Bracers of Escape timing

[karooba]

Quick question about when exactly the immediate interrupt is used with this item and also similar powers.

Bracers of Escape
Power (daily): Immediate Interrupt. You can use this power when you are the target of a melee attack. You teleport 2 squares.

Is it used before the attack roll or after?


Same question with Cavern Chokers Body Shield
Body Shield: Immediate Interrupt. When targeted by a melee or ranged attack ... cavern choker makes its grabbed victim the target instead.

So, before or after?

 

[DracoSuave]

Quick question about when exactly the immediate interrupt is used with this item and also similar powers.

Bracers of Escape
Power (daily): Immediate Interrupt. You can use this power when you are the target of a melee attack. You teleport 2 squares.

Is it used before the attack roll or after?

Depends on the DM. It's not exact, but I believe -technically- it's before the roll but after they declare they've targetted you. Then you teleport before their action actually starts, which may invalidate said action.

Same question with Cavern Chokers Body Shield
Body Shield: Immediate Interrupt. When targeted by a melee or ranged attack ... cavern choker makes its grabbed victim the target instead.

So, before or after?

Same.

 

[Aulirophile]

Interrupts happen before their trigger in-game (technically the wording is "is resolved" but that tends to confuse people into thinking the action happens after when it doesn't). In RL that means you declare them after the trigger has been announced. The wording in this case is just confusing, though. Does "is a target" mean an attack roll? Does it mean declaring an attack roll, but not actually rolled yet? Note both of these are from much earlier in the game's life cycle, most powers now are more specific with their triggers and use game terms.

I'd rule "is a target" as "an attack roll was made against x", because that is the wording I have seen used lately because of this exact misunderstanding earlier in the game's life cycle.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

When you are the target is relative unambiguously:

I attack A

A announces his interrupt. The attack is not resolved.

Very powerful.

There are powers that trigger on "a hit or a miss" here the attack is done but can be invalidated retroactively.

 

[Skallgrim]

When you are the target is relative unambiguously:

I attack A

A announces his interrupt. The attack is not resolved.

Very powerful.

There are powers that trigger on "a hit or a miss" here the attack is done but can be invalidated retroactively.

Actually, the ability is not quite as powerful as you mentioned.

First, a monster with sufficient Reach might shrug and still attack you.

Second, as you use this item when you are targeted, but NOT when you are hit, you might be using it on an attack that misses anyway. If the interrupt were to be triggered on a hit, it would be even more useful. Given that there are multiple interrupts which trigger on a melee Hit, and this one does NOT use that wording, I think it is safe to assume that it works differently from those.

 

[chitzk0i]

Interrupts happen before their trigger in-game (technically the wording is "is resolved" but that tends to confuse people into thinking the action happens after when it doesn't).

A more useful metaphor would be that you pause the interrupted action, finish your power, then re-check the triggering power to see if anything has changed.

Second, as you use this item when you are targeted, but NOT when you are hit, you might be using it on an attack that misses anyway.

The interrupt rules never specify windows of opportunity for certain triggers. The only restriction I could find in the PHB is in one of the first sentences which limits you to "before the trigger resolves". You could argue that "trigger" refers to individual steps within a power, but that would significantly change the scope of a number of powers so I would expect some kind of evidence in the rules to support it.

Given that there are multiple interrupts which trigger on a melee Hit, and this one does NOT use that wording, I think it is safe to assume that it works differently from those.

Or it could just be variation between writers. Or it could be an artifact from a previous version of the rules where there was a difference between triggers, but they didn't standardize the triggers because under the newer rules there wasn't any difference.

 

[Sirarbee]

If you use the Bracers of Escape after you've been targeted, can the creature then target someone else in range? Or does it use it's action while targeting you, wasting it's action for the turn?

 

[keterys]

Can't switch its target. Action is potentially wasted.

 

[Stumblewyk]

Quick question about when exactly the immediate interrupt is used with this item and also similar powers.

Bracers of Escape
Power (daily): Immediate Interrupt. You can use this power when you are the target of a melee attack. You teleport 2 squares.

Is it used before the attack roll or after?

Imagine it like this: Character A, wearing the Bracers of Escape is targeted by an attack. As the Terrible Beastie swings its axe/claws/gnashing teeth at Character A, he activates his Bracers of Escape, and teleports 2 squares backwards (hopefully out of the Terrible Beastie's reach). If he's out of the Terrible Beastie's reach, the Beastie's axe/claws/gnashing teeth pass through thin air, missing Character A.

Same question with Cavern Chokers Body Shield
Body Shield: Immediate Interrupt. When targeted by a melee or ranged attack ... cavern choker makes its grabbed victim the target instead.

So, before or after?

In this situation, it's resolved the same way. Only instead of the Cavern Choker warping out of the way of the attack, it interposes poor, hapless Character B into the way of Character A's precisely aimed strike. Character B's defenses are substituted for the Cavern Chokers, and could possibly take the damage instead.