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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tony Vargas" data-source="post: 4546782" data-attributes="member: 996">For powers like shield that allow the player to decide whether to use them /after/ a roll is made, yes, they should know the results of the roll.  If that hurst your suspension of disbelief, an easy alternative is to let the player use the power whenever it comes up, but it's only /expended/ if he works.DM: "The ogre savage swings his club down on you in a terriffic overhand smash, hitting you!"Player: "Argh! Shield!!"DM: (depending on how much the Ogre hit by):  A) "Your mystic shield shatters under the primal force of the ogre's blow..."  or B) "Splinters fly from the ogres club and it grunts in surprise as it realizes you are unharmed behind your shield of glowing mystic force."Player: if B, checks off/discards card/whatever, showing that his Shield has been expended this encounter, and his immediate interrupt for the turn is no longer availabe.  If A, he just records the damage, both the power and the interrupt action remain unexpended.This has the same net effect as letting the player know the AC hit by the attack roll.Your player is correct.  The way the power is written, it need only be expended when doing so would stop an attack from hitting.  What you're doing makes it possible - even likely - to expend the power for no benefit. While that may be the case with interrupts, in general, the specific cases of the Shield and Staff Mastery powers do, AFAICR, spell out that they can be used after attacks (and even damage, in one case, I think) are rolled.Many 4e powers work this way.  Striker bonus damage (SA, H'sQ, Curse), for instance, many magic items dailies, and so forth.Since the net effect of telling the player is that the power is only expended when successful, simply allow the character to 'attempt' to use the power, but only expend it when it succeeds.  That can be flavored like my example, above, or, by simply saying "you try to cast your shield but it's too late" if the attack hits by enough that the shield can't stop it.</blockquote>

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