Cleric - Guardian of Faith

[Metus]

So I was looking at running a D&D 4E game with some friends, and one of them had chose Guardian of Faith for the cleric. I commented how I thought that ability was pretty crappy. However, a scenario was brought up that made me very uncomfortable.

What happens when a cleric summons a guardian of faith in a hallway that is 5 feet wide, and places it in front of the party, with enemies beyond it? Does that now force all enemies to either go ranged attack or die? I don't think they can move past it.

 

[Metus]

Aaaanddd I posted this in the wrong forum. If a moderator sees this, feel free to move it to rules.

 

[Xsjado]

It only affects those who end their turn next to the guardian. So in a hall of width 5 they can easily move past it on the outer edges or go straight through if their move will take them beyond the guardian. It isn't much of a big deal at all and they won't die they just take some damage and then only if hit. There are too many conditions for this to completely disrupt the encounter. Not only that, the cleric is hampered because he needs to use his move action to shift the guardian around.

Fake EDIT: Hall of width 5 feet is one square, why are you even trying to mount an encounter in that situation? Surely it should take place at a point where the passage opens up.

 

[Sitara]

Actually guardian of faith just screams exploitability to me. Imagine if you have more than 1 cleric, each of whom use it simultaneously.

 

[Xsjado]

Oh noes they might take d8+wis mod damage!11!one

Seriously, its an extra ongoing damage source that is easy to avoid. It opens up some tactical options for the players by allowing them to put pressure on the enemy from angles that wouldn't otherwise be possible. Its not game breaking and its a daily so they can still only use it once every 4-5 encounters anyway. It can't be used to effectively block movement because unless you are stupid enough to stack up enemies in a narrow corridor then its easy to move around them. There are tons of other powers available to PCs that can deal with that situation effectively.

I think people are looking too hard for faults now and aren't thinking through the scenarios.

 

[Roger]

I don't think they can move past it.

What makes you think that?

EDIT: Oh -- probably pg 59 of the PHB, under the section on 'Conjurations.' Whoops. So, yeah, apparently by RAW, they can't move through it.

As a DM I would tend to have the monsters conclude this would be a good time to fall back, run away, and engage the threat in a different location.


Cheers,
Roger

 

[Metus]

Oh noes they might take d8+wis mod damage!11!one

It can't be used to effectively block movement because unless you are stupid enough to stack up enemies in a narrow corridor then its easy to move around them.

Easy there, hoss. A player was the one who brought up such an exploit, and so it worries me that they might rely on funneling enemies down a narrow corridor. And yes, enemies can run away/have ranged attacks/etc, etc, but it's still an exploitable situation.

Consider if they are fighting unintelligent zombies - or really any unintelligent creature, which have no ranged attacks. With having concluded from the rules that you cannot move through the guardian of faith, they can now wipe out all the zombies without taking a scratch or breaking a sweat. That seems like a very real problem to me, and I'm sure I'm overlooking other exploits that can/will occur with the guardian.

Seems very broken.

 

[Terwox]

This is hardly broken.

Even in zombie movies with extra-stupid zombies, not all the zombies fling themselves to their doom to get at the humans. They watch some of the others do it, then do something else.

Goblins and anyone else, if they're at a disadvantage in a ranged fight, will simply take cover if they're smart enough.