Although the text transcript agrees with the army card, the typical boldface is missing and both the transcript and card have one small non-compliance with an official phrasing they were modeled on (Earth Elemental's UNDERGROUND MOVEMENT):
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sir Heroscape
TENTACLE GRAB 8 << typically boldface
After moving and before attacking with a Shadow Binder, you may choose one opponent's small or medium figure within 2 clear sight spaces whose base is no higher than the that Shadow Binder's height or 6 levels below that Shadow Binder's base. Roll the 20-sided die. If you roll an 8 or higher, place the chosen figure on any empty same-level space adjacent to that Shadow Binder. If the chosen figure is engaged when it is moved by Tentacle Grab, it will not take any leaving engagement attacks.
PHANTOM WALK << typically boldface
A Shadow Binder can move through all figures and is never attacked when leaving an engagement.
|
However, a bigger issue is that WotC's official "precedent" wording on UNDERGROUND MOVEMENT is a terrible abuse of English and does not say what it is trying to say. To understand the problem, we should probably first review some other examples of special abilities that (competently) constrain the vertical position to within maximum and minimum levels:
- whose base is no more than 2 levels higher or lower than the base of that Horned Skull Brute (Barge into Battle)
- whose base is not higher or lower than 5 levels from the base of the attacking Wolf (Pounce Special Attack)
- whose base is not higher or lower than 5 levels from the base of the attacking Thrall (Pounce Special Attack)
- whose base is not higher or lower than 15 levels from Kursus’ base (Sonic Fists Special Attack)
These all correctly communicate what they mean, by using "higher or lower" to set the bounds. But UNDERGROUND MOVEMENT (and by extension the VCs it has lent its broken logic to) leaves out the concept of "lower" and results in a nonsensical OR construction:
...and is no higher than 1 level above that Earth Elemental’s height or 3 levels below that Earth Elemental’s base.
Without the word "lower" to change the direction from up to down, the phrase "higher than" automatically
copies itself across the conjunction (as in all such English structures). This means the special ability is
actually saying this:
...and is no higher than 1 level above that Earth Elemental’s height or higher than 3 levels below that Earth Elemental’s base.
I'm sure many will not like this (and some will deny it), but that's how our language works. Thus the attempt at defining a "high-low span" is actually broken because it says the space is no higher than two different values — making one of the values redundant. It's just plain nonsensical, and terrible sentence construction; any credible English teacher would fail it.
For the Earth Elemental and its inspirees (Ashi-Dhulu and Shadow Binder) to make sense, they need to use a higher-or-
lower construction as the earlier examples did. There are multiple ways that one could correctly recast them, of course, but perhaps the most obvious one (and reasonably minimal) would be to follow the "not higher than __ or lower than __" approach of the successful units listed above.
UNDERGROUND MOVEMENT
... any empty non-water space that is within 4 spaces of that Earth Elemental and is not higher than 1 level above that Earth Elemental’s height or lower than 3 levels below that Earth Elemental’s base. ...
STEALTH UNDERGROUND MOVEMENT
... any empty non-water space that is within 4 spaces of Ashi-Dhulu and is not higher than 1 level above his height or lower than 3 levels below his base. ...
TENTACLE GRAB 8
... figure within 2 clear sight spaces whose base is not higher than that Shadow Binder's height or lower than 6 levels below that Shadow Binder's base. ...
Now I realize that some may feel resistant to fixing this because "WotC did it that way so it must be gospel." But WotC did it
wrong — hands down, no question, just plain bad writing — and this awful wording exists on only
one official unit (that I could find). So the VC teams really should not have to feel obligated to repeat WotC's mistake for every new design that needs a structure like this.
I therefore respectfully request and encourage a review of this grammar oversight, and the possible ways to improve Ashi-Dhulu and Shadow Binder so they say what they mean.