So just to make it clear and consistent with how the power works, Pulse Wave should say, "Make a single attack roll and compare the result to the defense value of each character in range to which this character can draw line of fire".

if that is how it was meant to work then yes thats how it should be worded. but the way it is currently worded it would mean that even if you couldnt draw the line of fire to the character you would still make the attack against them because of the absence of those words.

but i do indeed agree that the spirit of the power was probably not meant to let you do it the way i have described but i have had more than one player argue this to me in the time i have been a judge. and as there was no official ruling and their logic made since i ruled it that way.

I see your point, but I assure you that it does require LoF.


Of course, this does bring up an interesting question along the same lines.


A figure can be affected by the powers of a figure outside of the range.

. . . . . . . .
. P . . . O D .
. . . . . . . .

A PWer with a base range of 8, uses PW. O can get the defense value of D, who has Defend.


. . . . . .
. . . O . .
. P . B D .
. . . . . .

What about in this situation, where D is in the range, but there's no LoF?


According to the power, the ignoring of powers also does not seem to be tied to the LoF.

It's another manifestation of the same wording. Of course, in this case, I'm not sure how this is supposed to be, now that I think of it.

So then everytime Pulse Wave mentions targeting or affecting a character, it should use the stipulation of "within range to which this character can draw line of fire" to make sure it only affects the characters it's designed to affect?

Who knows? To the best of my knowlege, the situation I showed hasn't ever been asked/answered before. (I know that ThorKnigh83's has been ruled on in the past.)


The closest I can think of for my situation is with giants.


For the ignoring, I remember a ruling on figures who are normally giants but currently have Earthbound. If the Pulse Waver is elevated (see below), but not on the edge, the Earthbound is ignored.

The reasoning was a circular one where by the ignoring of the power would make it so that the figure could be seen, so the power is ignored.

. . . . .
. . G . .
. E E E .
. E P E .
. E E E .

You cannot draw LoF, but because ignoring the power would allow you to draw LoF, the power does get ignored, thus making him a giant again and coming into LoF.

yeah i would think those go hand in hand but thats only depending on how it got ruled i suppose.

We will just have to see what norm rules on this.

You might want to PM Norm: as a rule he doesn't respond to threads where it would simply be "yep, that's right". I understand what you're seeing, but I can tell you it has been officially ruled to work as Harpua described for as long as I've been playing/judging: over 4 years now.

I remember the Judges forum used to describe PW as the Attack Yellow Power or AYP to avoid mentioning it cause its a nightmare for rulings as it is written lol!
I really believe that it´s about time we get a rewording of the power to try to cover this situations and be more clear, specially with the paradoxes it generates sometimes, even though we have the ruling that "in case of paradox it can´t be done"

Pulse Wave is one of those powers that always results in debate. A buddy of mine (TechGod) always seemed to bring issues around to PW again and again (much like Harpua seems to see Mind Control everywhere). Anyway, there was one WW convention and there was some PW related rules discussion and Harpua and I challenged TechGod to see just how long he could go through the con - with judging - and not saying the words "Pulse Wave".

Naturally, he was up to the challenge, but couldn't quite go the whole con without needing to mention "that yellow power". That kind of bled into the forum.

As for the ruling, I just searched through my email to find the case from back then (it was about 14 months ago). The situation was a giant with earthbound which, if ignored, would allow the PWer to affect him.

. .|.
P .|G
. .|.

The Pulse Waver is on elevated terrain while the Giant with Earthbound is grounded. If the power were ignored, as it should be within the radius of PW, then the giant could be rolled against for damage. The answer we got back was that since the character as it is cannot have a LOF drawn to it (since it is earthbound) then it does not have its powers ignored and thus, cannot be targeted by PW.

I'm not entirely sure how the reverse situation would be. What if G was a standard figure that had a power allowing him to use the Giant symbol. Now, the character CAN have a LOF drawn to it, it's powers should be ignored and, by ignoring them, it does not have a LOF drawn to it. Off the top of my head, I am going to say he would be damaged by the pulse wave. My reasoning is this - if the character is having its powers ignored, then it is a character that would be affected by the blast. The two should go together.

Any responses along the lines of "well the wording of the power says this..." are going to be ignored (by me). I agree that the power isn't ideally worded for the intent it is trying to convey. That said, the power doesn't support either ruling on this issue, for or against. Therefore a choice has to be made, I've made mine (others will no doubt make their own), and hopefully some kind of adjustment/clarification/errata will come so that the supportable wording is more clear.

Well, the wording of the power says this...

Any judges out there? Speedster is -1 to all attacks in his next event.

Is that caused by a power, feat, TA, or trait?

'cause the wording of PW says that it ignores those things...

I believe its a Battle Field Condition. And unless Speedster starts getting in line with the theme he is in some deep do-do.

But with Print & Play, he can definitely bring Ordinary Day.