Backstab and free action timing.

[Festivus]

Mind if I ask where the re-roll is coming from? I don't see where you're pulling that from.

As it's written it's far more like a better version of the new Human Racial.

Gah, missed that. Damn rules minutia. Yep, you are right, it isn't a reroll, and in that case my ruling would be that you could add the +3 to the roll for backstab after the roll. So I reverse my statment

 

[NMcCoy]

Note that the HotFL reworded Backstab from the Red Box version, making it much clearer (to me at least) that you activate Backstab before the attack roll.

 

[jimmifett]

Note that the HotFL reworded Backstab from the Red Box version, making it much clearer (to me at least) that you activate Backstab before the attack roll.

Looking at pg 175
Free Action
Trigger: You make an attack roll against an enemy within 5 squares of you using a basic attack with a weapon. The Enemy must be granting combat advantage to you.

So, if we break that trigger down into a check list:

1) Make an attack roll.
2) Enemy within 5.
3) Use weapon.
4) Basic Attack.
5) Enemy must grant you combat advantage.

If items 2-5 are all valid, then you can declare backstab after making an attack roll, but before you tell the DM the total of your roll plus bonuses and before he tells you if you hit or miss.

You have to actually make the attack roll to generate the triggerable conditions.

Contrast with Assassin's Shroud Effect paragraph 2:
Before you make an attack roll against the target, you choose to invoke either all your shrouds on it or none of them.

This is a clearly spelled out case of declaring before an attack roll. Otherwise, just triggering on "Make an Attack Roll" with a free action occurs after the die is rolled, and before hit or miss against a target is determined.

 

[RLBURNSIDE]

Yes, a trigger needs the precondition met a priori. So you not only CAN, but MUST roll the the dice before actually using the Backstab. The rule itself appears to say nothing about the moment you must form in your mind the intent to use it, or even the declaration you will use it, to the DM.

/at least in how it's written above. The english language and basic logic are not the property of a gaming company, or mutable to their whims. Let's resist double-talk or double-think in rules. The clearer they are, the less arguments there should be.

A lot of the errata reduce complex multi-sentence clauses to a single, terse and immediately clear phrase. They should have hired people with these types of language skills from the very beginning, at least as an editor. So many threads could have been avoided.