D&D 4E Questions about move and attack - and my newfound disappointment with 4E reach

[kclark]

It would be A.
The attack will interrupt the pc's movement and push him a square. Then the pc can finish his move including continuing to close in on the ettin.
The ettin push ability is good for knocking one of the guys out of flanking so the group has to work a little to regain flank, or to knock someone into a flanked position with the ettin's allies. Or to wallop the guy into the big cooking fire the ettin is roasting the goat over. Remember a push does not have to be straight back, but can be back diagonally too. As long as the square is farther away then the origin square.

 

[Benly]

Another (almost) completely useless monster ability then, unless the character spends -exactly- his speed in getting there. I just don't see the great "hurrah!" for such abilities then, if they in essence are meaningless most of the time, unless used in very tactical situations like:

It shifts back to stand in line with its other two friends with readied actions to hit stuff in front of them. Or stepping back, triggering the pit trap in the square it stood on to open for the player to fall into etc.

Even if the two friends don't have readied attacks, the pursuer might be a little leery of stepping in to suddenly be threatened by three targets rather than one - especially considering that the other two will be able to shift forwards to flank him if he gives pursuit.

 

[Eldorian]

Another (almost) completely useless monster ability then, unless the character spends -exactly- his speed in getting there.

Setting up flanking, avoiding flanking. These abilities aren't useless just because you can't figure out how to use them. My kolbolds like their shifty power.

And yes players can opt to stop moving. They don't need to declare where they're going when they start moving unless they're charging something.

 

[Ricochet]

And yes players can opt to stop moving. They don't need to declare where they're going when they start moving unless they're charging something.

That's what I was looking for, thanks.

I don't get the snide comment directed at me though, since I specifically asked the question to know if this was possible for the player, listing two tactically advantageous examples for the kobolds if this were not the case.

Thanks to all the posters for helping out, though. It is appreciated.

 

[Ricochet]

Even if the two friends don't have readied attacks, the pursuer might be a little leery of stepping in to suddenly be threatened by three targets rather than one - especially considering that the other two will be able to shift forwards to flank him if he gives pursuit.

Yep that would have been the tactic for the kobolds in that case.

But I just found out from Eldorian that the player can just stop moving. I can still see my players being brutish enough to just continue the charge though, enabling this tactic

 

[Gloombunny]

I'm sure that might be the case, yeah. It seems there is a distinct lack of "threatening reach", and I'd reason that a creature like an ancient dragon would at least be able to bite/tail slap someone before they come up to them, but I think it needs to be moderated a lot, yes.

Red dragons can do that - they have a Tail Strike attack that triggers when an enemy moves into a square flanking the dragon, and if it hits it pushes that enemy away as well as dealing damage. And Orcus has a tail attack that triggers whenever an enemy moves adjacent to him, and can stun and knock them prone for extra nastiness.

 

[Saeviomagy]

As a GM, and from a mechanics standpoint (as well as for excitement!) I would go with B, but is that the intention?

What excitement?

 

[Ricochet]

What excitement?

Well in a variety of ways. Its more challenging for the players, they get more eager to get to slay the beast and they can opt to use clever tricks to bypass these defenses.

At least my group likes that stuff, but I get the feeling from reading some of these responses that I should keep any opinion to myself as they are "not majority-rules, paranoid-player friendly".

So consider this my last comment in this thread

Thanks all who responded.