Playtest question, sustain minor: how long?

[invokethehojo]

I ran my first 4e demo last night and it was a little rocky, mostly the combat was slow and everyone had a hard time keeping track of everything that was going on which I knew would happen...

NOTE: despite everyone saying 4e is much simpler and faster to run know this... it only is if your group is well prepared, organized and focused. My group was pretty well prepared and it still took us about 1.5 - 2 hours per encounter...that being said I had fun (as did everyone) and learned A LOT and am confident the next demo will be 10 times better.

Moving on, we had several questions come up that could not be answered without the full rules but were easily solved with a quick ruling... except one.

I put the PC's against the dragon from Raiders of Oakhurst and quickly in the battle the warlock used his daily power, which did a bunch of damage and allowed him to slide the dragon 3 squares (?), and the slide was sustain minor.

does this mean he can slide him as a minor action on any of his turns for the rest of the combat? Does he have to use it every round to sustain it? can he use it one round, then skip a round, then do it again? what if he uses a different minor action (like drink a potion) could he sustain the power again after that?

 

[DeusExMachina]

Well, it says in the power description that you can slide 1 square with sustain minor (save ends), so I reckon you can slide the enemy 1 square each turn if you keep up sustaining it or until the enemy saves. Since sustaining is something like concentration you have to keep doing it every turn without interuption, however you can decide not to slide him (as you are always allowed to move somebody less than the max amount indicated), but still pay the minor action to keep the sustaining going.

 

[D'karr]

I put the PC's against the dragon from Raiders of Oakhurst and quickly in the battle the warlock used his daily power, which did a bunch of damage and allowed him to slide the dragon 3 squares (?), and the slide was sustain minor.

does this mean he can slide him as a minor action on any of his turns for the rest of the combat? Does he have to use it every round to sustain it? can he use it one round, then skip a round, then do it again? what if he uses a different minor action (like drink a potion) could he sustain the power again after that?

Yes, he can slide him (1 square) as long as the Dragon does not save on his turn. He has to sacrifice a minor action every round to sustain it. He does not have to use it to slide the dragon but he still has to sacrifice the minor action. He can use a different minor action by converting either his move or standard action for a minor action and still using his minor to sustain. A successful save from the target or not sustaining it ends the effect.