What's the benefit of Pinioning Vortex?

[Rechan]

They'll also fall and end up prone on their next turn which sucks even more for them.

From the text:
It lands on its feet.

 

[James McMurray]

If it did falling damage, it'd be nice if it spelled that out, too.

It doesn't have to. The falling rules are already in the DMG.

It takes it out of play... for half a round. If it was "Until the end of its turn", you'd ahve a point. But the power lasts only from the Wizard's turn to the beginning of the monster's turn. That's not a lot of time for everyone to suddenly rush over and ready their actions.

Delay

But again, I say, that the dazed and immobilized condition is redundant since they do nothing.

There are some things that can only target you if you're dazed or immobile. They're usually monster abilities, but PCs aren't the only ones with access to wizard spells.

The power would do the exact same thing if the immobilized/dazed conditions were removed from the text. The power would still give CA, the monster would still be in the air until the beginning of its turn.

It wouldn't do the exact same thing, but it'd be close enough for most of the times it sees use.

If one readied Pinioning Vortex, then they would have to 'ready for the monster to move'. So the monster moves, they hit with teh Vortex, the monster is dazed... and still has its standard action. Since the monster is dazed (and can now take one action), it still has the standard to use.

If you're dazed you only get one action on your turn. If you've already taken an action, you're done.

Oh, and looked up slide, it specifically says theres no restriction on direction. Up it is! Slide powers now all get to do a bunch of d10 falling damage and automatic prone! Huzzah!

"Forced movement can’t move a target into a space it couldn’t enter by walking." PHB pg. 286

Unless it can walk on air, you won't be sliding it up.

We've got a house rule in place that lets you move creatures in a direction they could normally move, so fliers can be pushed higher into the air, swimmers deeper into the water, etc. But it's definitely a house rule, and it still wouldn't allow a slide straight up.

 

[Kwalish Kid]

I have to say that many of the complaints in this thread do not seem to coincide with 4E as I have played it. This power would be a very welcome addition to the fights that I have seen.

 

[webrunner]

I have to say that many of the complaints in this thread do not seem to coincide with 4E as I have played it. This power would be a very welcome addition to the fights that I have seen.

Would you mind explaining how? Daze+Immob are powerful, but not if they're explicitly not in effect during the monster's turn.

 

[Trevelyan]

Would you mind explaining how? Daze+Immob are powerful, but not if they're explicitly not in effect during the monster's turn.

Dazed prevents a monster from taking opportunity attacks, which in turn allows the rest of the party to get past/away from the target while he is suspended. As an added bonus they can take a pop at him with ranged weapons and combat advantage. And the damage isn't bad either.

Fighting, for example, Og from the Bordrin's Watch episode of the Scales of War campaign, this power is very useful. Og effectively has fighter marking powers and can keep a number of PCs pinned down in range of his close burst 1 attack. Pinioning Vortex would allow the PCs a chance to get out of range and regroup.

 

[Mistwell]

Are there not orbs that will allow you to extend the duration of a spell such as this to last an additional round, and might that not be the reason it is worded the way it is?

 

[Cadfan]

Pinioning Vortex mostly just isn't that great. Its ok, but not great.

Here's what it really does:

1. 2d6+Int damage to a single target at range.
2. Stops an enemy from making opportunity attacks.
3. Allows allies to move through that enemy's space until the target's next turn.
4. Grants a bonus to ranged attack rolls versus the foe until the target's next turn.

Its kind of like a power that does 2d6+Int and knocks the target prone, except that it boosts ranged attacks while penalizing melee, instead of vice versa.

Its not amazing, but its not trash. Its just a highly thematic pseudo form of knocking someone over.

 

[Mr. Teapot]

Levitate: Move 4 squares vertically...

Wall of Fog (and most walls, for that matter): It can be up to 8 squares long and up to 4 squares high.

I'm reading "readying an action" (PHB 291), and it doesn't seem like that would work.

A readied action is an immediate reaction. The text says "If you want to interrupt an ATTACK, your readied action should be triggered when the monster MOVES." So the monster moves, you attack, it attacks.

Or you could ready for "the monster starts its turn" or something. Then the monster starts its turn, Pinioning Vortex goes off and it flies up in the air before it can take any actions.

 

[Mr. Teapot]

First of all, it lifts the target 2 squares up in the air. So the only way to hit the target is with a ranged attack or a polearm.

You don't have to move someone the full distance for any Forced Movement powers. If you can push 3 squares with Thunderwave, you can choose to push them 2 squares or 1 square or no squares. So for Pinioning Vortex it might make sense to only slide them 1 square vertically, so that the Rogue can Sneak Attack them with CA.

 

[James McMurray]

You don't have to move someone the full distance for any Forced Movement powers. If you can push 3 squares with Thunderwave, you can choose to push them 2 squares or 1 square or no squares. So for Pinioning Vortex it might make sense to only slide them 1 square vertically, so that the Rogue can Sneak Attack them with CA.

Nice catch.