Pseudopet

Overview

Most powers' effects come directly from the player or enemy using them. Other powers actually create a temporary, untargetable, invulnerable object on the map, and that object is the true source of the power's effects. This object is a pseudopet.

Sometimes this object is visible and mobile, like Voltaic Sentinel and Whirlwind, and it's easy to think of it as a pet, albeit one that can't be targeted or killed. Other times, this object is visible and stationary, like Lightning Storm. And other times, like with Rain of Fire, the object is merely the center of a visual effect and not displayed as a tangible item itself, and calling it a "pet" is unintuitive. In all these cases, though, the inner workings are the same: a power creates a thing that produces effects on players or enemies using the same AI and Attack Mechanics that true pets do.

Notes

• All powers that cause an ongoing effect in a fixed area, like Rain of Fire, Ice Slick, and Tar Patch, work by using a pseudopet.

• A power can cause both direct and pseudopet effects. Fulcrum Shift is one example.

• A pseudopet can create other pseudopets. Carrion Creepers and Volcanic Gases both do this.

• Many powers that work through pseudopets are listed as having an inherent Accuracy of 2.0. This is misleading, since it implies that the power is extremely accurate. In fact, this stat is meaningless, since the act of creating a pseudopet (or a real one) doesn't care about Accuracy. What matters is the Accuracy of the pseudopet's powers, which are stored separately.

• Pseudopets use the "pet" tables for effect and leveling scalars, not the tables for the Archetype that created them. This can cause unexpected results, such as improving at a slightly different rate than normal as a character gains levels, or being unusually similar when compared with the same power in another Archetype.