Opening Shove, New Warlord at Will

[James McMurray]

If they wanted it to be interpreted as enemies only, why did they specifically include the ability to target an ally by using predefined terms? I can understandt he desire to limit the power, but it strikes me as odd to think that it has anything to do with what the rules say, since they're incredibly clear.

 

[Lacyon]

There are a lot of powers which let an ally move outside of their turn, and I think the intent is for you to use those when you want to move an ally, and to use powers like Opening Shove when you want to move an opponent. That's not a Rules As Written approach, that's a The Rules Are Written to Require Interpretation approach. And I think its probably for the best.

Opening shove is a power which lets an ally move outside of their turn, attached to a Bull Rush.

Would you not let PC's Bull Rush (i.e., shove) one another into position, or out of the way of incoming boulders?

I'm thinking it's totally fine for the game if a Warlord gives up his attack for a turn to move his party into position.

 

[DracoSuave]

Well, not really, since other characters can't halt enemy movement on an OA. But I did get it to help our paladin defend, and it still didn't help much. Viper's Strike is really only going to be useful when you don't want to use another at will - using Wolf Pack to gain some flanking is going to be preferable when possible - AND the enemy shifts away from your ally.

If the enemy decides not to shift when shifting could be beneficial to it, then Viper's Strike did it's job perfectly.

 

[Patlin]

If the enemy decides not to shift when shifting could be beneficial to it, then Viper's Strike did it's job perfectly.

Indeed. I find reach is especially handy with powers like this, as the enemy will often need to shift in order to attack me. Eladrin Soldier with greatspear seems like a good combo. With opening shove and the right paragon path, Spear Push also adds some good stuff.

 

[NMcCoy]

I'm DMing a 4e game for my family. A situation came up where a party member wanted to attack an ally (there's a warlock power that does guaranteed splash damage if it hits the primary target). I ruled that the targeted ally could deliberately grant combat advantage to the attacking character as a free action.

Also, if you're targeting an ally with Opening Shove then you're passing up an attack's worth of damage as well as burning your standard action, so I see no reason to disallow it. It's not going to break things, and it'll probably make someone's game more fun.

 

[James McMurray]

We've had all sorts of situations come up where it was tactically advantageous to momentarily declare a team mate your enemy. I even designed an encounter around the idea using converted xeg-ya from AD&D. Their touch gives you temporary hit points, but too many of them means you explode. The party was switching back and forth between beating each other up and attacking the real enemies. The full story of the battle is here (in the section labelled Gaurdians of the Pool of Death).