Question on automatic interrupt power...

[mstanton]

Question about interrupt action; PH states the following: "If an interrupt invalidates a triggering action, that action is lost. For example, an enemy makes a melee attack against you, but you use a power that lets you shift away as an immediate interrupt. If your enemy can no longer reach you, the enemy’s attack action is lost."

For clarification: Does the interrupted enemy completely lose their standard action for the round, or can the enemy then select a different attack or standard action for that round? Also, if the previous interrupted power was an encounter, recharge or daily power, is it expended and wasted or simply "pulled back" for use on another occasion during the encounter?

As in point to illustrate the issue: 1st level warden using the "Warden's Grasp" class feature, as an at-will burst against a marked enemy (a level 21 fire titan), stops the titan that was attempting to attack another character within reach. The titan slides 1 square, is slowed and cannot shift until the end of its turn AND loses its chance to attack this round, with NO attack roll needed? (Rules as written, but not passing the DM's smell test...)

 

[MarkB]

In general, the whole action is lost. The attacker committed to attacking that target, and doesn't get to reassign his action just because the target invalidated it.

Movement is a special exception. Each square of movement is considered its own 'mini-action', so if an immediate action is triggered by a person moving to a certain square, and then makes that square of movement invalid (for instance, by placing an opponent or a solid object there), that square of movement is lost, but the creature can still use any remaining squares of movement it has to move elsewhere.

 

[mstanton]

OK, that makes sense. The part which boggles me as DM comes from a 1st level power having an easy trigger (marking the target), with no roll required to cause a complete the interrupt. The warden stopping a titan happened during a game tonight, and my old skol D&D assumption tripped me up.

Per 4th edition, then, a 1st level warden defender character's at-will power can stop Orcus from melee attacking anyone else in the party (like that high-level cleric over there), simply before the warden marking Orcus, no roll required. This rule throws common sense out the window and will force me to rethink "tactical-minded" monsters...

 

[mstanton]

TYPO, sorry... with no roll required to cause a complete interrupt (and cost the acting enemy its standard action).

 

[Wardo]

Warden's grasp is a Reaction, not an Interrupt, therefore the triggering action always completes, because the reaction happens (immediately) afterward.

So your DM sense was right

 

[mstanton]

Thanks, that's something better... but I'm still struggling to accept in DnD4e that neither differences in target's level or size play any part in some of these "automatic" Defender class features and powers. The idea of a 1st level fighter or warden halting the charge of Orcus just by marking him seems... wrong.

 

[Kalbutt]

Thanks, that's something better... but I'm still struggling to accept in DnD4e that neither differences in target's level or size play any part in some of these "automatic" Defender class features and powers. The idea of a 1st level fighter or warden halting the charge of Orcus just by marking him seems... wrong.

Your DM sense should have tingled a little more when an encounter involving Orcus (or a titan for that matter) was thrown upon a 1st-level character...

 

[WalterKovacs]

Thanks, that's something better... but I'm still struggling to accept in DnD4e that neither differences in target's level or size play any part in some of these "automatic" Defender class features and powers. The idea of a 1st level fighter or warden halting the charge of Orcus just by marking him seems... wrong.

Of the defender class features:

There is the mark, basic -2 to attack automatically (however in all cases, they have to get close to apply the mark, in the case of the fighter he has to attack, the warden needs to be adjacent, the paladin has rules to keep his mark going, etc).

For things that are "automatic" - Paladin's dishes out some radiant damage. The warden has a power that doesn't interupt the attack, only moves the markee slightly and prevents them from running away after they attack. The swordmage prevents some of the damage.

Everything else requires an attack, which factors the level. The automatic stuff involve magic (spectral vines, divine retribution, arcane shielding), so size doesn't really factor into it, nor level. [Although there are some situations like with Tiamat where a character below a level threshold can't do anything to her].

Ultimately, if the difference between the PCs and the monster is over 10 levels, there are much bigger issues than whether or not the PC's powers can/should work against them.