(M&M 3e) Illusion Area

[JDRook]

There seems to be an inconsistency to increasing the area of an Illusion effect.

In both M&M3e and DCAHH, the section on Illusion Size says:

"Your illusion occupies an area with a maximum volume
rank equal to your effect rank. To increase the size of the
illusion you can create, apply the Area extra; each application
increases the area your illusion covers by 1 rank."

Presumably this refers to the standard Area extras (Burst, Cone, Line, etc), replacing the ranked volume measure.

However, in HeroLab, there is an "Illusion Area" extra with the following text:

"Your illusion occupies an area 6 feet in diameter. To increase the size of the illusion you can create, apply this extra; each rank increases the distance rank of the the diameter by 1."

Searching around, it looks like the base 6' diameter was changed from the origin printing of DCA, but AFAIK the diameter increase option has come out of nowhere. You might want to look into this and, unless I'm very wrong, remove that specialized extra, especially since Illusion seems to be coded to not validate Area extras.

[roguescribner]

This still seems like an issue with HL. What HL says and the book says does not match at all. Is there a plan to fix this anytime soon?

[Colen]

Thanks, the diameter text does need to be changed. However, the power just specifies "volume" - not what shape that volume has to be. So I think it's still correct to have a single Illusion Area extra? Increasing its rank increases the size you can cover - I don't think the shape of the area is specified anywhere, so you could presumably pick that to be whatever you wanted.