Trying to create a burst effect where a monster slams the ground and causes knock down. using the area multi-targeting rules to create an effect with just a 5 ft burst around the creature means a 15 ft cube so disadvantage 3 and technically also effects the creature. Making it a 10 ft burst is disadvantage 5. I know there are also feats to reduce the disadvantage.
Th down sides also get worst if you creature is larger then normal and takes up a 10ft square.
Any thought on better ways to create this kind of effect or is this the best way to go?
The easiest way to do this with NPCs is just to give it a Special where it does exactly what you think it does. If you’re GMing then there’s no reason you can’t do something like that to make an enemy a bit more interesting. In this case the Special would just be a simplification of the (slightly) convoluted way this might work in the rules-as-written: give it as much Multi-Target Attack Specialist (Cube) as it needs to hit the area you want at the (dis)advantage you want, and then give it either Area Manipulation or Bane Resistance II (Knockdown) to stop it from hitting itself. You could also handle this through melee multi-targeting or using the Aura (Knockdown) Boon, but a Cube attack works best for what you’re going for I think.
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my first thought was Aura for sure, as the “5ft burst” and “10ft burst” describe the area you are wanting to cover exactly, and it wouldn’t matter the size of the NPC.
Now, the downside of that is that the people have to enter the area, which means it triggers everytime someone enters instead of them doing an attack. The upside is that they can do that burst and still do a regular attack.
Naturally you could alter the way it works and just make it a special like @SamWilby said.
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Main reason i was looking for a way other then just calling it a monster special was because i could see pc’s wanting to do something similarly.
Sure, in which case the best way to do it without custom rules is as I said before:
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Or the other thing he said and I agreed with of doing it via aura. The feel would probably be better through multi target, but for players would be easier with aura, or at least less feat point investment
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