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Looking at the rules for various monsters, in the german prd (prd.5footstep.de) some monsters have a property called "Angriffsfläche". After looking at english entries for monsters, I am confused about what this actually is. The rules say that it is "the space a monster attacks" in german, not much more (that I could find at least) which would match the german name pretty good. But in english, it is only called "space" and leads me to believe that it is simply the space the creature occupies.

Is it one of those two things? Or something completely different?

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2 Answers 2

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"Angriffsfläche" = "Space"

That is, the space occupied by the creature. Its attack range is covered via Reach ("Reichweite"), which the entry is paired with in creature stat blocks.

For example, Chromatischer Drache, Rot Ehrwürdig and Ancient Red Dragon state

Angriffsfläche 6 m; Reichweite 4,50 m (6 m mit Biss)

and

Space 20 ft.; Reach 15 ft. (20 ft. with bite)

respectively. The lines match up well, including values and the bite specialty part. Therefore, "Angriffsfläche" must be "Space".

It's a horribly awkward translation and makes little sense, especially since even the rules seem to have gotten it wrong...

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    \$\begingroup\$ Terrible translation. It implies that this is the space a monster can attack, impliying it deals aoe damage.... Thank you. \$\endgroup\$
    – Patta
    Oct 6, 2015 at 11:27
  • \$\begingroup\$ 'Wir haben den Turm offen konstruiert, so bietet er weniger Angriffsfläche für den Wind' means 'We designed the tower to be more open, thus presenting less area to the wind'; Angriffsfläche is a perfect translation for 'area where this object can be hit'. The answer of nvoigt is right. \$\endgroup\$
    – bukwyrm
    Apr 17, 2019 at 7:07
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Angriffsfläche is Space

(as already mentioned)

However, you may be mistaken about the meaning of Angriffsfläche in German. Although "area of attack" would be a literal translation, it does not mean the area you can attack. It describes the area where you can be attacked. The more Angriffsfläche you offer, the more vulnerable you are.

Compare the German saying

"wenig Angriffsfläche bieten"

which means "offering little area for your enemy to attack". This can be taken literally, for example by building a roof so your lawn offers less attack surface to the rain, or figuratively, by not having an extramarital affair and offering little attack surface for a smear campaign.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Thank you for that comment, but still, "Angriffsfläche" could also mean "The Area you attack". At least for me as native german speaker, both possibilities come to mind. \$\endgroup\$
    – Patta
    Oct 6, 2015 at 16:34
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Patta while true in a word-by-word translation, I have only found "Angriffsfläche" for "area of (an own) attack" in German translations from other languages. A German would not say so because of the ambiguity. Angriffsfläche is always used from the perspective of the defender. You would not say "Was ist die Angriffsfläche dieser Granate?" to ask for it's burst radius. If you heard such a sentence, it would smell like Google-Translate. \$\endgroup\$
    – nvoigt
    Oct 6, 2015 at 16:41
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Patta I do agree that it's a terrible translation, because as this is a translation from a foreign language I would have expected them to get it wrong. It's pretty surprising and unintuitive that they actually got it perfectly right. \$\endgroup\$
    – nvoigt
    Oct 6, 2015 at 16:45
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Patta Angriffsfläche is unambiguous. The usage may be imprecise if it is unclear to what it belongs (not in the rulebook, there it is used in it's exact meaning). 'X has a Angiffsfläche of y' means that X can be hit over an area of y; Yet: Sometimes Angiffsfläche is used without a clear attribution: 'X will attack, Z will counterattack; The Angriffsfläche is y' - Here, Angriffsfläche has no clear 'owner' thus we cannot know who of the combatants is hittable over an area y (while the other would thereby be able to attack an area y, given that there are only two combatants); \$\endgroup\$
    – bukwyrm
    Apr 17, 2019 at 7:14

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