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EncounterMartial Immediate InterruptClose burst 10 Trigger: An ally makes a basic attack, a bull rush, or a charge within 10 squares of you Target: The triggering ally in burst Effect: The target gains a power bonus to the attack roll equal to your Intelligence modifier.
OK - so this is an Immediate Interrupt with the trigger of a basic attack, bull rush or charge.
My key question, is do you declare the interrupt before or after they roll the die?
The trigger is "ally makes a basic attack". If they haven't rolled, then they haven't made the attack, and the power hasn't triggered yet.
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I would interpret it as you do with the Wizards Shield power, that is that you can interrupt a potential miss and give it the bonus so it turns into a hit.
EncounterArcane, Force Immediate InterruptPersonal Trigger: You are hit by an attack Effect: You gain a +4 power bonus to AC and Reflex defense until the end of your next turn.
The trigger on shield is different though - the trigger is being hit, so clearly the die must already have been rolled.
That being said, the compendium does not list a definition for 'Attack' - is there a breakdown somewhere that creates a separate step for 'declare attack' then 'roll attack'?
Because it's an interrupt, it would trigger before the attack roll is made. If it was an immediate reaction, it would trigger after the attack. Immediate interrupts can potentially stop the action theyre interrupting.
Think of a fighter's mark going off. The monster declares it's thwacking your rogue buddy, you make your attack before it gets to. If you kill the monster before it attacks your rogue buddy, then no attack happens. The attack from a fighter's mark is an immediate interrupt.
Interrupts happen before the trigger is resolved, reactions happen after it's resolved. The problem is that resolving an attack is a multi-step process. You choose a target, check the range, cover, and concealment, calculate modifiers, roll to hit, determine if the attack succeeded, roll damage, deduct resistance, inflict damage, aply effects.... With a reaction, it's easy, once all that is done, you react. With an interrupt, it's less clear. You could go with /before/ any of that happens, you could go with the interrupt happening as soon as the attack is comitted to, or, you could allow the interrupt to happen any time before the attack is resolved.
And, to make the whole issue another little bit blurrier, there is no uniquivocal defition of 'attack,' by itself. 'Attack roll,' 'attack power,' etc... sure, but not just plain 'attack.'
From a pure power-balance and ease-of-play standpoint, I'd say let the player use it after the roll - that slows down the game less. Now, I don't really think this will be such a huge problem - how many basic attacks/charges does your group do? I suppose that depends on how many barbarians you have.
__________________ Carl Cramér
Member of the Netbook of Feats review board.
There's two questions here - one is "when does the player announce the interrupt power?" and "when does the power occur" There's no disputing that the bonus to the attack has to occur mechanically prior to the roll being made so that it can add to the roll. So what we're really asking here is can the player declare it after the triggering roll is made and then retcon the bonus in? My answer is yes - the warlord can declare the power after the roll is physically made. Immediate Interrupts are too valuable to just throw away and the whole point of a Warlord (IMHO) is the ability to say "no, my buddy hit"
Interrupts happen before the trigger is resolved, reactions happen after it's resolved. The problem is that resolving an attack is a multi-step process. You choose a target, check the range, cover, and concealment, calculate modifiers, roll to hit, determine if the attack succeeded, roll damage, deduct resistance, inflict damage, aply effects.... With a reaction, it's easy, once all that is done, you react. With an interrupt, it's less clear. You could go with /before/ any of that happens, you could go with the interrupt happening as soon as the attack is comitted to, or, you could allow the interrupt to happen any time before the attack is resolved.
And, to make the whole issue another little bit blurrier, there is no uniquivocal defition of 'attack,' by itself. 'Attack roll,' 'attack power,' etc... sure, but not just plain 'attack.'
THIS - is basically the exact issue. Can the interrupt occur during any part of the attack process or does it have to occur at a specific point during the attack process.
The power is certainly a lot more useful if it can be used after the die has been rolled but before a 'miss' or 'hit' has been declared.
There's two questions here - one is "when does the player announce the interrupt power?" and "when does the power occur" There's no disputing that the bonus to the attack has to occur mechanically prior to the roll being made so that it can add to the roll. So what we're really asking here is can the player declare it after the triggering roll is made and then retcon the bonus in? My answer is yes - the warlord can declare the power after the roll is physically made. Immediate Interrupts are too valuable to just throw away and the whole point of a Warlord (IMHO) is the ability to say "no, my buddy hit"
I must disagree on your interpretation here. My reading of this power is that the warlord must use this ability after the triggering player declares his attack but before a roll is made. Sfedi already gave a 3 step breakdown of the act that I think is quite helpful but the greatest argument in favor of the pre-roll position is that if Wizards wanted this ability to be used post roll then they would have had the interrupt trigger be "An ally misses with a basic attack, a bull rush, or a charge within 10 squares of you". This would clearly allow the player to determine hit or miss first and then decide to apply the power or not. Since it's an interrupt, it can change a hit to a miss.
As for whether this power is underpowered or overpowered, I can't recall what the rest of the warlock utility 6 powers were like but I think this is still a balanced and useful power for an offensively minded warlord to take. It doesn't provide more healing but a +6 before an attack adds at least a 25% additional chance to hit so the warlord is effectively doing 1/4 of a basic attack's damage for free every encounter. It also combos nicely with commander's strike or a barbarian in the party.
Korror - I understand where you're going with your post, but I stand by my position. See, for instance, the Warlord Utility 10, Tactical Shift (PHB 149):
Immediate Interrupt, Ranged 10
Trigger: A creature hits your ally with a melee or ranged attack
You couldn't possibly know whether the triggering attack hits or misses until after the roll is made. But the fact that it is an immediate interrupt means you have to retcon the event back into the story of the battle. See also as examples the Githzerai racial power Iron Mind, and the Halfling Racial power Second Chance -- both Immediate Interrupts. The Interrupt/Reaction has nothing to do with the chronology of the players and everything to do with the chronology of the game world.
Korror - I understand where you're going with your post, but I stand by my position. See, for instance, the Warlord Utility 10, Tactical Shift (PHB 149):
Immediate Interrupt, Ranged 10
Trigger: A creature hits your ally with a melee or ranged attack
You couldn't possibly know whether the triggering attack hits or misses until after the roll is made. But the fact that it is an immediate interrupt means you have to retcon the event back into the story of the battle. See also as examples the Githzerai racial power Iron Mind, and the Halfling Racial power Second Chance -- both Immediate Interrupts. The Interrupt/Reaction has nothing to do with the chronology of the players and everything to do with the chronology of the game world.
The issue here though is that the Trigger specifically requires a 'hit' - so we know that the trigger occurs after the die has rolled.
My gut tells me that Tactical Supervision works after the Declare Targets step, I just wish it had been written more clearly.
Does anyone know of any other Interupts that work off of 'makes an attack? Maybe we can use other precident to work this out.
The wizard utility 2, Shield works very much that way. It adds to the caster's AC and Reflex, and can cancel a hit. The Wand Mastery feature is also similar, you add to your own attack roll retroactively. The latter, though, required a FAQ entry to clarify.
It's not something that's easy to pull together with just the existing jargon, so if whoever wrote a power isn't quite exacting enough, it becomes ambiguous.
My advice would be to go with whichever interpretation seems (to you, for your campaign and your players' styles) to make the power balance best with other level 6 utilities.
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