Does Divine Challenge provoke an OA?

[bardolph]

Technically, it's a Close Burst 10, therefore an area attack, therefore it provokes an Opportunity Attack. Right? Furthermore, the Radiant Damage aspect only lasts until the start of the paladin's next turn, right?

So, let me run through an example.

A paladin uses Divine Challenge, moves to engage, then attacks. The creature attacks the paladin. Next turn, the paladin simply attacks (he doesn't want to challenge again because it would provoke an AO).

On the creature's next turn, he decides to attack someone else. The creature gets a -2 to attack because it is still marked, but does not take any radiant damage because the paladin has already had a turn after issuing the Divine Challenge.

Is this correct?

If this is the case, then Divine Challenge isn't as good as I thought.

EDIT: Hmm... since Divine Challenge isn't an Area attack, I suppose it doesn't provoke... I guess I answered my own question!

 

[Victoly]

Technically it's close burst 5, actually. The important thing to note, however, is that powers with the "close" keyword don't provoke OAs.

Also, there was a fairly long thread debating whether or not the radiant damage would happen on subsequent turns after the first. Personally my vote's for the radiant damage being possible once per round so long as the mark lasts (the strange wording just trying to explain that it can only happen to a monster once per round, not trying to suggest that it ends after one round), and last I checked the thread that was the response someone from WotC gave. Feel free to play it however you like, though.

 

[GoLu]

What Victoly said. Close is not area. They are different keywords and mean different things.

edit:

Yes, the radiant damage goes away if not used by the start of the paladin's next turn. On the other hand, divine challenge is an at will minor action, so it is triviai to keep it up on someone as long as you can continuously engage them.

edit2:

Bleh, no it's not. I figured that out yesterday but enworld was taking a while to load. In the special section, the one that talks about how it's only called a challenge but you don't need to speak the same language as the target, etc., etc., it also says that you can't use the challenge on someone already affected by your challenge. So I guess you could swap it back and forth between two creatures while engaging them both, or something complicated like that.

Still, the primary problem with this ability seems to be as follows: it's really damn complicated. Seriously. It's HUGE compared to other paladin abilities, and contains sentences like "Also, it takes radiant damage equal to 3 + your Charisma modifier the first time it makes an attack that doesn't include you as a target before the start of your next turn."

 

[bardolph]

Technically it's close burst 5, actually. The important thing to note, however, is that powers with the "close" keyword don't provoke OAs.

Ah, I see. That was sneaky of WotC to make "close" different than "area"

 

[Staffan]

Close : Area :: Melee : Ranged.
: :: :

 

[Dan'L]

Personally my vote's for the radiant damage being possible once per round so long as the mark lasts (the strange wording just trying to explain that it can only happen to a monster once per round, not trying to suggest that it ends after one round), and last I checked the thread that was the response someone from WotC gave. Feel free to play it however you like, though.

Yes, my understanding is that it is essentially:

On your turn you must sustain your Divine Challenge against the target you challenged, or challenge a different target. If you do neither by the end of your turn, the marked condition ends and you can't use Divine Challenge on your next turn.
Sustain Special: In order to sustain your Divine Challenge, you must either attack the marked target or end your turn adjacent to it.

-Dan'L

 

[Mort_Q]

Ah, I see. That was sneaky of WotC to make "close" different than "area"

I'm not sure sneaky is the right word.

Once you get them straight in your head, the keywords are very nice.

Burst and Blasts are shapes. Close and Area are attack types.