[Cleric] Bastion of Health vs. Cure Serious Wounds

[brehobit]

Do people agree that Bastion of Health provokes? Do people actually play it that way? Does it play a role in this decision for any of you?

Mark

 

[James McMurray]

Bastion of Health, as a ranged power, provokes. It's still a good power IMO, it just means you have to be smarter with it than you do Healing Word.

 

[Nifft]

Do people agree that Bastion of Health provokes? Do people actually play it that way? Does it play a role in this decision for any of you?

It's a Ranged power, right? So of course it provokes grants.

Sure, why not.

Yep, but balanced by the range.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Ander00]

Do people agree that Bastion of Health provokes? Do people actually play it that way? Does it play a role in this decision for any of you?

No, in our group we do not have utility powers provoke.

While the text on page 290 of the PHB says something about ranged and area powers, on page 268 it talks about ranged attacks and area attacks. The latter is also how it reads in the Mount and Rider section of the DMG, or rather, the errata thereof.

While the rules may be ambiguous, it certainly feels more right to us this way.


cheers

 

[Thanee]

All Ranged/Area actions provoke (since you do not fully concentrate on the threats around you, as you do with Melee/Close actions). That's how we play it.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Mengu]

No, in our group we do not have utility powers provoke.

Same here. I know it's not RAW, but I felt it was more in the spirit of the utility powers if they didn't provoke. I altered the rule so only ranged and area attack powers provoke opportunity attacks.

 

[James McMurray]

No, in our group we do not have utility powers provoke.

While the text on page 290 of the PHB says something about ranged and area powers, on page 268 it talks about ranged attacks and area attacks. The latter is also how it reads in the Mount and Rider section of the DMG, or rather, the errata thereof.

While the rules may be ambiguous, it certainly feels more right to us this way.


cheers

What is ambiguous about

Provoke Opportunity Attacks: If you use a ranged power while adjacent to an enemy, that enemy can make an opportunity attack against you.

 

[Ander00]

For starters, the section you quoted is devoted to attacks. There was an argument for keyword inheritance a while back, which wasn't too dissimilar and has since been dismissed by errata.

Further:

Opportunity attacks are triggered by an enemy leaving a square adjacent to you or by an adjacent enemy making a ranged attack or an area attack.

If you provoke an opportunity attack by making a ranged or an area attack...

Take the warlord, for example. Half his utility powers are ranged, yet everything else about the class demands you are in melee. You can do sit-ups or juggle with weapons in front of an enemy without provoking opportunity attacks, but if you dare to shout a command or wave your arm, you are unduly letting your guard down and will thus get stabbed in the face?

I'm not saying ours is the one true way, but the rules aren't as precise as they should be, and this feels right for us.


cheers

 

[James McMurray]

the wording is incredibly clear. Whether the rest of the section uses the word attack or not seems irrelevant. The section titled "provoking oppourtunity attacks" makes no distinction. Shouldn't it be the authority on what does and doesn't provoke?

 

[Ander00]

Should a bullet-point in the sections Ranged Attack and Area Attack be the authority on whether powers that are not attacks provoke opportunity attacks, when the section on Opportunity Actions says ranged and area attacks provoke? Not necessarily, in my opinion.

We're not going to convince each other, so let's not further spoil the thread by argument. Suffice to say, there are those of us who do not have utility powers provoke in their games, whether they call it a house-rule or not.


cheers