Sage of Ages Epic Destiny Feature Question

[Markn]

At level 24, the Sage of Ages ED gets this power:

Keeper's Prescience (24th level): At the start of each of your turns, roll a d20. You can use the result of that roll in place of any one d20 roll you make before the start of your next turn.

We can't quite determine how its played. The wording/intent isn't quite clear.

Is it:

1) Use the extra d20 roll before you make the d20 roll that you want to replace; or

2) use the extra d20 roll to replace the result of a d20 roll you made.

We started out with the latter but are now leaning towards the first option. When comparing this with the Deadly Trickster, for example, the DT only gets 3 rerolls a day. If you used that latter option, this would be equivelant to a reroll every round which seems far too powerful.

Thoughts?

 

[Mort_Q]

That wording says 2 to me.

 

[Skallgrim]

I don't know. To me, if they wanted you to use the second option, it would have said:

"you can use the result of that roll in place of the result of any one d20 roll you make before the start of your next turn".

As it is, it tells you to use the result in place of the roll, not in place of the result.

It isn't overwhelming, to me. You might roll like crap on the first roll, and really not want to use it. Even if you rolled well, if you don't get to see what the second roll would have been, you still might have been better off had you not replaced it.

Unless you roll a 20 on the first roll, it is always possible that your second roll would have been better.

It's really useful; don't get me wrong. It's just that for every time you roll 11-20 on the first roll, you will roll 1-10, too. If you can actually SEE the roll you might replace (option 2), it's WAAAAAY better, and I don't think it is supported by the close reading of the text.

 

[Journeymanmage]

Second option.

"2) use the extra d20 roll to replace the result of a d20 roll you made."

Keeper's Prescience (24th level): At the start of each of your turns, roll a d20. You can use the result of that roll in place of any one d20 roll you make before the start of your next turn.

The SoA roll is in stand-by if you need it. "Use the result of that roll in place of any one d20 roll you make ..."

"you make" seems to imply that you've made the roll.

 

[Prestidigitalis]

It isn't overwhelming, to me. You might roll like crap on the first roll, and really not want to use it. Even if you rolled well, if you don't get to see what the second roll would have been, you still might have been better off had you not replaced it.

Unless you roll a 20 on the first roll, it is always possible that your second roll would have been better.

It's really useful; don't get me wrong. It's just that for every time you roll 11-20 on the first roll, you will roll 1-10, too. If you can actually SEE the roll you might replace (option 2), it's WAAAAAY better, and I don't think it is supported by the close reading of the text.

But in many cases, you know approximately what roll you need for success. For example, if the most important roll on your turn is a saving throw, especially a death saving throw, and you roll a 10+ on the Keeper's Prescience roll, you are golden. Same thing if you have been fighting a creature for a while and have its defenses pretty well pegged.

As an 11+ means a success in about 60% to 80% of the game, this power is the equivalent of saying "In 3 or 4 turns out of 10, you get an automatic success on the most important thing you attempt."

And for characters (Devas, Elves, etc.) who can affect rolls, the ones that are hyper critical -- do or die -- become a near certainty.

Finally, note the amazing synergy with the level 26 utility Trick of Knowledge. Who wouldn't want these benefits for an entire encounter?

+5 bonus to saving throws
+2 bonus to all defenses
+2 bonus to attack rolls with arcane powers
Make saving throws at the start of your turn instead of the end of your turn

Note that all those bonuses are untyped!

Use your very first Keeper's Prescience roll to make sure you get the full list of benefits, and you just pushed Ye Olde Easye Button.


Obviously Keeper's Prescience gets MUCH better if interpretation #2 of the OP's question is correct. Sadly, WotC managed to craft wording to make it completely ambiguous.

 

[boar]

Wow. Seems absolutely crystal clear to me that #2 is the rule. If they wanted it to be #1, they would have said, "...in place of one d20 roll you would make..." The phrase "one d20 roll you make" means, completely unambiguously, that you have made the roll. The use of the word "would" to specifically denote making a replacement before the event actually happens has precedent in several places throughout the rules.

As for the feature being absurdly powerful: it's Epic. Absurdly powerful, borderline broken features at Epic aren't exactly shocking news.