shoop wrote:What: An evokable that summons 6 hostile howler monkeys, as close as possible to the player.
Why: Meat shields that will reliably block LOS in all directions, at the price of blocking a retreat and making noise. Could be an interesting mechanic.
If "as close as possible" means directly adjacent when no enemies are close enough, this would have a lot of abuse potential. Using your idea of blocking a retreat, an upstairs/ downstairs/ shaft can have at most 8 floor tiles around it. Using this new item, you could in the best scenario block 3/4 of possible tiles for enemies to step onto, at worst you could completely stop other advancing enemies and run away safely. Another immediate way to abuse this item would be to combine it with Ignition, which gets much more powerful depending on the number and placement of enemy targets.
These are just ideas off the top of my head, I'm sure other players could work out more ways to screw with existing game mechanics. If it makes any difference, I'm against this item being introduced.
There is always something new to learn.