Charging and Movement

[ZebraCakes]

So, my friends and I are about to start a new campaign (starting at lvl 12), and we were reading the description on charge and are disagreeing about how it works. It can almost be read that movement for the charge is included IN the standard action, and still have a movement action left over (i.e. a warrior could move 5, then move an additional 5 to charge as part of a standard action). This frankly sounds incredibly broken and retarded to me, but I have been wrong before. What do you guys think?

 

[Maleketh]

You're both right and wrong. The movement for the charge is included as a part of the standard action. You can therefore spend a move action before making the charge, but since the charge ends your turn immediately, you can't take it after.

 

[Syrsuro]

As noted above, your friend is more right than wrong.

The move action (which can be a full movement) comes first, then the charge (which does include both an attack and movement) comes next and must be the last action you take (unless you spend an action point).

And as for 'broken and retarded' - why?

Essentially you are moving at twice your normal speed during the round in which you charge.

Kind of like, I dunno, charging?

Carl

 

[ZebraCakes]

It just feels to me like the double move part of it seems a little broken, but if that's how the rule works, i won't argue.

 

[Solodan]

THat's sorta how charging worked in the old "System which shall not be named lest I start an edition war threadjack"

You double moved, then attacked.

Charging is ok, but it has a lot of drawbacks - you only get to basic attack unless you have one of the special powers, its fairly hard to get the right position, you can't exactly circle around and flank like a normal move then attack can get.

Advantage: +1 to hit and double move. Hardly broken.

 

[Gruns]

Unbroken

Since other have already pointed out the answer to the orginal question regarding the plethora of movement, I'll ignore that part!
As for the brokenness, nah. In play, my players may charge one time to start that battle, and that's usually it. Occassionally they'll charge the controller or artillery hiding out away from the action, but not usually.
The benefits have been pointed out: +1 to attack, "double move".
The downsides have only been touched upon. The main thing is that have to use a Basic melee attack. This doesn't suit our Dex based Rogue very well. The other thing that was briefly mentioned was that Charging ends your turn. This doesn't sound like much, but it matters more then you'd think. Also, it's hard to charge past enemies without drawing OAs, but that's the same as most other forms of movement.
So in practice, charging is useful for the initial strike, but after that, it doesn't get used very often. There are a enough items and Feats around that you could design a character who's sole purpose in life is to charge as often as possible, though. And to preemptively answer the other usual question that comes up: An enemy usually has 3 squares that qualifiy as "the closest square" since diagonals don't cont as being further away in 4E.
Later!
Gruns

 

[abyssaldeath]

Charging only gives a +1 to a basic melee attack so if you couldn't do a double move there really wouldn't be much of a reason to even do it. It would be more beneficial to just move and use a at-will.

 

[Syrsuro]

Charging only gives a +1 to a basic melee attack so if you couldn't do a double move there really wouldn't be much of a reason to even do it. It would be more beneficial to just move and use a at-will.

Note: Although this is normally true, there are classes (e.g. Barbarian, Druid) which have at-will attacks that can be used in a charge. This does make charges more useful for those specific classes.

Carl

 

[ZebraCakes]

Yeah, I can see how it works, now. Thanks a lot, guys!