Stopping the Charge.

[Mouseferatu]

His move is not ended until he has squares left to move. And charges happen by the most direct route possible, not necessarily a straight line.

I'm going to have to agree with Draco, here. There's no hard and fast ruling--obviously, or this discussion would be a lot shorter --but let's extrapolate.

Look at the rules for Readying, PHB 291. "If you want to use a readied action to attack before an enemy attacks, you should ready your action in response to the enemy's movement. That way your attack will be triggered by a portion of the enemy's move, and you will interrupt it and attack first."

Look at the part I highlighted: a "portion" of the move. The enemy can still go ahead and continue the move afterward.

Moving on. "Note that an enemy might use a power that lets it move and then attack. If you readied an action to attack in response to that enemy's movement, your readied action interrupts the movement, and you can attack before the enemy does."

Again, let's look at the phrase I emphasized: "Interrupts the movement." Not "ends the movement."

Now, weave through the fray isn't a readied action, but it is an immediate reaction--just like a readied action. And it's triggered "when an enemy moves adjacent." So yes, it's the act of moving adjacent that activates it--not "the end of the enemy's movement." And the attack in a charge does not occur until the move has ended. That's something determined, well, when the move ends; it's not "Square X," as determined when the charge started.

I can see no reason why one immediate interrupt would interrupt the movement, but another would end it. If the charging creature has squares of movement left after the ranger shifts, yes, absolutely, he can continue the charge. And if he can still reach you with that movement, then yes, he can still attack.

 

[Trebor62]

Good point. WOTC could have written it as an interrupt triggered by the attack if it was intended to thwart the attack and not just make the Ranger harder to catch.

Still I did like the image conjured by the flavor text. Now I will just view it as the Ranger scrambling to evade the charging monster in hot pursuit.

 

[Mal Malenkirk]

It clearly doesn't trigger when the movement ends, just when you move adjacent, so in all fairness you can't claim that the triggering creature can no longer move once the interrupt action is completed.

It's very powerful as written, I wouldn't count it as a free, guaranteed negated attack. With enough wisdom, the chances are fair that you might be able to back away far enough to indeed prevent the charge anyway.

Still, it strikes me as more of a melee ranger trick. A skirmisher moves to flank you; screw you! I move elsewhere. Thanks to this power, the ranger can get in a risky flanking position, gets CA (often for two attacks or more) and then when another enemy wants to flank him, he safely returns next to or even behind the defender. Very annoying to the enemy.

 

[Thanee]

For what it's worth, we understood and played it the way, too.

The way being, that the charger can continue moving and if movement is sufficient, can still charge the ranger.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Destil]

Trigger: An enemy moves adjacent to you.

No Further Actions: After you resolve a charge attack you can't take any further actions this turn...

(italics are mine)

I'd agree with your DM. Things that interrupt movement allow a creature to continue moving afterword if they have speed, and since you're reacting to the movement, not the attack, the charge isn't going to end their turn.

The power's good when you can move around a corner, behind an ally, through difficult terrain as an elf et cetera. It's also pretty good for a melee ranger to get into/out of flanking. But unless you're taxing their movement it's not going to let you avoid an attack every time, which sounds about right for a level 6 striker encounter power to me.

 

[Dr_Ruminahui]

As a somewhat related question, if the ranger dances out of the way (say, behind an ally), can the monster continue its charge to charge and attack the ally instead?

 

[Twilightwaits]

That is a good question.

Ostensibly, not by the RAW, because your target for said action is no longer valid if you can't reach him. However, the RAW is sometimes silly, so I'd rule that as a yes.

Particularly if the Ranger is dumb enough to retreat behind someone not a defender =p

 

[Infiniti2000]

Now, weave through the fray isn't a readied action, but it is an immediate reaction--just like a readied action. And it's triggered "when an enemy moves adjacent."

I don't have the books with me, so excuse me for not looking it up myself, but the above statement is wrong and contradicts others in this thread. Is this power an immediate interrupt (as stated by others) or an immediate reaction (as stated by you)? That makes a huge difference in this debate. By the way, a readied action is an immediate interrupt, not a reaction, so your statement above is wrong in that analogy.

My take is that if the power is an interrupt, then your DM is correct in his ruling (and Mouseferatu's remaining argument is sufficient proof IMO). If it's a reaction, then your DM is wrong because the reaction occurs after the movement, but before the attack.

 

[Ryujin]

If the interrupt was triggered by an attack or when a creature *stops* its movement in an adjacent square, then the sequence would end and the attack would be thwarted. Because it triggers when the creature *moves* to an adjacent square, that means the creature could simply continue its move and attack. If it didn't have enough movement left to reach the PC, then the attack wouldn't happen.

The trigger is the key.

 

[Mouseferatu]

By the way, a readied action is an immediate interrupt, not a reaction, so your statement above is wrong in that analogy.

Nope. Again, page 291, typed verbatim: "A readied action is an immediate reaction."

You are correct that weave is an interrupt, not a reaction, so I did get that detail wrong. However, that doesn't change the overall conclusion. It still occurs in the midst of the charger's movement, and if the charger has movement remaining, he can still continue to move.