Brushing up on some rules... it's been a while

[Argyle King]

As the title indicates, I've recently become a player in a D&D 4E campaign. While I have played the system, and at one time played it quite a bit, it's been quite a while since I've played it regularly. As such, I'm a little fuzzy on some of the rules. Any help would be appreciated. For what it's worth, the use of the 4E errata is hit or miss in the group I'm in. I'm aware that the new monster math and a few other things are being used, but I'm also aware that the group doesn't follow the errata very closely; as such, some parts of the game are functioning as they originally did.


Multiclassing
When I multiclass, do I gain any of the weapon and armor proficiencies of the second class?


Commander's Strike critical hit
Commander's Strike (warlord power) has the weapon keyword. As such, it would appear that if the attack granted is a critical hit that the weapon of the warlord would have it's critical property activated. Currently, the group has ruled that is the case, and that ruling does make sense to me, but I was curious if the question had ever been given a more official answer.


Telepathic communication and understanding
I've noticed that many players seem to believe having the ability to communicate telepathically automatically means they can understand everything without regard for language. To me, telepathy implies a method of speech, but does not necessarily imply a shared language. I don't view telepathy and mind reading as being necessarily the same thing. Even if someone were reading my mind, it seems reasonable that I could make myself think in a language they do not understand. What does telepathy actually allow in 4E? Automatic understanding of everything? ...or would the telepathic character still need to understand the language of the target?

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Multiclassing feats give only the benefits listed. If it doesn't say you gain a weapon proficiency, you do not gain it.

Commander's Strike is just oddly written. It should look more like Direct the Strike. Sorry I can't help you with this one.

There are monsters that only have telepathy as a language. IMO, it gives understanding of all languages, but only to what you're communicating with.

 

[sabrinathecat]

Commander's Strike Crits should activate the crit property of the person being used, not the Warlord. Well, my opinion, anyway. The reason it has the weapon keyword is because it uses the other person's melee attack

 

[captpike]

Commander's Strike critical hit
Commander's Strike (warlord power) has the weapon keyword. As such, it would appear that if the attack granted is a critical hit that the weapon of the warlord would have it's critical property activated. Currently, the group has ruled that is the case, and that ruling does make sense to me, but I was curious if the question had ever been given a more official answer.

I believe that crit damage is considered to be extra damage, and as such you must first do damage to gain it. because commander's striker does not do damage you cant do crit damage with it.

Telepathic communication and understanding
I've noticed that many players seem to believe having the ability to communicate telepathically automatically means they can understand everything without regard for language. To me, telepathy implies a method of speech, but does not necessarily imply a shared language. I don't view telepathy and mind reading as being necessarily the same thing. Even if someone were reading my mind, it seems reasonable that I could make myself think in a language they do not understand. What does telepathy actually allow in 4E? Automatic understanding of everything? ...or would the telepathic character still need to understand the language of the target?

telepathy in 4e is a language with its own properties, a telepathic person can use it to communicate with anyone within their range, so long as the person agrees to it, anyone can then in turn communicate with a telepathic person, so long as the telepathic person agrees to receive it.

it is more like a radio with a small range and a universal translator then anything else. it would serve very little purpose if you had to share a language with the person you are trying to talk to.

 

[the Jester]

Multiclassing feats give only the benefits listed. If it doesn't say you gain a weapon proficiency, you do not gain it.

This is exactly correct.

Telepathy: A creature that ahs telepathy can communicate mentally with any creature that has a language, even if they don't share the language.... Telepathy allows for two-way communication.

So that's that one...

Commander's Strike Crits should activate the crit property of the person being used, not the Warlord. Well, my opinion, anyway. The reason it has the weapon keyword is because it uses the other person's melee attack

Although not clear by the RAW, this is how I read Commander's Strike, too.

 

[sabrinathecat]

OK, here's a new question.
Monster has a power that says it can shift 3 before or after making a double-attack. My fighter has it marked. It shifts, I hit it with a fighter-challenge attack. Because of feats I have stacked on, my fighter challenge pushes, when I push I slow, when I slow, I daze.
Is the monster's attack power halted because I dazed it while it was shifting? Does it only get one of the double-attacks? Does it get the full shift+double attack action, and nothing more? It had reach2, so I couldn't push it out of range of the two people it was trying to attack (though it would have been great to do so).

 

[captpike]

OK, here's a new question.
Monster has a power that says it can shift 3 before or after making a double-attack. My fighter has it marked. It shifts, I hit it with a fighter-challenge attack. Because of feats I have stacked on, my fighter challenge pushes, when I push I slow, when I slow, I daze.
Is the monster's attack power halted because I dazed it while it was shifting? Does it only get one of the double-attacks? Does it get the full shift+double attack action, and nothing more? It had reach2, so I couldn't push it out of range of the two people it was trying to attack (though it would have been great to do so).

I think this is one of those things that is undefined, what happens if you daze in the middle of an action when the target has already taken another action.

the way I have always played it is that the action is always finished, so it gets both attacks and the shifts, so long as those were what triggered the daze.

the other option is that the power stops right there because the power became invalid.

 

[D'karr]

OK, here's a new question.
Monster has a power that says it can shift 3 before or after making a double-attack. My fighter has it marked. It shifts, I hit it with a fighter-challenge attack. Because of feats I have stacked on, my fighter challenge pushes, when I push I slow, when I slow, I daze.
Is the monster's attack power halted because I dazed it while it was shifting? Does it only get one of the double-attacks? Does it get the full shift+double attack action, and nothing more? It had reach2, so I couldn't push it out of range of the two people it was trying to attack (though it would have been great to do so).

In the case of powers that combine movement and attacks, dazed really has no effect, because the move and attack are all "one single action". It would be like applying dazed to "Twin Strike", the character still gets two attacks. Powers that slow, normally halt "moves" if the target has moved more than 2 squares. However, powers that allow longer sized shifts (2+ squares) are normally not tied to a character's speed but to a static number of squares.

So in this case I'd rule that the action proceeds something like this:
Monster takes 1st square of shift, fighter attacks with challenge(all effects come into play). The monster is pushed, slowed, and now dazed. It's speed is now 2 and can take one action. It has only moved 1, but shifts from powers are usually not based on speed and in this case the power is a move and attack as "one" action. So the monster can now continue its shift (2 more squares), and attack.

That would be my ruling on that one. Others can do so differently ("no more shift", or "shift or attack") but I think that ruling is what sticks closest to the intent of the rules. If the power knocked prone instead it would be obvious that the move from the attack is interrupted because you can't shift while prone, but the monster could still attack if wanted (reach 2).