Readying Tide of Iron

[Al'Kelhar]

Hi guys, a little rules question.

My fighter has Tide of Iron and is able to push 2 squares with it (craghammer + bludegon expertise feat).

Instead of attacking on his turn, he readies Tide of Iron with a trigger along the lines of "I attack with Tide of Iron if any enemy adjacent to me makes a melee attack".

Assume his readied action is triggered, he hits, and he pushes the target 2 squares to a square where it cannot make a valid melee attack from (e.g. all targets are out of reach). The target effectively loses its standard action for the round.

Given Tide of Iron is an at-will, in theory my fighter could do this every round, in effect preventing a melee-only enemy from ever getting in an attack.

Is there something I'm missing in this analysis, that would prevent the above from working?

Cheers, Ak'Kelhar

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

The enemy could move or shift away from you (difficult if you've marked him, easier if you haven't). This is just an extension of your ability to defend other party members though.

Of course, it gets faintly ridiculous (well, off-role) if someone attacks you and you push them away, but it's a valid tactic.

To do this, you have to give up using a more powerful attack.

An Essentials fighter (Knight) with Hammer Hands can do the same thing as a regular opportunity attack. Yowza! Since all of their abilities (eg Power Strike, Staggering Hammer) add on to basic attacks, a knight could immobilize an opponent and push them away a few times per encounter with opportunity attacks.

I haven't looked at the rules for readying an action in forever. Are they immediate interrupts, or just reactions? I think they're interrupts. I also wonder if the enemy in that example could just charge. I think not.

 

[Obryn]

A readied action works as a reaction, not an interrupt. The enemy's attack will conclude before your Tide of Iron is triggered.

-O

 

[the Jester]

A readied action works as a reaction, not an interrupt. The enemy's attack will conclude before your Tide of Iron is triggered.

-O

This is correct.

 

[Al'Kelhar]

A readied action works as a reaction, not an interrupt. The enemy's attack will conclude before your Tide of Iron is triggered.

-O

Eh? We'd always played a readied action as an immediate interrupt. But on examination of the DDI glossary, I see you are in fact correct. Consequently that tactic won't work!

Cheers, Al'Kelhar

 

[Ryujin]

Eh? We'd always played a readied action as an immediate interrupt. But on examination of the DDI glossary, I see you are in fact correct. Consequently that tactic won't work!

Cheers, Al'Kelhar

You could, however, ready the action based on an opponent moving adjacent to you, which could screw over his attack.

 

[Deverash]

While you could ready an action triggered by an enemy moving adjacent to you, if he still has movement remaining, he could then take additional movement to continue, possibly moving adjacent to you again. Or even using your push as additional movement to get somewhere he couldn't reach otherwise!

It's a good tactic, though, for enemies farther away.

 

[Ryujin]

While you could ready an action triggered by an enemy moving adjacent to you, if he still has movement remaining, he could then take additional movement to continue, possibly moving adjacent to you again. Or even using your push as additional movement to get somewhere he couldn't reach otherwise!

It's a good tactic, though, for enemies farther away.

That's exactly why I said "could screw his attack" rather than "will screw his attack"

 

[Paxter]

Also, as he could only take the one immediate action per round, only the first attack could be nullified this way. The four other brutes can walk right up and wail on him!!

 

[AntiStateQuixote]

Also, also, pretty much nullifies his Combat Challenge power since he can only take one immediate action per round. If he's always readying an action, then he's always got his immediate action consumed by his own standard action.