Hypnotic Gaze

Hypnotic Gaze (Extraordinary)

The player has a powerful telepathic ability that he can use to stun an opponent into immobility. The player may use hypnotic gaze at the end of his Move Action on one opposing player who is in an adjacent square. Make an Agility roll for the player with hypnotic gaze, with a -1 modifier for each opposing tackle zone on the player with hypnotic gaze other than the victim’s. If the Agility roll is successful, then the opposing player loses his tackle zones and may not catch, intercept or pass the ball, assist another player on a block or foul, or move voluntarily until the start of his next Action or the drive ends. If the roll fails, then the hypnotic gaze has no effect.

Hypnotic Gaze Overview:

Hypnotic Gaze is a very powerful skill to have as it gives your team a lot of options not ordinarily available by other means. At face value it may appear that all it does is remove the tackle zone of an opposing player. While essentially that is what Hypnotic Gaze does, it has a lot of ramifications, both for you can do in your turn, but also how it can affect the opponents turn.

Removing Opponents Tackle Zones

The best place to start would be explaining why you would want to remove an opponents tackle zone. There are three main reasons you would want to do this, to avoid dodging (either away from an opponent or if running past), ball handling (picking up, passing, catching, intercepting) and to gain or negate assists (often both achieved at the same time). You may be able to think of other circumstances though these would be the most often reasons.

Any time you want to remove a players tackle zone normally, you would do this by hitting the player. If your main aim it to remove their tackle zone from a certain square (to perhaps free up your ball carrier from dodging), then just pushing a player out of the way can be enough. That is fine if you already have a player next to the opposing player with the offending tackle zone, but if you don’t then your only option is to blitz them. Where you can sometimes come unstuck though is when you need to do that to more than one opponent in a turn as you can only blitz once. If you have played many games of Blood Bowl already, you can probably recall some turns where you wished you could blitz twice. If you have a player with Hypnotic Gaze on your team, you can use them to perform a cut down tackle zone removing “blitz”. (Please don’t get confused by that, you can’t actually blitz, it just has the same properties of being able to remove a tackle zone from where it is.)

Eliminating Dodges

I already mentioned removing the tackle zone on your ball carrier to save them having to dodge. If you have already used your blitz action for the turn, or need to use it elsewhere, then to save risking the dodge with the ball carrier, Hypnotic Gaze can work wonders. This doesn’t just apply to the ball carrier though, if one opposing player is tying up more than one of yours it can free up multiple players in one go. Typical uses of this would be against very strong players who are hard to blitz, they may also have Stand Firm (making it even harder) and skills to make dodging away tricky (Tackle, Diving Tackle, Prehensile Tail or Tentacles). If you eliminate their tackle zone, then all the players that were being tied up are now free to move without rolling for a dodge.

Another situation where you want to avoid dodges is if you need to run past a player on the other team. For example right after kick off and you want to move some receivers behind their defence, you usually have to block and blitz a path free to avoid doing any dodges. Alternative you can use Hypnotic Gaze to clear a path. This gives you the option to use the blitz to reinforce your position, perhaps target one of their better players to get them off the pitch, make a path through elsewhere to get even more of your team past them.

The last real situation is when you are trying to target someone specific on their team for a blitz, that would require a dodge or leap to get to them. Typically this would be a ball carrier sat safely in a cage. As you know you can’t blitz twice, but if you have Hypnotic Gaze, take out one of their corners and you have free run at their ball carrier. This makes cage play very tricky against Hypnotic Gaze players.

Ball Handling

Hypnotic Gaze can also help greatly for various aspects of ball handling, both for offence and defence. If you have a receiver in position to score but they got marked, you can remove that tackle zone marking them. This makes catching the ball for that player much easier and they also then don’t have to dodge away from them either.

There are also numerous times during tough games that you may be in a situation where the ball is loose but marked by opposing players. Using Hypnotic Gaze you can get rid of a tackle zone on the ball and perhaps blitz another if marked by more (you should also look out for chain pushes to get rid of multiple ones if possible). Anything you can do to clear the ball in order to help you pick it up is very helpful.

Hypnotised players also can’t catch bouncing balls or attempt to intercept. If you hypnotised players next to his ball carrier then you knocked the ball loose, it would scatter but the players that are hypnotised don’t get an attempt to catch it. This increases the likelihood that if you have players nearby they may get a chance to catch it, or it ends up on the floor and you may be able to pick it up. A similar situation happens if there are opposing players nearby a ball you are trying to pick up. If you fail the pick up they could possibly catch it, so as well as hypnotising them to make the pick up easier, it also prevents them from catching it if you do fail the pick up.

The same also applies to interception attempts, if passing over an opponent makes a pass much easier, then you could try and hypnotise that opposing player first. If you succeed then they won’t be able to intercept and you can attempt the easier pass rather than a harder one that avoids passing over them.

More on Page 2…

29 thoughts on “Hypnotic Gaze”

  1. Hypno Gaze is also good for making live difficult for receivers, especially Pro Elf and Slann Catchers who can catch in Tackle Zones with little or no penalty. If there are two catchers within scoring range you can blitz one and gaze the other. That way he has to move into the endzone to make the TD thus making the pass harder.
    It would be good to mention the down side to Hypnotic Gaze, in that, whether successful or not, you’re nearly always going to catch a block in the face on you opponent’s turn. Whereas with a blitz, if you’re successful the other player usually will need to blitz in order to hit back at you.

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  2. It does say that they can’t pass the ball so yes it would appear that you can do that. Something I hadn’t considered before, thanks for asking it could come in very helpful, especially against Dark Elf teams.

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  3. In the case where i successfully hypnotise an opponent, and he doesn’t had the time to make any action at his tour, does he stay hypnotise, even if I decide to move away elsewhere? (and, maybe, hypnotise another one ) Or do I have to stay at his side?

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    • Using Hypnotic Gaze ends your movement and therefore your move action as well. If the player you Hypnotised doesn’t perform an action during their turn though, they will still be Hypnotised during your following turn. So yes you can just move away and use Hypnotic Gaze (or blitz etc) in your next turn. You don’t have to stay next to them for them to stay hypnotised, the only way they can recover is by performing an action.

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  4. Ok, I just got LE, and I’m having a hard time seeing Hypnotic Gaze actually doing anything.  I click the eyeball icon at the end of my vampire’s move, click on an adjacent target and see the pitch change color.  After that, nothing.  No dice rolls, and tackle zones always appear intact.  Am I doing anything wrong?

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    • I’ve no idea as I don’t have LE yet, though this about is about the tactical use of Hypnotic Gaze, please use the forum for questions related to the Cyanide game. You are more likely to get a response on there from someone who knows the answer as well!

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  5. I thought Hypnotic gaze was an agility roll with -1 per tackle zone. And since you need to actually be standing next to your victim it would always have atleast a -1 modifier. Making it a 4+ roll at best (assuming you dont have + agility). Or have I missed something?

    Adam

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    • The Tackle Zone of the target player doesn’t count as -1, it is only the Tackle Zones of opposing player who aren’t the target player that impose the negative modifier.

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  6. Hypnotic Gaze should work to negate an opponents Side Step ability as well for easier crowd surfing or pushback control? (One of my friends has started a vampire team in our tabletop league, and keeps asking me questions I’m not sure about.)

    Adam

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  7. That is a more tricky one, it doesn’t say that Hypnotic Gaze removes the use of that players skills so I would think that they can still use Side Step. However it says they may not move voluntarily, which would mean they can’t use Pass Block. By that logic using Side Step is also moving voluntarily, though on the flip side they are only moving because you hit them…

    I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone hit a player that they just hypnotised to be honest. Tactically it doesn’t seem to make much sense out of extraordinary circumstances. After reading it a few times I think I would side on the fence that suggests they can’t use Side Step as it is moving voluntarily. I can certainly see an argument the other way though too, so don’t class this as a definitive ruling.

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  8. I think you underestimate how often blocking of gazed opponents occur when gazers are involved. I were fortunate enough to be blessed with a HP woodelf lineman after winning a chaop cup, and he instantly became a key player on the team, requiring me to make his safety a priority. The nature of HG means you risk leaving a valueable player in an opponent’s tackle zone, and in case of a fragile player like mine or Eldril Sidewinder you want to avoid that. This could mean only leaving him on his own when you really had to, but in most cases use him as an assist on a high priority target that would get blitzed in any case. The HG is then just an added benifit to the assist, possibly setting up a better blitz and lessening the disadvantage of a failed blitz. In the case of vampires, they don’t really need the protection, but it still happens often enough that there is a single target important enough to warrant dedicating both the gaze and the blitz.

    After that lengthy intro, here is my two cents on the rules regarding gaze and sidestep. Reading the sidestep rules I notice that sidestep is neither a move action nor a special move action. If it was, I would expect it to be mentioned explicitly as it is in other cases. As I read it, the sidestep is a specific effect taking place when the player is victim of a push or knock down. As it is a specific effect, exceptions should be clearly noted as such, like in the case of the grap skill.

    Just as Coach I am in no position to make a definitive ruling, but I feel pretty convinced that sidestep is in effect even when the player in question is gazed.

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  9. I don’t have the rules at hand, but where do you get that the target Tackle Zone does not count on the agility test? Following that up, is that true for Jump Up as well? I’ve always taken the -1 from the target’s zone as well… would be neat to have Jump Up even better for my Norse Blitzers 🙂

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  10. The rules for each skill is posted at the start of every article on here, just scroll back up to the top. It says “with a -1 modifier for each opposing tackle zone on the player with hypnotic gaze other than the victim’s” which is pretty clear cut.

    On an unrelated note but since you mentioned it, Jump Up doesn’t have any negative modifiers to the roll. It is a straight agility roll with +2 and doesn’t matter how many opposing tackle zones your player is in.

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  11. Vlad, for LE, if your hypnotic gaze is succesful, you will see a spinning spiral over the head of the affected player, its quite big so you wont miss it.
    If you dont see this, then the roll simply failed.
    you might check the skill check dialog box which shows the die rolls/modifiers/result for confirmation

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  12. Great thread. I had no idea that opponents could be gazed into their next turn, as a vampire coach that’s something that is a great help as my friends and I had just assumed it wore off as soon as the opponents turn began.

    However, my friend and I need some closure on another question concerning hypnotic gaze and hoped the forum could help. If it’s answered elsewhere, forgive me, but I can’t find a definitive answer.

    I was playing Vamps, my friend Chaos. I began my turn with a vampire adjacent to one of his chaos warriors. I elected to use hypnotic gaze on the warrior to try to weaken his cage. I passed my bloodlust check and proceeded to roll for HG.

    My friend interrupted me and said that I couldn’t do that because the rule states that I have to take a move action and I hadn’t actually moved – just stood still. Naturally I argued, I felt rightly, that as long as I take a bloodlust check it counts as a move action – I don’t physically need to move the model any squares in order to use hypnotic gaze.

    Anyway I couldn’t produce any definitive ruling that stated my interpretation was the correct one and my friend felt that his interpretation was valid as a way to stop HG being overpowered, forcing vampires who began their turn inside an opponents tackle zone to dodge.

    So we were at loggerheads both certain our own interpretation was the correct one. In the end I agreed to play the game under his interpretation but would like to know for certain one way or the other in the future – so what do you think?

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    • You don’t need to move in a move action, just like you don’t have to hit anyone during a blitz action or make a pass during a pass action etc. You’re friend is wrong, moving zero squares is perfectly acceptable. Just like you can recover the tackle zone of a Bonehead player by rolling for Bonehead and then not moving.

      Also Hypnotic Gaze can last for the rest of the entire drive if they never take an action with that player. So in the same vein if they wanted to get the tackle zone of a hypnotized player back, they can also just take a move action and not move. Most players don’t have Bloodlust to roll for either so they literally do “nothing” but take a move action in order to get their tackle zone back. If they didn’t do this and another player on their team causes a turnover, then they would still be hypnotised going into the Vampire team’s turn.

      The rules state you just have to take a move action, there is nothing in the rules stating you have to move, which is what he would need to produce in order to have been right. Hypnotic Gaze was already toned down to this, you used to be able to do it at any point in the middle of any action. Now it has to be at the end of a move action, so no more blitz action, move, hit a player, move, hypnotise another and then move some more all with the same player. Something the star player Count Luthor used to be amazing at and why he was widely regarded as one of the best in the game.

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  13. Great article, coach! I ran into a problem with the rules though. If my vamp makes a block (action), can he then hypnotize afterwards? We couldn’t clarify this from the rules as it seems a ”move action” is required…

    Thanks in advance!

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    • You can only use Hypnotic Gaze if making a move action. Note that doesn’t mean you can use it after moving in a Blitz or Pass action or any other type of movement.

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  14. Hey Coach, I’m fairly new to Blood Bowl and I have a question about obtaining extraordinary skills like Hypnotic Gaze for my players. I understand that you have to choose from GASP lists, but I would like to have this skill for my Elf Union team. Ideally on some linemen to make it easier for my Catchers etc to run past. Am I able to obtain extraordinary skills for my players or not?

    Cheers.

    Reply
    • Hi Matt, extraordinary skills aren’t ones that you can give to players. They are only for those players who come with them when you hire them, representing things like weapons or racial traits. The only way to get Hypnotic Gaze on an Elf team currently is to hire the Star Player Eldril Sidewinder.

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  15. So how does hypnotic gaze interact with the block skill? ive only been playing for a month or so, and my second game in the league at my LGS was against vampires. The opposing coach said my dwarf lineman cant use the block skill while gazed, and at the time i just assumed they were right, but after looking at stuff, some clarification would be great.

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    • This article is for the old version of the rules. Under the new 2020 version it does cancel our skills like Block, Dodge & Side Step. You can’t use skills of you don’t have a tackle zone, page 74 of the rule book and also clarified in the FAQ. I’ll be writing a new article in due course.

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      • Thanks coach, this page has basically been my home page for the last month, and I’ve been trying to compare info between here and the current rules, guess I didn’t read enough on this one 😀

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