Bonus damage on Secondary Attacks (DnD 4e)

[theonesin]

I've been wondering this for a while, and tried talking to my DM about and posting on the official Wizards forums, but the answer wasn't quite clear to me.

If you use a power that gives a secondary attack, does the second attack gain all of the modifiers of the first attack (equipment, feats, etc)? For example, I play a Sorcerer who uses Chaos Bolt. If I roll correctly on the first attack roll to trigger the secondary attack, do I add all of my modifiers to the second attack too? So far, the DM has said no, but I was never sure what the official answer was.

Thanks.

[Kurald Galain]

If you use a power that gives a secondary attack, does the second attack gain all of the modifiers of the first attack (equipment, feats, etc)? For example, I play a Sorcerer who uses Chaos Bolt. If I roll correctly on the first attack roll to trigger the secondary attack, do I add all of my modifiers to the second attack too?
Absolutely.

Note, however, that the secondary attack of Chaos Bolt does less damage than the primary.

Your DM is possibly thinking of something different. It is disputed whether "automatic" damage rolls (such as from Armor of Agathys or Rain of Steel) benefits from implements, feats, and so forth that add to damage rolls. That is to say, by RAW they obviously do, but CustServ has suggested that a damage roll is only a damage roll if it is preceded by an attack roll. Make of that what you will, but practically everybody I know does not agree with CustServ on this one.

[theonesin]

Anyone happen to have an official ruling from Wizards on that? For some inane reason, he won't trust random forum posts.

[Shardan]

The only time it doesn't is if
a) the second attack specifically leaves out part of the damage 1[w] vs 1[w] + con mod
b) the second attack is with off hand weapon. then the bonus damage goes off off hand weapons bonuses not main hand
c)the bonus damage is from a feat or source that specifically says 'the next attack' instead of 'the end of the turn/next turn'

[Kurald Galain]

Anyone happen to have an official ruling from Wizards on that? For some inane reason, he won't trust random forum posts.

The fact that for some inane reason, it is transparently obvious from the Player's Handbook?

A staff +1 gives a +1 bonus on your attack rolls for implement powers. The secondary attack from chaos bolt is an attack roll for an implement power. Do the math.