I'm sorry if these have been dealt with before here, but I'd be really grateful for any answers to these:
1 - It seems that Rogues are incredibly powerful because of how easy it is to hide. This comes about for two reasons: first it seems very easy to obtain cover (it would appear from our understanding that the Rogue can just hide behind an ally, if necessary!). Secondly, in their turn the Rogue can take their Move action first, hide with a Stealth roll, then Sneak Attack, and the enemy is forced to use their Passive Perception against the Rogue's Stealth roll because using their active Perception would require an action and they have no time to take actions between the hiding and the attack.
Is this really how Rogues are intended to play - Sneak Attack almost every round?
Ready two actions, "when the rogue moves, i will spot (minor), and attack (std)", you active roll stealth, and get to strike first as it's a reaction to his move before his attack.
2 - Are we correct in thinking that if a Wizard centres a burst on an empty square with cover, that all of the attack rolls made on creatures in the burst are made with the cover modifier applicable to targeting the empty square, even if the creature themselves - if targeted by the wizard - would not be in cover? We have found the Wizard in our party relatively weak because, since he can no longer use the trick of shooting behind an enemy to avoid backwash from an area effect, it's very difficult to place him so that he can use powers without hurting allies.
House rule - Allies cannot hurt each other. Wizards dropping fireball in combat, no problem now, and everyone get's along. we dont consider it to be unbalancing either in playtesting so far. targeting behind the wall is ok too, and yes, it would remove cover bonuses, that's the point of hand-grenades.
3 - Opening a door is a minor action, it seemed to us that this would mean that you cannot move 2 squares, open a door, then move the rest of your Speed - because when you opened the door, you started your Minor action, and so ended your Move action. Is this right? It seems a bit silly in this case.
House rule- you can keep moving. of course, i'd look behind the open door first to see what's readying to spring out at you.
4 - If a PC is directly North of a blocking obstacle and an enemy is directly West of the same blocking obstacle then by the rules, they have cover for Ranged attacks on each other (at least one corner is blocked) but not for melee. But in this case the PC does not want to attack the enemy, they only want not to be seen, so no attack will be made in either range or melee. How then is it established which cover rule is in force? Can the PC hide or not?
No cover in melee distance = no stealth. stealthy against wall, mob at distance = stealth.
5 - Is a PC allowed to simply grab another PC and Pull or Push them? (Ie, can a PC push an immobilized ally out of danger?) Is it a Grab check and what's the modifier for the target being willing?
Dont see why not, i dont have book with me, but it would be similar to coup-de-grace targeting, or prone for example.
6 - A PC is "dying" at the end of a combat. No healing potions are available. The dying PC has healing surges available. Other characters can spend their own healing surges in the short rest but it appears (we might be wrong) the dying character can't do this since they can take no actions. The party Cleric has powers which could allow him to heal the dying PC by using one of the dying PC's healing surges on his behalf, but they are encounter powers and the Cleric used them all up in the actual battle. Does this mean that the PC must roll 5 minutes' (50 rounds?) worth of Death Saves to see if he survives long enough for the Cleric to get his powers back?
End of combat, anyone can spend surges. Allies are assumed to give aid during the rest.
7 - The ability "potent challenge" gives a fighter a bonus to AOs granted by his Challenge ability. This seems bizarre as it would imply that if an enemy is marked by a Fighter with potent challenge, then the enemy shifts away from the fighter, they take an OA powered up by Potent Challenge; but, if the enemy simply moves away, they take a non-powered-up OA because that OA wasn't granted by the Challenge ability, it was just a regular OA that anyone would get. It always seemed a bit weird that Fighter's Challenge had the "AO on shift, so mise well move" effect and this seems to make it even more pronounced. Is this correct?
Fighters challenge ability is not an Opportunity Attack, it is an immediate interrupt attack. Shifting does not provoke an OA, but will trigger the fighters challenge.
