What are they specifically? Everyone always talks about positioning shooters on buildings, but doesn't that just make it semi-harder to charge them in close combat?

Would someone list all the things you can do from a rooftop post?

The biggest advantage for a sniper on elevated terrain is that normal sized characters do not block LOF to your potential targets. You still need to worry about Giants and Colossals getting in the way, but those are pretty rare compared to average Joe character. This lets you shoot at a character that would normally be protected by a wall of other characters in front of it.

Also, elevated snipers only have to worry about the hindering terrain in the target square (if there is any). Normally, if there is hindering terrain aanywhere between your character and its target, the target gets the hindering terrain bonus. Now, that bush halfway between you and the target doesn't matter... just if there is a bush actually in the target's square.

That's it in a nut shell.

Ignore non-giant character bases for determining line of sight. That's pretty much the only thing, but y'know, that's big enough to be the only thing you need.

Firing back is an issue as well.

Characters on the ground are firing at 1/2 their normal range... most times keeping a well-placed sniper just out of reach.


Follow up? I thought that if a character was just on the other side of blocking, they were still blocked for LOS purposes...
S is the Shooter
T is the Target
B is Blocking
X is nothing

Here #1 is blocked and #2 is OK????

#1 #2
S S
X X
X B
X B
B X
T T

Wow, that definitely makes it worthwhile. Thanks fellas.

Definitely not true.

You are confusing Elevated with Soaring.

Not true. You're getting soaring and elevated confused. Firing at an elevated character (range-wise, at least) is no different than firing at a grounded character.


Firing from elevated terrain does not ignore blocking terrain in any way, shape, or form. If blocking terrain is between an elevated target/shooter and a grounded shooter/target ('cause these rules work both ways, guys), then LOF is blocked, period.

By that reasoning, doesn't hindering terrain still affect LOF from elevated to grounded terrain?

No, because of this (LoSH, page 33):

An otherwise clear line of fire between an elevated character and a grounded character is blocked by giant characters and colossal characters; hindering terrain does not affect a line of fire drawn between an elevated character and a grounded character unless the target occupies a square of hindering terrain.



Honestly, people. If you are going to try and nit pick at the rules, at least know the rules you are trying to argue against.

Hi everyone,

One of my favorite tactics is to drop an object on a rooftop, on the square with the ladder (or stairs). I then drop a figure with stealth (or a stealth-like TA) onto said object. So, the figure is in hindering. Can snipe at people. And, because of the location, the figure also prevents a groundpounder without leap/climb from getting onto the rooftop. Can still get nailed by close combat flyers and/or flyers and non-flyers with range and an anti-stealth TA such as Superman Ally or Trick Shot.

Robert

Outdoor Blocking is considered to go up as high as you can imagine (though I believe fliers can still fly over them? Is that right?). Outdoor walls, on the other hand, are only 1 story, and elevated people can shoot over them, same as fliers can fly over them. Hindering is too ground based to interfere with a rooftop shot. That's it in a nutshell.

Actually, this came up during a recent game; I argued the correct ruling but couldn't point to the actual written rule. Glad to know I was right and how to prove it in the future.

Believe me, I'm not arguing with you!

Isn't a staircase space considered adjacent to the top and bottom? Otherwise, a team without range can't do a thing to your figure while you can hit back, and I don't believe the game allows for those situations to arise.

No. There is no such thing as infinitely high blocking terrain (check the rules). Walls, as a subset of blocking terrain, follow all the normal LOF rules for blocking terrain; an elevated character can't shoot over them either.

Staircase, yes.

Nothing stops him from doing that particular trick with a ladder, though. Thankfully, there is almost always enough room somewhere on the roof for a flier to get up there and attack the hidden guy. But otherwise (no fliers, no room, etc), yeah, you're pretty much done if you done have any effective way to deal with that.