Great Hunter vs. Trick Shooter

The skill in question is the Skink special skill "Great Hunter", described like this:

Quote :

Great Hunter: The Skink Great Crest is adept at making the most of the cover available and imposes an additional -1 to hit the Skink if he is in cover (i.e. a -2 to hit penalty).

It says an 'additional -1 to hit', but does this count as 'cover' penalty?

The skill Trick Shooter is described here:

Quote :

Trick Shooter. The warrior can shoot through the tiniest gap without it affecting his aim. He ignores all modifiers for cover when using missile weapons.

"All modifiers for cover"? Usually it is just -1, but is it -2 in this case, which is ignored?

We've always played with 'yes', so no wonder Saurus are more attractive. It's cool vs. henchmen though, but useless vs. most shooty Heroes past 20 exp.

In my group we did play that Trick Shooter would cancel Great Hunter (mainly because of the 'i.e. at the end, if I recall correctly).

These days we have an additional penalty for shooting. There is cover and then there is 'intervening obstacle'. You only get cover if you are in base-base contact with the cover. If any non-cover is obscuring the target then there is an intervening obstacle for -1. With this house rule, Trick Shot allows you to ignore the -1 for an intervening obstacle rather than the -1 for cover.

Makes sense for the skill to negate the special rule.

On the other hand, our group has always held skills to be what makes heroes, heroes, i.e. they break the conventions that normally apply, so we give them lots of leeway. When skills match up against other skills (which doesn't happen if using just the basic skills of the rulebook) we try and strike a balance between them so that one does not completely cancel out the other. I think loosing the cover -1 to Trick Shooting but not the Great Hunter is a good balance. Come up with your fluff for why.

The fluff could be that Trick Shooter allows you to find the weak spots of your enemy's cover, while Great Hunter allows you to camouflage yourself in order to sneak up upon your prey. That would explain the difference at least ^_^

Interesting rule, Lord 0 - definitely another way to see it!

It does make Trick Shooter better vs. Lizardmen, but well, Lizardmen has to have some more disadvantages! Still good vs. henchmen though. Very good actually. So it makes sense for it to negate it.

Thanks for all the responses!