Counterattack?

[Nifft]

Yes. However, there seemed to be a question over whether that ranged AoO was because the goblin took a shot, or because it shot and missed.

I thought it said "missed but triggered", which would imply that it was the attack's action which triggered the counter attack, rather than the attack's result.

Cheers, -- N

PS: Yay more Immediate actions! One of my favorite innovations of 3.5e Psionics.

 

[kinem]

Kinem, Karinsdad - ridicule isn't appropriate discussion in this thread. Please desist.

Plane Sailing - I wasn't 'ridiculing' anything, just stating the facts. It's the proposed new 4e rules that are ridiculous. There's still a chance they could change these things before the new edition comes out, which is why we have to make our voices heard now.

Prevention of criticism of WotC isn't appropriate moderation in this forum. Please desist.

Note, the same is true for AoO, except that they only work in melee.

To rationalize such abilities away: It's a pump of adrenaline. The Dragon is reduced to half hp, his body reacts by putting even more adrenaline out, which in case of Dragons also means that he can spit fire again.
The Ranger was nearly hit, so his body pumps out a sudden jump of adrenaline, and he uses it (instinctively) to fire a counter attack (if he was hit, the same should have happened, except that the hit means the adrenaline is used for something else...)

AOO's make some sense, because the number of swings you can make with a melee weapon in a round isn't the limiting factor in how many 'attacks' you make with it. You are assumed to be constantly testing the enemy's defenses, coming at him, swinging, etc. So it's reasonable that if he does something that leaves himself more open to attack, you have an extra chance to make a swing that could hit him.

With ranged weapons it is different. If when you are attacking flat out you only have the ability to aim and fire two shots per round, then no 'surge of adrenaline' is going to improve that, because that would mean you are holding back in your 'normal' attack mode. If anything, getting shot at might give you a chance to get rattled and drop your weapon. And why shouldn't the ranger have a surge of adrenaline when his friends are being shot at instead of himself?

In the case of the dragon, a specific hp trigger just doesn't make sense. Even with the dubious 'more adrenaline = more fire breath' idea, that should kick in when he realizes he's in trouble, not when a summoned dire rat bites him for 1 hp and puts him under the threshold. So, his state of mind (roleplaying) should have control over it. I would probably change this extra breath to a 1/day or 1/encounter ability that he can use as a free action, and perhaps rationize it as an extra sack of combustible chemicals (or whatever) that he can open in his fire-breath-production physiology.

 

[kinem]

BTW, has anyone here played in situations with a lot of immediate actions? I haven't, but it seems to me that they could slow down play, if everyone acts more than once a round. It might, however, help maintain interest as you look for your chance to jump in.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Prevention of criticism of WotC isn't appropriate moderation in this forum. Please desist.

Welcome to a 3 day ban. Dissing moderators and ignoring their instructions is a BAD idea.

 

[Warbringer]

So, probably stating the obvious, but it sound slike AoOs are gone...rather they are now immediate actions.

I expect that we'll see see in feat descriptions and ability descriptions and indication ...

Rapid Shot

Benefit: The hero gains an additional attack with a bow missile weapon. Further, any time the hero can use an immediate action the hero can make a single attack.

For simplicity i expect the -2 to disappear from the rapid shot/multi shot progressions.

We now have a list of when heroes can perform immediate actions...

 

[Plane Sailing]

So, probably stating the obvious, but it sound slike AoOs are gone...rather they are now immediate actions.

FWIW Chris Perkins blog says (my emphasis)

The 4E game system also speeds up round-by-round combat by smoothing out some of the clunky or less-intuitive mechanics. For example, we've made attacks of opportunity dirt-simple by reducing the number of things that provoke AoOs and keeping the list short, intuitive, and free of exceptions. We've also made it so that no single player's turn takes a lot longer than any other player's turn by eliminating things that cause players to stall on their turns (the shapechange spell as currently written is a fine example).