Rules clarification Re: Opportunity attacks and Pushing

[DracoSuave]

Hammer Hands is a free action and can be used at any time, within the scope of its trigger. Free actions can be done in the middle of other people's actions legally without trouble.

The order is:

Opportunity Attack
Free Action which is triggered by the OA, must be used at the time of the OA.
Action triggering the OA.

Anyone who tells you the Free Action must kindly wait for the action that triggered the OA to resolve doesn't understand that Free Actions do not have to kindly wait for anything. They can be done at any time, which is why they are often used to modify actions on your own turn.

 

[Jools]

From reading other rules threads on this topic it seems to me that free action timing is a bit of a grey area in the 4e rule set. They seem to be a bit of a fudge on Wizards part. Do they work as reactions and if they do which type of reaction? It seems to vary. The whole one free action per turn rule that they introduced to cap certain abuses completely negates the point of many classes' abilities (even ones as recent as essentials). It seems they realise they've dropped the ball slightly on this issue and just leave it up to individual DMs to adjudicate these issues. Its not ideal, but there you are.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Ha! Seems like a cool, quick, effective way for a fighter to negate a melee attack from most critters.

Nifty.

 

[DracoSuave]

From reading other rules threads on this topic it seems to me that free action timing is a bit of a grey area in the 4e rule set. They seem to be a bit of a fudge on Wizards part. Do they work as reactions and if they do which type of reaction? It seems to vary. The whole one free action per turn rule that they introduced to cap certain abuses completely negates the point of many classes' abilities (even ones as recent as essentials). It seems they realise they've dropped the ball slightly on this issue and just leave it up to individual DMs to adjudicate these issues. Its not ideal, but there you are.

First off: It's one attack granted as a free action that is the limit. Other free actions, even attacks that are already free actions, are not restricted.

And the timing is very simple: It's when you want to, exactly when you want to. Free actions can occur before other effects because you decide when they occur, exactly, so long as it's within the scope of their trigger or other restrictions.

 

[NMcCoy]

Agreed, free actions are not subject to any timing constraints whatsoever other than any trigger they might have. This is why the Fast Hands power is so awesome.