Tactical Supervision (Warlord 6)

[Korror]

There's two questions here - one is "when does the player announce the interrupt power?" and "when does the power occur" There's no disputing that the bonus to the attack has to occur mechanically prior to the roll being made so that it can add to the roll. So what we're really asking here is can the player declare it after the triggering roll is made and then retcon the bonus in? My answer is yes - the warlord can declare the power after the roll is physically made. Immediate Interrupts are too valuable to just throw away and the whole point of a Warlord (IMHO) is the ability to say "no, my buddy hit"

I must disagree on your interpretation here. My reading of this power is that the warlord must use this ability after the triggering player declares his attack but before a roll is made. Sfedi already gave a 3 step breakdown of the act that I think is quite helpful but the greatest argument in favor of the pre-roll position is that if Wizards wanted this ability to be used post roll then they would have had the interrupt trigger be "An ally misses with a basic attack, a bull rush, or a charge within 10 squares of you". This would clearly allow the player to determine hit or miss first and then decide to apply the power or not. Since it's an interrupt, it can change a hit to a miss.

As for whether this power is underpowered or overpowered, I can't recall what the rest of the warlock utility 6 powers were like but I think this is still a balanced and useful power for an offensively minded warlord to take. It doesn't provide more healing but a +6 before an attack adds at least a 25% additional chance to hit so the warlord is effectively doing 1/4 of a basic attack's damage for free every encounter. It also combos nicely with commander's strike or a barbarian in the party.

 

[RyvenCedrylle]

Korror - I understand where you're going with your post, but I stand by my position. See, for instance, the Warlord Utility 10, Tactical Shift (PHB 149):

Immediate Interrupt, Ranged 10
Trigger: A creature hits your ally with a melee or ranged attack

You couldn't possibly know whether the triggering attack hits or misses until after the roll is made. But the fact that it is an immediate interrupt means you have to retcon the event back into the story of the battle. See also as examples the Githzerai racial power Iron Mind, and the Halfling Racial power Second Chance -- both Immediate Interrupts. The Interrupt/Reaction has nothing to do with the chronology of the players and everything to do with the chronology of the game world.

 

[Atreides]

Korror - I understand where you're going with your post, but I stand by my position. See, for instance, the Warlord Utility 10, Tactical Shift (PHB 149):

Immediate Interrupt, Ranged 10
Trigger: A creature hits your ally with a melee or ranged attack

You couldn't possibly know whether the triggering attack hits or misses until after the roll is made. But the fact that it is an immediate interrupt means you have to retcon the event back into the story of the battle. See also as examples the Githzerai racial power Iron Mind, and the Halfling Racial power Second Chance -- both Immediate Interrupts. The Interrupt/Reaction has nothing to do with the chronology of the players and everything to do with the chronology of the game world.

The issue here though is that the Trigger specifically requires a 'hit' - so we know that the trigger occurs after the die has rolled.

My gut tells me that Tactical Supervision works after the Declare Targets step, I just wish it had been written more clearly.

Does anyone know of any other Interupts that work off of 'makes an attack? Maybe we can use other precident to work this out.

 

[Tony Vargas]

The wizard utility 2, Shield works very much that way. It adds to the caster's AC and Reflex, and can cancel a hit. The Wand Mastery feature is also similar, you add to your own attack roll retroactively. The latter, though, required a FAQ entry to clarify.

It's not something that's easy to pull together with just the existing jargon, so if whoever wrote a power isn't quite exacting enough, it becomes ambiguous.

My advice would be to go with whichever interpretation seems (to you, for your campaign and your players' styles) to make the power balance best with other level 6 utilities.