Making sense of rogue powers

[On Puget Sound]

I'm working up a level 5 rogue and having trouble wrapping my head around what these feats apparently let me do. I'm using daggers for both ranged and melee.

The first power seems like it might be missing a word:

Lv 5 Daily: Clever Riposte Melee weapon. You must be wielding a light blade.....Effect: Until the end of the encounter, the target takes damage equal to your Dexterity modifier each time it attacks you, and you can shift as an immediate reaction after such an attack.

Does this really mean that if I swat an enemy warlock with this, he winces and gets poked even if he's blasting me from across the battlefield? Somehow that seems wrong. Should this effect be restricted to incoming melee attacks?



The second power has an obvious common sense ruling, but the rules are sketchy enough that I think WotC should include it in their errata.

Lv1 Daily: Blinding Barrage Close Blast 3. You must be wielding a crossbow, a light thrown weapon, or a sling. Target: each enemy in blast you can see.

and on page 270 we have

RANGED ATTACK.... if you're using thrown weapons, you need one for each target.

(no exception noted here for magic weapons)

and on page 232:

Any magic light thrown or heavy thrown weapon automatically returns to its wielder's hand after a ranged attack with the weapon is resolved. Catching a returning thrown weapon is a free action.

one more, page 217 weapon properties:

Light thrown weapons don't deal as much damage...but some powers let you hurl several of them at once or in rapid succession.

observations: Blinding Barrage is not a ranged attack.
My reading of this is that if my daggers are non-magical I need to carry 9 of them, to hit every possible target in the blast area, and the text on page 217 gives me a Quick Draw effect when using this daily power. If I have a magical dagger, we should pretend the "ranged attack" line on page 232 isn't really meant to be exclusive, and assume the dagger returns and is rethrown several times during the round, or bounces from foe to foe if that's more cinematic. The alternative is to carry a LOT of magic daggers, which would make thrown magic weapons seriously nerfed compared to bows. Or am I missing something?

 

[Mouseferatu]

I'm playing a rogue in my own game, and both these issues came up.

1) Yes, we ruled that it had to be a melee attack. (Exception: If the target was making a ranged, close, or area attack against me while adjacent to me, we ruled that qualified as well.)

2) We've taken the "always returns after resolving the attack" bit for magic thrown weapons to mean that you only need one when making attacks like blinding barrage. Any other ruling makes magic thrown weapons woefully inferior to magic missile weapons.

 

[VannATLC]

1 (Melee keyword requires melee range, if no altertative area is listed.)

2 - There is a thread covering blinding barrage. Regardless, you need 9 non-magic daggers, or 1 magic dagger.

You've an interesting point about the lack of ranged keyword. I'll need to compare close blasts of different classes, see if some have range, others don't.

 

[On Puget Sound]

Yes, the power has the melee keyword, so it can only be delivered in melee range. The problem is the ongoing "for the rest of the encounter" effect, whcih does NOT specify that the target only takes damage if it hits you in melee. I think it should, in the name of common sense, but I'm not sure if it balances as a level 5 daily with that restriction.

 

[Spatula]

nevermind, thought you were talking about the at-will riposte power.

 

[Plane Sailing]

I'm playing a rogue in my own game, and both these issues came up.

1) Yes, we ruled that it had to be a melee attack. (Exception: If the target was making a ranged, close, or area attack against me while adjacent to me, we ruled that qualified as well.)

2) We've taken the "always returns after resolving the attack" bit for magic thrown weapons to mean that you only need one when making attacks like blinding barrage. Any other ruling makes magic thrown weapons woefully inferior to magic missile weapons.

That's how I would have ruled on those questions, so I'm glad to see that I'm not off-beam there!

Cheers

 

[BeauNiddle]

Clever Riposte - maybe the guy remembers how much you hurt him last time he attacked that he subconciously flinches everytime he attacks you. Given time and a rest he'll sort out his inner demons but for the rest of the encounter attacking you lowers his morale (hps)

That's if you want to rule it working at range