Attacking a willing target

[HealingAura]

Lets say I want to target an ally with my attack power, and he wants the attack to hit him.

I'll give an example why this can be useful sometimes:
I target an ally and an enemy with the 1st level at will Druid attack "Chill Wind" (area attack). I slide both targets towards each other and if my ally has "Agile Opportunist" (Paragon Tier Feat from PHB2) he can use a melee basic attack on that enemy as an opportunity action.

Do I still have to target his defense?
He doesn't even want to resist the attack or avoid it, so why should I have to pass his defense?

Of course, making it an automatic hit makes little sense since you can always roll 1 (missing a target is not always due to his high defenses)

What would you rule in this situation?

 

[Flipguarder]

My quickrule one day was that a target can make himself helpless against an attack.... my group didn't like that too much... : )

I have since decided that you can grant combat advanatage to those attacks which you want to hit you. that's all

 

[Samir]

If your target is not attempting to dodge it, then you can remove all non-item AC bonuses, leaving him with just the armor he's wearing. After all, if you're attacking him with a melee attack vs AC, his armor is still an obstacle to your weapon even if he's making no attempt to dodge.

Of course, attacks vs. Fortitude, Reflex, and Will would have you attacking a defense of 0, since the target is willing.

Even though you're attacking an extremely low (or zero) defense, you could still roll a 1, which would represent you missing your (stationary) mark completely.

I think that's a reasonable compromise.

 

[LostSoul]

I go with conflict resolution.

Is there a conflict? No. Then there's no need to roll the dice. You hit.

(You'd still need to roll the damage of course, since there's inherent conflict in HP.)

 

[JohnnyO]

I've had this come up in my home game as well. Basically, an ally was surrounded by minions, and the druid wanted to target him with a flame seed to try and clear them out all at one. But if the flame seed couldn't connect with the central ally, it wouldn't hit the minions.

I think giving the attacker a +2 or +5 on the attack is certainly reasonable, but I wouldn't let it auto connect.

However, make sure that

1) Your rogue friend has to take the same damage as everyone else from the attack
2) It has a chance to backfire (i.e. make sure they resolve them in order, so if they attack the enemy first and move him, then fail to hit the rogue,
it could suck)

 

[Samir]

I go with conflict resolution.

Is there a conflict? No. Then there's no need to roll the dice. You hit.

(You'd still need to roll the damage of course, since there's inherent conflict in HP.)

This would imply that a character is capable of hitting an inanimate target at any distance under any circumstances with 100% accuracy, which isn't the case.

I think you should still take in to account auto-misses (rolls of 1) and rolls that can't penetrate the target's physical armor (for attacks vs. AC). Sure, he's not trying to dodge it or resist it in any way, but unless he takes off his armor, that's still an obstacle.

 

[Turtlejay]

I don't really like it. . .but the attacks is against fort, so I can see how a person would not resist the cold wind pushing them a certain way.

Id make you at least hit a 10, though. The fort defense is derived from 10+(stuff), so hitting a 10 seems fair.

RAW though, I don't think there is anything to support just letting yourself be smacked aside from being Helpless. That creates 3 options as far as I see it:
- No ground given, you must roll and hit just like any other target.
- Your ally can declare that he is Helpless (in which case you crit, and he does not get his free attack, since he is Helpless)
- You must hit at least a 10, your ally can attack as normal.

But we are getting into houserule territory here. I don't think there is a rule for what you are describing.

Jay

 

[Samir]

On second thought, hitting a 10 (for attacks vs. NADs) makes more sense. Even with a +0, that still gives you a 55% chance to hit your target.

Although again I'd extend this to 10 + armor for attacks vs. AC.

 

[LostSoul]

This would imply that a character is capable of hitting an inanimate target at any distance under any circumstances with 100% accuracy, which isn't the case.

The circumstances matter.

 

[teachamath]

Okay take this instance. There is a LFR adventure where the necromancer locks you in a small opening to a room with a blast that can be sustained minor. Its effect is immobilize save ends and it reattacks fort at +12 (for levels 1 to 4) for 2d8+5 I think in addition to reimmobilizing. If our storm sorcerer would have used one of his at-wills that pushes 3 on a hit to reflex, would that be appropriate to get the party out with only the single at-will damage applied. What would be the defense for the hit? Is it 0 as some say here or 10 or include dex bonus even though immobilized?