Some colossals have the following special rule:

What I want to know is... what are the consequences of that rule? What does it mean?

Does this mean that he can end his movement partly on elevated terrain and partly not on elevated terrain since his base in considered to be in clear grounded terrain?

Does it mean that he can end a move in blocking terrain (possibly flying onto it on an outdoor map) with the blocking terrain now considered to be clear grounded terrain?


Does this mean that he can ignore certain dangerous map terrain features (like on the Hawkworld, Muspelheim (aka the lava map), or the Shield Helicarrier maps)?

Does it mean that he gets no benefit from standing in hindering terrain?

Does it mean that he doesn't have to worry about hindering terrain becoming blocking terrain on the Krakoa map?

I really don't know what this rule is supposed to mean, so that's why I'm asking.

What Colossals have that?

The Spectre does. I never really knew how to interpret this rule, sorry I can't help.

Well, people like Fin Fang Foom and the retail Dr. Manhattan have it. Others probably do too, but I haven't checked them all. I think at least one Galactus has it.

If you quoted it word for word, then I'd say it's pretty clear what it means: that all parts of his base are considered to be in clear, grounded terrain.

The problem, of course, is now that we have multiple elevations, does this mean he is always considered at Level 1? I would think that would be the easiest answer.

Of course, since he is also a colossal, he also can be targeted as if he were at any elevation.

I'm not sure there are many game effects that really care all that much about this.

Mostly pretty straightforward. It means that the figure ignores terrain types it's sitting on. The basic idea is that the figure just stands on whatever and is big enough that terrain elevations and hindering terrain don't matter to it.

HOWEVER, the rules have changed a bit and the Golden Rules now make it clear that no game effect can cause you to end with your base in blocking terrain. With this rule elevated to Golden status and the statement in the rules that no rule on a card can supercede this... I'd say Foom can stand half-on elevated and half-on grounded, but he can't stand on a blocking terrain square.

Yes.

Originally, yes. Now, no, as described above.

Orange-bordered squares are not a special terrain type. Orange squares are, by default, clear and grounded already, unless they are inside the border of some other lines. As such, the game text above does not change their status at all.

HOWEVER, the Player's Guide specifies that game text from the map only applies to a character whose base is entirely within the orange border. So, Foom can stand half on the Hawkworld orange and not be affected by it.

Yes.

Yes.

Okay, cool.

I had been thinking that the Muspelheim (lava) map would be a killer of the really big colossals because they can't avoid being partly in the lava but I guess that won't worry them after all.

And thinking incorrectly about them being hurt by lava had me wondering if they could somehow hide on the middle area which is part elevated and part blocking. So, they can't land on the middle area (because of the blocking terrain), but they don't have to worry about the lava, so it doesn't matter.

If you need to prove it to somebody, it's on page 4 under "Terrain" in the PG. To wit:

Special terrain (orange squares) that require a character to occupy the square, require that the entire base must be occupying the terrain.

I'm not sure about the interaction between this special rule and the "can't occupy blocking" rule. Without looking at the specific wording, if the figure rules say the area under the base is clear grounded then when he stands there it isn't blocking terrain so there doesn't seem to be a conflict.

Of course, originally, this rule was made to prevent Galactus from becoming invisible after sticking his left pinky-toe in an open grave, but it works equally well to prevent the big guys from being burned