[3.5]Question about Iron Heart Focus

[HunterOfJello]

The maneuver Iron Heart Focus (not Surge) says that it lets you do a reroll on a save as an immediate action. It does not specify whether or not it allows you to do a reroll after you already know whether the saving throw was successful or not.

In a session I was DMing today, a player wanted to use the maneuver to reroll the result of his saving throw after he had heard that his character was incurring a negative result from his save. As DM, I ruled that the maneuver does not allow a PC to reroll a save once they already know the success or failure of the save. He disagreed, got angry, and left the game.

I've read quite a bit of 3.5e material and came to the conclusion that while many reroll abilities choose to be specific about when they can or cannot be rerolled, the general rule is that the large majority of them don't allow rerolls after the positive or negative status of the result is known and declared by the DM. I also based this off of a loose impression of general versus specific. The player argued that since nothing was specified that his opinion or perspective was that it should be allowable after the result is known.

I know that all rerolls are uncommon and not the status quo, but does anyone know of any material from an official WotC source that supports either argument?

[Malachei]

The Luck Domain (SRD) (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spellLists/clericDomains.htm#luckDomain) description explicitly states that you have to decide before the roll. IIRC, most luck feats (from Complete Scoundrel) work the same way.

There's the Alter Fortune spell in PHBII, which does not state this explicitly.

I'm afraid I'd probably say your player is right. In any case, I don't see that much sense in restricting rerolls that way in the first place. Normally, there are ways to find out whether the roll is successful (either because it is really low, or because another PC has successfully or unsuccessfully saved against the same or a similar effect). It also slows down the game, because the DM would have to ask the player whether he/she would like to use the reroll-granting ability before announcing the result, or make a pause for dramatic effect.

[HunterOfJello]

Does anyone else have any information on this?

I looked up a few feats and abilities and have yet to find one that allows a reroll on saving throws after the success or failure of the saving throw has been declared by the DM. The abilities I've found that don't specify are mostly abilities that are used for rerolling any dice roll.