'First Attack Roll of the Round'

[Kinneus]

I had a DM I've just started playing with making a rather surprising ruling today. He said that the Sorcerer's Unfettered Power only activates on the first attack roll of the round. So, if you made an area attack, and the first attack you rolled a 15, and the second attack you rolled a 20, and the third you rolled a 1, Unfettered Power wouldn't activate.
His reasonng for this was: "This is the way every other ability like this in the game works... like Sneak Attack."
The Rogue and I exchanged worried looks. Where does it say Sneak Attack only activates on the first attack roll of the round? That's kind of why Rogues -have- action points, isn't it? To try again at getting their SA?'
Is the DM way off here, or am I missing something?

 

[Nifft]

Your DM is way off.
The official errata ought to clarify things for him.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Doctor Proctor]

Well, with sneak attack it doesn't work on the first roll, but it only works once per round. So yes, most of the time it will be the first roll, but it's just as easy for the Rogue to roll one attack, miss, and then burn an action point to attack again, hit, and apply his sneak attack damage.

 

[Keenath]

Your DM can rule what he likes, but that's not what the text of the ability says. There's been no update or faq clarification on this, so we have to assume the book text is correct:
When you roll a 20 on an attack roll -- any attack roll, regardless of how many others you've made -- you slide and knock down the target. You only do that to the target you rolled the 20 against, not every target the power hits (which may be a source of confusion for your DM).

Personally, I can see no reason to put in a limitation like this.

 

[Saeviomagy]

Well, with sneak attack it doesn't work on the first roll, but it only works once per round. So yes, most of the time it will be the first roll, but it's just as easy for the Rogue to roll one attack, miss, and then burn an action point to attack again, hit, and apply his sneak attack damage.

It's a bit better than that: on an AOE, the rogue can roll all the attacks and the AOE damage, THEN choose one of the targets to apply sneak attack to, meaning he can choose a target that he (for instance) critically hit. The same goes for warlocks and rangers.

But yeah - the sorceror's power is nothing like that. There's no "once per round" or any other text to indicate that it works like that. If it did work like that, it would specifically say so (ie - see the feat in the phb that says "on a crit, recharge an encounter power").

 

[DracoSuave]

Yes, he's confusing the ability Chaos Burst (which -only- counts the first attack roll each round) with Unfettered Power.

 

[baberg]

Yes, he's confusing the ability Chaos Burst (which -only- counts the first attack roll each round) with Unfettered Power.

I agree with this. I think he's misreading things and lumping together all of the Wild Magic powers. The text of Unfettered Power has nothing to do with "first attack roll".

Tell your DM he's wrong (POLITELY!) and point out the difference in text between Chaos Burst (which explicitly says it's only on the first roll) and then compare that to Unfettered Power. You could also bring up the critical hit rules which, if his interpretation is correct, means that you can only crit on the first attack roll in an Area attack which would hopefully be so jarring as to bring him to his senses.

 

[MortalPlague]

"This is the way every other ability like this in the game works... like Sneak Attack."

Your DM might be thinking of the rogue's "First Strike" ability, which allows him to have combat advantage against people who haven't yet acted in combat. Thus the rogue's first turn gives him a free sneak attack if he hits.