L4W Discussion Thread V

CrimsonFlameWielder · Oct 2, 2012

I was looking at the Battlemind today and have a question about order of operations.

The Resilient Battlemind has an encounter power written as:

Battlemind Resilience
Encounter * Free Action
Personal
Keywords: Psionic
Trigger: An attack hits you or misses you for the first time during an encounter.
Effect: Until the end of your next turn, you gain resistance to all damage equal to 3 + your Wisdom modifier.
Level 11: Resist 6 + your Wisdom modifier
Level 21: Resist 9 + your Wisdom modifier

My question is this:

Since this is a free action that is triggered on a hit/miss, which can be used at any time during your own turn, or during another creatures turn, does the effect happen BEFORE that attack's damage is rolled (thus the resistance applies to the initial attack), or does the effect happen AFTER the initial attack's damage is rolled (thus the resistance is only good against any further attacks that happen against you that round)?

Son of Meepo · Oct 2, 2012

Free actions are reactions unless they have to be interrupts to work. In this case, Battlemind Resilience does work as a reaction since it has a duration, so that's what it is IMO. It just doesn't against the triggering attack, because the effect happens too late.

CrimsonFlameWielder · Oct 2, 2012

hrmmm... that seriously detracts from the use of that ability...

*DM sneaks up on battlemind with high dmg lurker and crits* HAH! There's half your hit points!

Battlemind: Okay, fine, I use Battlemind's Resilience and gain uber resist until the start of my next turn.

DM: That's fine... I ignore your character for the rest of the round and focus fire on your friends... TAKE THAT! Oh... and it's your turn... so you lose the resit...have a nice round!

:.-(

Son of Meepo · Oct 2, 2012

That's what Augmented Lightning Rush is for.

renau1g · Oct 3, 2012

Voda Vosa said:
Is it possible to just end the adventure and give rewards? I have half of my pcs in inactive adventures and I'd like to use them.

Someone said:
I'll double that petition - there may be an adventure for the level range of one of my characters stuck in one of those dead adventures.

Thirded

Voda Vosa · Oct 3, 2012

By the power of Grayskull I summon thy [MENTION=79620]Ozymandias79[/MENTION]!

Dekana · Oct 3, 2012

Dekana said:
I generally assumed that the monstrous races in MM were temporary versions until their full writeups in later books. If a 4th edition Races of the Dragon comes out someday and changes my kobold, even for the worse, I'd be fine with adjusting.

Quoting myself from March 2010! Kobolds have finally been written up, and, maybe unsurprisingly, Shifty was nerfed. /cry. At least the changes weren't too drastic, so Jax won't be too badly affected.

What I'm really happy about is that kobold PCs finally have darkvision like their monstrous cousins! So who wants to explain why Jax's eyes have suddenly improved? Maybe he started eating carrots every meal?

CaBaNa · Oct 3, 2012

Ancient dormant racial gifts have begun to awaken as Jax acquires more wealth?

Rapida · Oct 3, 2012

CaBaNa said:
Ancient dormant racial gifts have begun to awaken as Jax acquires more wealth?

That fails to explain why us poor, downtrodden level 2 kobolds also gain it

renau1g · Oct 3, 2012

I sense we need an in-game explanation to it...... maybe a cool adventure where some magic is released and leaves the kobolds somewhat less.... shifty, but able to now see in the dark? Hmmmmm....... sounds fun...