Implements, feats, and delayed damage

kerbarian

Explorer
Do attack and damage bonuses apply to all rolls made as the result of a power, or only the initial attack and damage rolls?

Say a wizard with the Burning Blizzard feat and a magic orb +2 casts Bigby's Icy Grasp.

The orb says that you can "apply the enhancement bonus of the orb to the attack rolls and damage rolls of any of your powers ... that have the implement keyword..."

Also, Burning Blizzard gives "a +1 feat bonus to damage rolls when you use a power that has the acid or cold keyword."

Bigby's Icy Grasp has both the Implement and Cold keywords, so that's +2 to attack rolls and +3 to damage rolls.

That's pretty straightforward for the initial attack and damage. However, when you sustain Bigby's Icy Grasp, "A target grabbed by the hand takes 1d8 + Intelligence modifier cold damage..." Since it's a damage roll, does it get the +3 damage bonus? Or it might only be +2 -- does the "when you use a power" wording of the feat matter?

Also, "As a standard action, you can attack another target with the hand". Does that additional attack get the attack and damage bonuses?

What if you're no longer holding your implement when you sustain the spell or use it to make an additional attack?

Would the answers be different for a power like Mordenkainen's Sword, which says "When you sustain the sword, it attacks again."? i.e. does it matter if "you" attack or "it" attacks?

If you do get implement and feat damage bonuses on delayed damage rolls, that makes spells with variable additional damage significantly more potent than those with fixed additional damage (because "cold damage equal to your Intelligence modifier" and such are clearly not damage rolls).
 

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No one has any ideas on this?

I was thinking about this a little more, and whether or not an implement enhancement bonus applies to delayed damage seems like a significant issue for all of the caster classes, even at very low levels:

Cleric: Guardian of Faith (Lvl 1 daily)
Paladin: On Pain of Death (Lvl 1 daily)
Warlock: Curse of the Bloody Fangs (Lvl 5 daily)
Wizard: Flaming Sphere (Lvl 1 daily)

It can even be an issue for Fighters -- does their weapon enhancement apply to delayed damage from a power?

Fighter: Unyielding Avalanche (Lvl 15 daily)
 

Specific overrules general in 4E. I would say that since it says implement, add the implement bonus. The +1 cold damage feat would stack on it as well as it has the cold keyword as well.
 

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