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Burley
2009-07-21, 07:10 AM
I checked the FAQ, and generally the answer is: Yes. But, this just seems a little powerful.
Staff of Blinking Artifice: At-Will, when you hit an enemy with an implement power using the staff, until the end of your next turn, your summons can shift 2 squares as an immediate interrupt when hit with a melee attack.
So... My summons become practically immune to melee attacks? What? That's like... immunity to OAs, too, right? Can you immediate interupt an immediate interupt?

Elderac
2009-07-21, 07:19 AM
I checked the FAQ, and generally the answer is: Yes. But, this just seems a little powerful.
Staff of Blinking Artifice: At-Will, when you hit an enemy with an implement power using the staff, until the end of your next turn, your summons can shift 2 squares as an immediate interrupt when hit with a melee attack.
So... My summons become practically immune to melee attacks? What? That's like... immunity to OAs, too, right? Can you immediate interupt an immediate interupt?

Seems okay to me. The key here is that it is only until the end of your next turn, not the whole encounter. The word "shift" implies that it is immune to OA's while making that move.

If your GM keeps attacking the summon after the first time it shifts, he or she is not playing the bad guys very smartly. Of course, the tactical situation might dictate such.

1of3
2009-07-21, 07:29 AM
If the GM attacks the summons again, he is in fact very clever, because the immediate action is already used.

Burley
2009-07-21, 07:31 AM
But the staff's power that lets you do that is an at-will. As long as I use implement powers, my little mechs are immune to melee damage.

Edit: How is the GM going to attack again, if he's already used the standard action to attack?

hewhosaysfish
2009-07-21, 07:41 AM
But the staff's power that lets you do that is an at-will. As long as I use implement powers, my little mechs are immune to melee damage.


The fact that it's At Will means that you can use it every turn if you want but it still takes an immediate action to do so and you only get one of those per turn.
Like At Will attack powers: you can use those every turn if you like but because it cost you a standard action you can only do it once per turn (barring action points).


Edit: How is the GM going to attack again, if he's already used the standard action to attack?

Many Solos can make multiple attacks as a standard action or can make an attack as a minor.
Alternatively, he just uses more than one monster.

Tiki Snakes
2009-07-21, 07:56 AM
Or he could just shoot them, blow them up, etc.

Really, I'd say it's a nice power, but nothing overwhelming. They get to ignore some OA's, and get where you want them to be. That's nice. But OA's are only ever melee basic attacks, and by far the least of their worries if they are moving into anything with a decent melee presence.

Hardly a win button. :)

KillianHawkeye
2009-07-21, 08:09 AM
So... My summons become practically immune to melee attacks? What? That's like... immunity to OAs, too, right? Can you immediate interupt an immediate interupt?

Just wanted to point out that Opportunity Attacks aren't immediate interrupts, they're opportunity actions. That being said, yes you can interrupt an interrupt. And yes, this still works against OAs as well.

Elderac
2009-07-21, 08:20 AM
*Snip* How is the GM going to attack again, if he's already used the standard action to attack?

What I meant was that during the time between that interrupt and the end of your next turn, the GM might have enemies in position to attack the summon. However since the summon still has the ability to phase away from a melee attack, it would be a waste of the enemies resources to attack the summons again.

As a GM, depending on the relative intelligence of the monsters, I might allow another monster to attack it, but once it phased away the second time, the monsters would determine that it is futile to attack the summons and turn their attacks to a more viable target, like perhaps the summoner.

Having said that, and again depending on the relative intelligence of the monsters, as a GM, after the second attack, the monsters might never attack the summons again, figuring it was immune to melee attacks. So, the summons might get a free pass even when he effect ends.

I try to be dynamic in combats and don't always go with what might seem like the best attack, but rather what seems best at the time based on what the attackers can observe about the PC's.

tbarrie
2009-07-21, 10:01 AM
Just wanted to point out that Opportunity Attacks aren't immediate interrupts, they're opportunity actions. That being said, yes you can interrupt an interrupt. And yes, this still works against OAs as well.

You can, but it doesn't come up very often, because of the rule that you can't use immediate actions during your own turn. The only time you could interrupt an opportunity attack targetted at yourself would be if you somehow provoked the OA during somebody else's turn. (Say, a leader power that let you move or make a ranged basic attack on the leader's turn.)

Burley
2009-07-21, 10:12 AM
Okay, so I can use it once per round, not per turn. Okay.

Also, I can't use it against OAs, because you can't use an immetiate interrupt on your own turn. The power isn't so broken'd as I thought.

Thanks, everybody.

erikun
2009-07-21, 03:30 PM
One last note: only one immediate action per turn. If the summon dodged once, they can't dodge a second time.

Also, I'm pretty sure that the summon uses your actions - so if the summon dodged, you won't have an immediate action to throw up Shield is response to an attack. (Then again, I'm not sure how it's exactly worded.)

Ninetail
2009-07-21, 09:43 PM
I checked the FAQ, and generally the answer is: Yes. But, this just seems a little powerful.
Staff of Blinking Artifice: At-Will, when you hit an enemy with an implement power using the staff, until the end of your next turn, your summons can shift 2 squares as an immediate interrupt when hit with a melee attack.
So... My summons become practically immune to melee attacks? What? That's like... immunity to OAs, too, right? Can you immediate interupt an immediate interupt?

Not as powerful as it sounds.

You can use the power at will, yes. Every turn, if you like, provided that you hit an enemy with an implement power on that turn.

Let's assume a 100% hit rate. This is generous, but considering all the AoE a wizard can throw, maybe not exceptionally so.

What happens is this:

Round X, your turn: You hit. You activate the staff power.

Round X, enemy's turn: It hits one of your summons. You use an immediate action to activate your summon's immediate action, which is an interrupt. Your summon shifts 2 squares.

Round X, another enemy's turn: It hits one of your summons. You used your immediate action, so no interrupt is available for your summon. Your summon takes the hit.

Round X, another enemy's turn: It hits you. You can't use your immediate action to throw up Shield, because you already spent your immediate action this turn on your summon's interrupt.

Round X, another enemy's turn: It moves away from your summon. You don't have an immediate action to activate your summon's OA, so your summon doesn't get one.

Round X+1, your turn: You hit. You activate the staff's power...

In other words, it gives you one get-out-of-damage-free card for your summoned creatures per round (not one per round per creature), at the cost of your immediate action. It's a nice option to have -- the shift, perhaps more so than the damage avoidance, in fact -- but it's not a freebie.

Gralamin
2009-07-22, 12:48 AM
Not as powerful as it sounds.

You can use the power at will, yes. Every turn, if you like, provided that you hit an enemy with an implement power on that turn.

Let's assume a 100% hit rate. This is generous, but considering all the AoE a wizard can throw, maybe not exceptionally so.

What happens is this:

Round X, your turn: You hit. You activate the staff power.

Round X, enemy's turn: It hits one of your summons. You use an immediate action to activate your summon's immediate action, which is an interrupt. Your summon shifts 2 squares.

Round X, another enemy's turn: It hits one of your summons. You used your immediate action, so no interrupt is available for your summon. Your summon takes the hit.

Round X, another enemy's turn: It hits you. You can't use your immediate action to throw up Shield, because you already spent your immediate action this turn on your summon's interrupt.

Round X, another enemy's turn: It moves away from your summon. You don't have an immediate action to activate your summon's OA, so your summon doesn't get one.

Round X+1, your turn: You hit. You activate the staff's power...

In other words, it gives you one get-out-of-damage-free card for your summoned creatures per round (not one per round per creature), at the cost of your immediate action. It's a nice option to have -- the shift, perhaps more so than the damage avoidance, in fact -- but it's not a freebie.

In addition, having it until the end of your next turn is essentially the same as to the start of it, since you cannot take an Immediate action on your turn.

Burley
2009-07-22, 10:54 AM
Not as powerful as it sounds.

You can use the power at will, yes. Every turn, if you like, provided that you hit an enemy with an implement power on that turn.

Let's assume a 100% hit rate. This is generous, but considering all the AoE a wizard can throw, maybe not exceptionally so.

What happens is this:

Round X, your turn: You hit. You activate the staff power.

Round X, enemy's turn: It hits one of your summons. You use an immediate action to activate your summon's immediate action, which is an interrupt. Your summon shifts 2 squares.

Round X, another enemy's turn: It hits one of your summons. You used your immediate action, so no interrupt is available for your summon. Your summon takes the hit.

Round X, another enemy's turn: It hits you. You can't use your immediate action to throw up Shield, because you already spent your immediate action this turn on your summon's interrupt.

Round X, another enemy's turn: It moves away from your summon. You don't have an immediate action to activate your summon's OA, so your summon doesn't get one.

Round X+1, your turn: You hit. You activate the staff's power...

In other words, it gives you one get-out-of-damage-free card for your summoned creatures per round (not one per round per creature), at the cost of your immediate action. It's a nice option to have -- the shift, perhaps more so than the damage avoidance, in fact -- but it's not a freebie.

Okay. All of that is understood, except for the part where my summon doesn't get an OA. If I get an OA every turn, why shouldn't it?

Yakk
2009-07-22, 11:12 AM
Okay. All of that is understood, except for the part where my summon doesn't get an OA. If I get an OA every turn, why shouldn't it?
Actually, it uses your OA. So yes, you can use one OA on each enemy turn.

(Note that if you have 50 summons, and someone runs by all of them, you only get one OA out of all of them, because summons use your actions.)

Mando Knight
2009-07-22, 11:15 AM
Round X, another enemy's turn: It moves away from your summon. You don't have an immediate action to activate your summon's OA, so your summon doesn't get one.

Opportunity Actions are not Immediate Actions. The summon can make the attack.

Ninetail
2009-07-23, 05:07 PM
Opportunity Actions are not Immediate Actions. The summon can make the attack.

This is correct. I was going off memory, and mixed up the rules for summons with the rules for beastmaster ranger companions, which do use your immediate interrupt to trigger their opportunity attack.