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Old 19th March 2009, 11:49 AM   #1 (permalink)
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How does Furious Assault work on burst/blast attacks?

Furious Assault Half-Orc Racial Power
Encounter
Free Action Personal
Trigger: You hit an enemy
Effect: The attack deals 1[W] extra damage if it’s a weapon attack or 1d8 extra damage if it isn’t.

If you use this with an area attack do all opponents take the extra damage or just one?

I can see reasons to read it both ways, "an enemy" for a single but then the "The attack deals".

Does attack mean that attack roll against that one enemy you hit, or the attack powers damage? It just seems that if it is all opponents in an area attack the power seems very strong, in comparison to other racial abilities. It isn't really situational and has massive damage potential every time it is used.
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Old 19th March 2009, 02:01 PM   #2 (permalink)
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AngryPurpleCyclops Kobold Slinger (Lvl 1)
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Originally Posted by Bagpuss View Post
Trigger: You hit an enemy
Effect: The attack deals 1[W] extra damage if it’s a weapon attack or 1d8 extra damage if it isn’t.
The trigger is you hit an enemy. As soon as the trigger is reached and you use the power it's expended. Just one enemy, one attack, one use of the power. Still a pretty powerful ability, with a high damage weapon like a flail or something you're looking at 2d6 automatically, not many racial powers are a lot better than this. I wonder if you apply this to a crit if it's automatically full damage.
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Old 19th March 2009, 02:09 PM   #3 (permalink)
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Originally Posted by AngryPurpleCyclops View Post
The trigger is you hit an enemy. As soon as the trigger is reached and you use the power it's expended.
Right but for example Thunderwave is one attack it just can potentially hit several enemies.

Even Melee close burst Powers are one attack power. You make several attack roles. But it's still one attack.

So while the power is expended it increases the damage for all of "The attack" which hits several enemies.

It would have been better written...

Effect: Increase the damage from this attack, to the triggering enemy by 1[W] if it’s a weapon attack or 1d8 extra damage if it isn’t.
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Old 19th March 2009, 02:18 PM   #4 (permalink)
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Sucks if you are a brutal scoundrel wielding a dagger though. It just results in a crummy +1d4 damage (compared to a potential +1d12 if you are a barb with a greataxe). They really should have made it +1W or +1d8, whichever is greater...
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Old 19th March 2009, 03:16 PM   #5 (permalink)
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MrBeens Goblin Sharpshooter (Lvl 2)
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Originally Posted by Bagpuss View Post
Right but for example Thunderwave is one attack it just can potentially hit several enemies.

Even Melee close burst Powers are one attack power. You make several attack roles. But it's still one attack.

So while the power is expended it increases the damage for all of "The attack" which hits several enemies.

It would have been better written...

Effect: Increase the damage from this attack, to the triggering enemy by 1[W] if it’s a weapon attack or 1d8 extra damage if it isn’t.
Each attack roll is a separate attack
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Old 19th March 2009, 03:18 PM   #6 (permalink)
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azaroth42 Goblin Sharpshooter (Lvl 2)
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Originally Posted by Bagpuss View Post
Trigger: You hit an enemy
Effect: The attack deals 1[W] extra damage if it’s a weapon attack or 1d8 extra damage if it isn’t.

If you use this with an area attack do all opponents take the extra damage or just one?
I read it as all targets of the attack... consider the difference with Frost Weapon (one target):
Free Action.
Use this power when you hit with the weapon. The target takes an extra 1d8 cold damage and is slowed until the end of your next turn.
And the similarity to Blood Action (11th lvl Blood Mage power):
When you spend an action point to take an extra action, if you use your action to make an attack that hits, that attack deals ongoing 10 damage (save ends).
or Soul Flaying (13th lvl Warlock power):
Infernal Pact: The attack deals extra damage equal to your
Intelligence modifier.
I think that the wording for Furious Assault should be:
Free Action.
Trigger: You hit a target enemy with an attack.
Effect: The target takes an extra 1[W] damage, if the attack has the Weapon keyword, or 1d8 if it does not.

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Old 19th March 2009, 03:37 PM   #7 (permalink)
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Each attack roll is a separate attack
This has been established by the Rules or even Customer Services somewhere? Because you only roll one set of damage for an area attack normally. So even if attack rolls were separate attacks they don't have separate damage.
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Old 19th March 2009, 03:51 PM   #8 (permalink)
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I wonder if you apply this to a crit if it's automatically full damage.
I don't see why it wouldn't be. Twin Striking rangers and tempests have a pretty good chance of getting a crit each encounter, so it's going to be a nice solid chunk of damage.

And for the dagger master half-orc rogue, there is a good reason to pick up superior crossbow feat for a solid opening shot.
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Old 20th March 2009, 10:59 AM   #9 (permalink)
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In area attacks, bursts, blasts, walls you make a separate attack roll for each creature..

So you only add the damage to one enemy.

If you roll a crit against a enemy, with a area power, you only give the crit damage to the monster you rolled crit against..
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Old 20th March 2009, 11:53 AM   #10 (permalink)
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Bagpuss Goblin Sharpshooter (Lvl 2)
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In area attacks, bursts, blasts, walls you make a separate attack roll for each creature..

So you only add the damage to one enemy.
But for an area attack you only make one damage roll for the attack. the Effect is to the damage roll of the attack, even though it is triggered by hitting one enemy.

It doesn't matter which enemy you successfully hit and trigger this power the Thunderwave attack (for example) has it's deal an extra 1d8.
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Old 20th March 2009, 11:56 AM   #11 (permalink)
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But for an area attack you only make one damage roll for the attack. the Effect is to the damage roll of the attack, even though it is triggered by hitting one enemy.

It doesn't matter which enemy you successfully hit and trigger this power the Thunderwave attack (for example) has it's deal an extra 1d8.
If you really think that adding an extra d8 to every attack of an area spell is not overpowered for a racial ability then go for it in your game.
It is clearly meant to be something similar to sneak attack or hunters quarry extra damage.
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Old 20th March 2009, 12:00 PM   #12 (permalink)
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Twin Striking rangers and tempests have a pretty good chance of getting a crit each encounter.
Avengers too!
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Old 21st March 2009, 03:13 PM   #13 (permalink)
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But for an area attack you only make one damage roll for the attack. the Effect is to the damage roll of the attack, even though it is triggered by hitting one enemy.

It doesn't matter which enemy you successfully hit and trigger this power the Thunderwave attack (for example) has it's deal an extra 1d8.
No. You are correct that an attack rolls one damage roll, but that does NOT mean the attack deals the same damage to all targets. If one of the attack rolls is a crit, that target takes a different amount of damage, and there may be extra dice rolled as part of that extra damage. HQ or SA could also cause extra dice to one target in an area, etc.

As already noted, the power is expended as soon as the damage is rolled on the target it is used on. That damage will not carry over to anyone else in the area, it is just an extra d8 you get against that one target.

That being said, this IS probably the single most powerful racial trait power in the game. To be honest overall the Half-orc is rather overpowered. They have low-light vision, the best overall attribute bonuses in the game, 2 good skill bonuses, and THREE other racial trait features which are all individually quite good. Half-orcs are the optimized choice for more character builds than any other race, even dragonborn (which are themselves head and shoulders the overall best PHB1 race). WotC largely managed to avoid power creep with the PHB2 classes, but the races, not so much. And I still don't see why they hate classic Fantasy RPG races so much. True to form Gnomes join dwarves, elves, half-elves, and halflings at the bottom of the barrel...
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Old 21st March 2009, 07:06 PM   #14 (permalink)
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No. You are correct that an attack rolls one damage roll, but that does NOT mean the attack deals the same damage to all targets. If one of the attack rolls is a crit, that target takes a different amount of damage, and there may be extra dice rolled as part of that extra damage. HQ or SA could also cause extra dice to one target in an area, etc.

As already noted, the power is expended as soon as the damage is rolled on the target it is used on. That damage will not carry over to anyone else in the area, it is just an extra d8 you get against that one target.

That being said, this IS probably the single most powerful racial trait power in the game. To be honest overall the Half-orc is rather overpowered. They have low-light vision, the best overall attribute bonuses in the game, 2 good skill bonuses, and THREE other racial trait features which are all individually quite good. Half-orcs are the optimized choice for more character builds than any other race, even dragonborn (which are themselves head and shoulders the overall best PHB1 race). WotC largely managed to avoid power creep with the PHB2 classes, but the races, not so much. And I still don't see why they hate classic Fantasy RPG races so much. True to form Gnomes join dwarves, elves, half-elves, and halflings at the bottom of the barrel...
I don't think dwarves belong on your list there - their resitance to force movement and prone are great, and second wind as a minor is massivly good.
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Old 21st March 2009, 08:34 PM   #15 (permalink)
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I don't think dwarves belong on your list there - their resitance to force movement and prone are great, and second wind as a minor is massivly good.
Devoted Cleric is the ONLY build in 4e that matches dwarven ability modifiers. In fact it is the ONLY build that would be best built as a dwarf, so yes, I think dwarves are quite shortchanged. BRV fighter MIGHT arguably be another, but even then it depends on what sorts of armor you intend to wear.

I didn't say that any of the races necessarily have bad racial traits. However the traits of the various races are mostly fairly balanced, so while resistance to forced movement is nice, and minor SW is pretty nice they are no more than balancing, at best, other race's traits. Thus the thing that really determines build suitability for a race is pretty much entirely whether or not their attribute bonuses match the key attributes of the build. If they don't, then the character IS taking a permanent -1 someplace that can never be made up for. With a few builds that -1 is just for one or two powers and you can argue that synergy between the role of the build and the race's traits more than makes up for it, but those are judgment calls.

Just as an example, the Dwarf better matches the attributes for a Devoted Cleric than any other race, except humans, which are equal. OTOH the DragonBorn is the best match in 5 of the 14 PHB1 builds and an equal or better choice for 8 of them, more than any other race, except Half-orc.

Analyzing the other 'classic' races, Elves and Half-elves are the best match in ZERO cases each. Halfling is the best match for Artful Dodger, but nothing else. Eladrin come out SLIGHTLY better (though it is arguable if you would consider them a 'classic' race), being clearly superior in one build, War Wizard. Tieflings are actually kind of the orphan of the new races, with only one superior build, Deceptive Warlock. Gnomes again have zero builds where they best match, depending on exactly how you define best match. At most they are best in one build.

Given their 'flex' attribute allocation, humans come out as second choice in all builds, and in about 1/3 of them they are equal to the best build.

Of course you can build a viable character of any race/build combination, but you will find that when you get into paragon and especially epic tier the character will suffer at least minor and often major penalties. These penalties CANNOT be made up due to the nature of the 4e scaling math.
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