch.

2. Line of sight is no longer a game term. You mean to say line of fire. It does not specify the target needs to be within line of fire, so yes, you can hit through blocking and through stealth.

I'm going to have to disagree with anthony_barnstable about the answer to question #2.

It requires a direct line of fire from Rictor, so blocking terrain will block that direct line of fire. As will another character, so it is actually a quite useless power as it only allows you to attack one character. So I'd expect some kind of errata, because there is no reason to talk about "each opposing character" with the way it works.

I assumed direct line of fire just meant orthogonal line. Wasn't it ruled this power sees through stealth? How would that work if you need LoF?

Well, he can still draw that direct line of fire to the square of the character that is in Stealth.

And BTW a direct line of fire can also be a diagonal line of fire.

I think it was answered in the Watx Rulings compilation. Here


The Ruling itself. Here

Bumping this, as I'm trying to understand the meaning of "direct" LOF for Rictor. Does "direct" mean it has to be a perfect horizontal, vertical or diagonal line, or would any LOF qualify?

From the 2014 Rulebook:

[quote]When a line of fire remains in the same row, same
column, or crosses an intersection in the square of
the target it is said to be a “direct line of fire.”
[/QUOTE

I'm not sure what it means to "cross the intersection in the square of the target", but the other two are pretty clear.

Updated text for Rictor:

So, he won't ignore stealth, League of Assassins, blocking terrain, elevated terrain, etc. He still needs to draw line of fire like everyone else with IT: characters.

That would be a direct diagonal.