Cone area question, and range adjustments

[Plangkye]

Trying to figure out how to handle the Area extra shaped as a Cone. As written, applying the Area (Cone) extra to a power makes it fill a cone with length and width 10 feet per rank - how does this apply to powers with various ranges? Does it do the same thing, no matter what the base range of the power is (i.e., applying it as an extra to a Blast power makes it fill the same area as applying it to a Strike power)? That doesn't seem right because the result would be two functionally identical powers, one of which costs an extra point per rank. What happens when it's applied to a power with Perception range?

Can all of this be normalized by applying the -Range flaw until the power is Touch-range, and then applying Area (Cone)?

[kenseido]

Area Effect powers with Range allows you to pick the starting point, withing the range of the power.

So a Strike (or a Touch Range Blast) with Area Cone must start from you.

A Blast with Area Cone lets you set the starting point of the cone to be away from you, within the normal range of the power.

A Blast with Range Perception and Area Cone not only lets you pick the starting point of the cone, it also means that target in the are affected do not get a Reflex save, and thus Evasion also does not apply.

[Plangkye]

Thank you, that's exactly what I wanted to know.

[FuzzyBoots]

A Blast with Range Perception and Area Cone not only lets you pick the starting point of the cone, it also means that target in the are affected do not get a Reflex save, and thus Evasion also does not apply.

On a side note, Ultimate Power also indicated that Perception-range cones get a choice of two modalities. In one, you hit everyone in that area that lacks cover from the point of origin. In the other, you hit everyone who lacks concealment from you. Think of the first as your traditional explosion that's stopped by a transparent aluminum wall and the second as a psychic explosion that doesn't affect anyone you didn't know about.

On a side note, when it comes to Ranged Area attacks, the Rules As Written make the ultimate range of origin of the area to be 10 range increments with no penalty. Steve Kenson has indicated that applying a -2 to the Reflex save DC for each range increment past the first is a reasonable house rule. The size of range increments and the number of increments is, of course, modifiable with Improved Range and Progression (Range) power feats.