Quick Rules Questions

[Wisdom Penalty]

Hi all -

Some quick questions (which I don't thin are in the primer, but I've been wrong many, many times before). I hope some of you 4E enthusiasts can help me. If you have an answer, please indicate whether it's your own interpretation or whether we have seen rules for such. Thanks!

Can a creature that has failed his second save and fallen unconscious via the sleep spell be awakened by an ally? Does doing damage awaken him? Or is he unconscious until he makes his save, without any other methods to awake him?

The party is sneaking into the goblins' lair. Do I attack their (passive) Stealth? Do we do opposed rolls? Do they attack my goblins' (passive) Perception? Is there such thing as "passive" Stealth? How does this work differently than 3E, or doesn't it?

What action, if any, is required to reload a crossbow? A handcrossbow?

Can a wizard fire into a zone of darkness (like that created by Nightscale) to hit the dragon within a burst spell? I'm assuming he can't fire a targeted spell since the zone blocks line of sight, yes? What about a ranged attack? Can a character fire at a square within the cloud and simply have a miss chance due to full concealment?

Can a creature use an Action Point to get an extra action during a surprise round?

If a creature has "+5 saving throws" written beneath his saves, does he then make a save on a roll of 5 or higher on a d20, or is that +5 already factored into his stats?


Thanks!

Wis

 

[inkmonkeys]

Can a creature that has failed his second save and fallen unconscious via the sleep spell be awakened by an ally? Does doing damage awaken him? Or is he unconscious until he makes his save, without any other methods to awake him?

Until save only.

The party is sneaking into the goblins' lair. Do I attack their (passive) Stealth? Do we do opposed rolls? Do they attack my goblins' (passive) Perception? Is there such thing as "passive" Stealth? How does this work differently than 3E, or doesn't it?

I would give the party Stealth rolls against the goblins' passive Perceptions.

If a creature has "+5 saving throws" written beneath his saves, does he then make a save on a roll of 5 or higher on a d20, or is that +5 already factored into his stats?

The former.

 

[Rechan]

The party is sneaking into the goblins' lair. Do I attack their (passive) Stealth? Do we do opposed rolls? Do they attack my goblins' (passive) Perception? Is there such thing as "passive" Stealth? How does this work differently than 3E, or doesn't it?

Unless the NPC or PC says "I AM LOOKING FOR SOMEONE" (I.e. like a guard on duty), then you use the passive perception. The person trying to sneak by rolls their stealth roll, and if it beats the passive perception, they win. If they are ACTIVELY LOOKING FOR SOMEONE, you compare rolls.

This goes for things that are hiding, noises, etc. The PCs walk into an area they've all ready cleared, and unless they are Actively On Alert, you use their passive perception.

I expect the same is for NPCs.

This is all my interpretation, but I haven't seen anything that disagrees with that.

If a creature has "+5 saving throws" written beneath his saves, does he then make a save on a roll of 5 or higher on a d20, or is that +5 already factored into his stats?

Saving Throws, or Defenses?

A saving throw is a 1-20 roll, 9 he's stuck, 10-19 he saves (and removes the status effect), or 20 (all status effects are removed).

DEFENSES are Fort/Ref/Will/AC.

Can a creature use an Action Point to get an extra action during a surprise round?

Only if you have this feat:

First Reaction
Tier: Paragon
Benefit: If you are surprised, you may spend an action point to act during the surprise round.

 

[Scalding]

What action, if any, is required to reload a crossbow? A handcrossbow?

Currently we don't have information about this, but I would expect it to be roughly the same as drawing a worn weapon: a minor action. It might also be considered a move action, but I doubt it would be a standard or free action.

Can a wizard fire into a zone of darkness (like that created by Nightscale) to hit the dragon within a burst spell? I'm assuming he can't fire a targeted spell since the zone blocks line of sight, yes? What about a ranged attack? Can a character fire at a square within the cloud and simply have a miss chance due to full concealment?

Yes. This gives +5 to the target's defenses.

Can a creature use an Action Point to get an extra action during a surprise round?

If you mean the creature that has surprise, we don't know for sure yet, but I'd say yes. For the surprised creature, Rechan is correct.

 

[Stalker0]

Can a wizard fire into a zone of darkness (like that created by Nightscale) to hit the dragon within a burst spell? I'm assuming he can't fire a targeted spell since the zone blocks line of sight, yes? What about a ranged attack? Can a character fire at a square within the cloud and simply have a miss chance due to full concealment?

The wizard can fire his burst, though the creatures have +5 to defenses.

As for ranged attacks, there's still some confusion on what conditions we've seen from the minis game and the rp game, but from what I've seen you CANNOT make ranged attacks against an invisible target.

 

[malraux]

Until save only.

I would expect that a sleeping creature's companions could take some sort of actions to give him an additional saving throw.

 

[arscott]

Yeah. Someone from WotC did state that you could grant an ally an extra save via healing checks, but didn't elaborate.

 

[MindWanderer]

Yeah. Someone from WotC did state that you could grant an ally an extra save via healing checks, but didn't elaborate.

One of my DDXP DMs mentioned this as well; a Heal check (I want to say DC 15, could have been 20) could be made as a standard action to grant an ally an additional saving throw.

Currently we don't have information about this, but I would expect it to be roughly the same as drawing a worn weapon: a minor action. It might also be considered a move action, but I doubt it would be a standard or free action.

It would almost have to be a minor, perhaps a standard for a heavy crossbow. Move actions are reserved almost entirely for actual movement of some sort.