Goblin Warrior's Mobile Ranged Attack

[stevelabny]

Mobile Ranged Attack (standard; at-will)

The goblin warrior can move up to half its speed; at any point during that movement, it can make one ranged basic attack without provoking an opportunity attack.


So, what exactly is not provoking the attack of opportunity? The move, the ranged attack or both?

If the goblin starts his turn adjacent to a PC, moves back 3 squares to be adjacent to a second PC and throws his javelin, does either PC get an opportunity attack?

My original ruling was that neither provoked, then a player tried to convince me it was only the shot that didn't provoke, but after a brief thinking it out and discussion witht he whole table, we decided that neither provoked.


Reading the words, I feel the semi-colon in the text implies that only the ranged attack doesn't provoke an OA, but the move still would provoke normally.

Thinking about it from an in-game perspective, if the move provokes, what's the point? How often would moving 3 boxes with a ranged attack in the middle while adjacent to an enemy actually seem like a good idea? 3 boxes means you were either adjacent to an enemy when you started, and the move would provoke, or you ended adjacent to an enemy, and now you're gonna get nailed anyway.


Typing this out loud is continuing to convince me we made the right call that neither provokes, but how has everyone else been running it?

 

[Mengu]

Movement provokes opportunity attacks. Range attacks also provoke opportunity attacks. I think the Mobile Ranged Attack eliminates the opportunity attack provoked by the range attack. Movement still provokes. Otherwise instead of "move up to half its speed", they would have said "shift up to half its speed".

Remember this is a standard action. So there is nothing to stop the Goblin from moving or shifting before or after the Mobile Ranged Attack.

 

[Ulthwithian]

On this ability, I can tell you that my group definitely does not underestimate these guys. Javelins == bad news. With 2 Leaders in the group, it's 'burst damage' that can drop characters. With 3 of these guys, I've done over 20 damage in one turn to one person, on one initiative.

This is one little gem of a creature.

 

[stevelabny]

Okay. Fine. That sounds right. Thank you Mengu.

I did pick up on (but neglected to mention in my post) the fact that they specifically didn't use the word SHIFT.

What I didn't do was add 2+2 and realize that the 3 box move is part of a standard action, and that therefore you could use your move action to shift first to avoid the first provocation.

Probably because I was over-shifting the other creatures after three battles with kobolds who shift as a minor action.

Dear Game Designers: Bad idea to have the first 3 fights in the basic module have every bad guy able to shift as a minor action, cuz then I'll spend the next 2 sessions re-learning that trick is only for kobolds.

 

[Mengu]

What I didn't do was add 2+2 and realize that the 3 box move is part of a standard action, and that therefore you could use your move action to shift first to avoid the first provocation.

On another note, conveniently, this is just enough movement to be able to use great position.

 

[questing gm]

So the goblin may shift one square away from the PC with it's move action, use its Mobile Ranged Attack power to move 3 squares away (now being 4 squares away from the PC) and throw its javelin (Standard Action), all without provoking OA (and still have a Minor Action remaining)?

 

[Donatello]

So the goblin may shift one square away from the PC with it's move action, use its Mobile Ranged Attack power to move 3 squares away (now being 4 squares away from the PC) and throw its javelin (Standard Action), all without provoking OA (and still have a Minor Action remaining)?

Yes, exactly.

 

[Mengu]

So the goblin may shift one square away from the PC with it's move action, use its Mobile Ranged Attack power to move 3 squares away (now being 4 squares away from the PC) and throw its javelin (Standard Action), all without provoking OA (and still have a Minor Action remaining)?

And he would be wise (not that goblins always are) to use that minor action to ready another weapon. Or he could use it to dance a jig.