Combat in Depth

All attacks follow the same basic process:

1. Choose the attack you’ll use. Each attack has an attack type.

2. Choose targets for the attack. Each target must be within range. Check whether you can see and target your enemies.

3. Make an attack roll.

4. Compare your attack roll to the target’s defense to determine whether you hit or miss.

5. Deal damage and apply other effects.

A
melee attack usually uses a weapon and targets one enemy within your
melee reach (your reach is usually determined by the weapon you’re
wielding). Attacking with a longsword or a polearm is a melee attack.
Some powers allow you to make multiple melee attacks, against either
multiple enemies or a single enemy.

MELEE ATTACK:
✦
Targeted: Melee attacks target individuals. A melee attack against
multiple enemies consists of separate attacks, each with its own attack
roll and damage roll. Melee attacks don’t create areas of effect.

✦
Range: A melee attack’s range usually equals your melee reach.
(Sometimes a power specifies that it affects only adjacent targets,
though, so even if you’re using a reach weapon, you can’t attack more
distant targets with that power.)

✦Reach: Most characters have a reach of 1 square. Certain powers, feats, and weapons can increase your reach.

Simply
wielding a weapon in each hand doesn’t allow you to make two attacks in
a round. If you hold two melee weapons, you can use either one to make a
melee attack.

A
ranged attack is a strike against a distant target. A ranged attack
usually targets one creature within its range. Shooting a bow or casting
a magic missile is a ranged attack.

RANGED ATTACK
✦Targeted: Ranged attacks target individuals. A ranged attack against
multiple enemies consists of separate attacks, each with its own attack
roll and damage roll. Ranged attacks don’t create areas of effect.

If
you’re using a projectile weapon to make a ranged attack against
multiple targets, you need one piece of ammunition for each target, and
if you’re using thrown weapons, you need one for each target.

✦Range: Some powers set a specific range (“Ranged 10”) or allow you to
attack any target you can see (“Ranged sight”). If you’re using a
weapon, the attack’s range is the range of your weapon.

Long
Range: If you use a ranged weapon and your target is farther away than
the weapon’s normal range but within its long range, you take a –2
penalty to your attack roll. You can’t hit a target beyond the weapon’s
long range. A ranged power that doesn’t use a weapon has a normal range
but no long range.

✦ Provoke Opportunity Attacks: If you use a
ranged power while adjacent to an enemy, that enemy can make an
opportunity attack against you.

A
close attack is an area of effect that comes directly from you; its
origin square is within your space. Swinging your sword in an arc to hit
every enemy next to you with one blow, creating a blast of fire from
your hands, or causing radiant energy to burst from your holy
symbol—these are all examples of close attacks. Close attacks include
two basic categories of powers: weapon attacks that damage multiple
enemies with one swing, and powers created from energy that flows
directly from your body or an object you carry.

CLOSE ATTACK
✦Area of Effect: A close attack creates an area of effect, usually a
blast or a burst. A close attack affects certain targets within its area
of effect, which has a certain size. A close attack’s area of effect
and targets are specified in its power description.

✦Origin
Square: A close attack’s area of effect defines the attack’s origin
square, which is the attack’s starting point. A close burst uses your
space as its origin square. A close blast uses a square within your
space as its origin square. For a target to be affected by a close
attack, there must be line of effect from the origin square to the
target.

✦Multiple Attack Rolls but One Damage Roll: When you
make a close attack, you make a separate attack roll against each target
in the area of effect, but you make a single damage roll that affects
all the targets. A Large or larger creature hit by a close attack is
affected only once by the attack, even if multiple squares of the
creature’s space are in the
area of effect.

If you’re using a
projectile weapon to make a close attack, you need one piece of
ammunition for each target, and if you’re using thrown weapons, you need
one for each target.

Area
attacks are similar to close attacks, except that the origin square can
be some distance away from you. An area attack’s area of effect sets
the shape of the attack and the targets it affects. A ball of fire that
streaks across the battlefield and explodes is an example of an area
attack. A magical wall of fog that springs from the ground to obscure a
dungeon corridor is another example.

Area attacks include two
categories of powers: projectiles that detonate in their origin squares
and effects that appear far away from you and fill an area.

AREA ATTACK:
✦Area of Effect: An area attack creates an area of effect, usually a
burst or a wall, within range. An area attack affects certain targets
within its area of effect, which has a certain size. An area attack’s
area of effect, range, and targets are specified in its power
description.

✦Origin Square: You choose a square within an area attack’s range as the
attack’s origin square, which is where you center or start the area of
effect. You need line of effect from a square in your space to the
origin square. For a target to be affected by an area attack, there
needs to be line of effect from the origin square to the target. You
don’t have to be able to see the origin square or the target, and
concealment between the origin square and the target doesn’t apply.

✦Multiple Attack Rolls but One Damage Roll: When you make an area
attack, you make a separate attack roll against each target in the area
of effect, but you make a single damage roll that affects all the
targets. A Large or larger creature hit by an area attack is affected
only once by the attack, even if multiple squares of the creature’s
space are in the area of effect.

If you’re using a projectile
weapon to make an area attack, you need one piece of ammunition for each
target, and if you’re using thrown weapons, you need one for each
target.

✦Provoke Opportunity Attacks: If you use an area power
while adjacent to an enemy, that enemy can make an opportunity attack
against you.

Most area attacks and close attacks have one of three areas of effect: a blast, a burst, or a wall.

AREAS OF EFFECT

✦Blast: A blast fills an area adjacent to you that is a specified number
of squares on a side. For example, the wizard power thunderwave is a
blast 3, which means the power affects a 3-square-by-3-square area
adjacent to you. The blast must be adjacent to its origin square, which
is a square in your space. The origin
square is not affected by the
blast. A blast affects a target only if the target is in the blast’s
area and if there is line of effect from the origin square to the
target.

✦Burst: A burst starts in an origin square and extends
in all directions to a specified number of squares from the origin
square. For example, the cleric power flame strike is a burst 2 within
10 squares of you, which means the power originates in a square up to 10
squares away from you and affects the origin square and every square
within 2 squares of it (a 5-square-by-5-square area). Unless a power
description notes otherwise, a close burst you create does not affect
you. However, an area burst you create does affect you. A burst affects a
target only if there is line of effect from the burst’s origin square
to the target.

✦Wall: A wall fills a specified number of
contiguous squares within range, starting from an origin square. Each
square of the wall must share a side—not just a corner—with at least one
other square of the wall, but a square can share no more than two sides
with other squares in the wall (this limitation does not apply when
stacking squares on top of each other). You can shape the wall however
you like within those limitations. A solid wall, such as a wall of ice,
cannot be created in occupied squares.

If
you want to use a power against an enemy, the enemy must be within the
range of your power, and you have to be able to target the enemy. Many
powers allow you to target multiple enemies. Each of these enemies must
be an eligible target.

When you use a melee attack or a ranged
attack, you can target a square instead of an enemy. This tactic is
useful when an enemy has total concealment and you have to guess its
location.

The first step in
choosing targets for an attack is to check the attack’s range. Range is
the distance from you to a target (or to the attack’s origin square).
The range of each power is noted in its description. To determine the
range between you and a target, count the number of squares between you,
including at least one square that the target occupies. If a
target’s
space is larger than 1 square, you can target that enemy if any square
of its space is within range or within the area of effect of your
attack.

Counting Distance: When counting the distance from one
square to another, start counting from any adjacent square (even one
that is diagonally adjacent but around a corner) and then count around
solid obstacles that fill their squares. You must choose the most direct
path to a target when counting squares for range or when determining
the extent of an area of effect.

Adjacent Squares: Two squares
are adjacent if a side or a corner of one touches a side or a corner of
the other. Two creatures or objects are adjacent if one of them occupies
a square adjacent to a square occupied by the other.

Nearest
Creature or Square: To determine the nearest creature or square to you,
count distance normally. When two or more squares or creatures are
equally close, you can pick either one as the nearest.

Personal: When you use a power with a range of personal, you affect only yourself.
Examples include creating magic armor on yourself or giving yourself the ability to fly.

Seeing and Targeting
Cluttered dungeon chambers, dense forests, or brooding ruins offer plenty of places for your
enemies to hide. Figuring out whether you can see and target a particular enemy from where you’re standing is often important.

Line of Sight: The first question is what you can see in an encounter area—that is, what is in your line of sight.

To
determine whether you can see a target, pick a corner of your space and
trace an imaginary line from that corner to any part of the target’s
space. You can see the target if at least one line doesn’t pass through
or touch an object or an effect—such as a wall, a thick curtain, or a
cloud of fog—that blocks your vision. Even if you can see a target,
objects and effects can still partially block your view. If you can see a
target but at least one line passes through an obstruction, the target
has cover or concealment. You can see a gnoll archer crouching behind a
rock wall, but the wall makes him more difficult to hit, because the
wall gives him cover. You can see a goblin standing at the edge of a fog
cloud, but the fog makes him a shadowy figure, giving him concealment.

Line
of Effect: You can target a creature or a square if there’s an
unblocked path between it and you—that is, if you have line of effect to
it. If every imaginary line you trace to a target passes through or
touches a solid obstacle, you don’t have line of effect to the target.

Fog,
darkness, and other types of obscured squares block vision, but they
don’t block line of effect. If you hurl a fireball into a pitch-black
room, you don’t have to see your enemies for the fireball to hit them.
In contrast, you can see through a transparent wall of magical force,
but you don’t have line of effect through it. You can see the snarling
demon on the other side, but the wall blocks attacks.

You need
line of effect to any target you attack and to any space in which you
wish to create an effect. When you make an area attack, you need line of
effect to the attack’s origin square. To hit a target with the attack,
there must be line of effect from the origin
square to the target.

To
determine whether an attack succeeds, you make an attack roll. You roll
a d20 and add your base attack bonus for that power. A power’s base
attack bonus measures your accuracy with that attack and is the total of
all modifiers that normally apply to it.

ATTACK ROLL
Roll 1d20 and add the following:

✦The attack power’s base attack bonus

✦Situational attack modifiers that apply

✦Bonuses and penalties from powers affecting you The power you use
dictates which ability modifier adds to your base attack bonus and which
of your target’s defenses you compare the result against. For example:
Melee basic attack Strength vs. AC Ranged basic attack Dexterity vs. AC
Stunning steel Strength vs. Fortitude Fireball Intelligence vs. Reflex
Cause fear Wisdom vs. Will Your base attack bonus can change temporarily
in certain circumstances, such as when you’re affected by a power that
gives you an attack bonus or penalty, when a feat or a magic item gives
you a bonus in certain circumstances, or when attack modifiers
apply.

When
you create your character, you should determine your base attack bonus
for each power you know, including your basic attacks. Your base attack
bonus for a power includes the following:

✦One-half your level

✦The ability score modifier used for the attack (the power you use
specifies which ability) In addition, any of the following factors might
apply to an attack’s base attack bonus:

✦Your weapon’s proficiency bonus (if you’re using a weapon you’re proficient with)

✦Racial or feat bonuses

✦An enhancement bonus (usually from a magic weapon or an implement)

✦An item bonus

✦A power bonus

✦Untyped bonuses Example: Melech, a 7th-level tiefling wizard, attempts
to hit three enemies with fireball, an Intelligence vs. Reflex attack.
His attack roll against each target gets a +10 bonus, which includes +3
for one-half his level, his +5 Intelligence modifier, the +1 feat bonus
from Hellfire Blood, and the +1 enhancement bonus from his +1 wand of
witchfire. He could add a +2 bonus from his Wand of Accuracy class
feature against one of his targets and a +1 racial bonus against any
bloodied targets from his Bloodhunt racial trait.

Your
ability to avoid injury and other ill effects is measured by four
defenses: Armor Class, Fortitude, Reflex, and Will. Your defense scores
rate how hard it is for an enemy to affect you with attacks.

Armor
Class (AC) measures how hard it is for your enemies to land a
significant blow on you with a weapon or a magical effect that works
like a weapon. Some characters have a high AC because they are extremely
quick or intelligent and able to dodge well, while other characters
have a high AC because they wear heavy protective armor that is
difficult to penetrate.

Fortitude measures the inherent
toughness, mass, strength, and resilience of your physique. It is the
key defense against attacks that include effects such as disease,
poison, and forced movement.

Reflex measures your ability to
predict attacks or to deflect or dodge an attack. It’s useful against
areas of effect such as dragon breath or a fireball spell.

Will
is your defense against effects that daze, disorient, confuse, or
overpower your mind. It measures your strength of will, self-discipline,
and devotion.

You determine your defense scores as follows.

✦Base Defense: All defenses start with 10 + one-half your level.

✦
Armor Class: Add the armor bonus of the armor you wear and the shield
bonus of the shield you carry. If you’re wearing light armor or no
armor, also add your Dexterity modifier or Intelligence modifier,
whichever is higher.

✦Fortitude: Add your Strength modifier or Constitution modifier, whichever is higher.

✦Reflex: Add your Dexterity modifier or Intelligence modifier, whichever
is higher. If you’re using a shield, add its shield bonus.

✦Will: Add your Wisdom modifier or Charisma modifier, whichever is higher. Also add any of the following that apply:

✦Racial or feat bonuses

✦An enhancement bonus (usually from a neck slot magic item)

✦An item bonus

✦A power bonus

✦Untyped bonuses Your defenses can change temporarily in certain
circumstances— for instance, if you’re affected by a power or condition
that increases or lowers your defense scores, or if a feat or a magic
item gives you a bonus under certain circumstances.

You
resolve an attack by comparing the total of your attack roll (1d20 +
base attack bonus + attack modifiers) to the appropriate defense score.
If your roll is higher than or equal to the defense score, you hit.

Otherwise,
you miss. When you hit, you usually deal damage and sometimes produce
some other effect. When you’re using a power, the power description
tells you what happens when you hit. Some descriptions also say what
happens when you miss or when you score a critical hit.

ATTACK RESULTS
When you make an attack, compare your attack roll to the appropriate defense score of the target.
✦Hit: If the attack roll is higher than or equal to the defense score,
the attack hits and deals damage, has a special effect, or both.

Automatic Hit: If you roll a natural 20 (the die shows a 20), your attack automatically hits.

Critical Hit: If you roll a natural 20 (the die shows a 20), your attack might be a critical hit.
A critical hit deals maximum damage, and some powers and magic items have an extra effect on a critical hit.

✦Miss: If your attack roll is lower than the defense score, the attack misses. Usually, there’s no effect.

Some powers have an effect on a miss, such as dealing half damage.

Automatic Miss: If you roll a natural 1 (the die shows a 1), your attack automatically misses.

When
you hit with an attack, you normally deal damage to your target,
reducing the target’s hit points. The damage you deal depends on the
power you use for the attack. Most powers deal more damage than basic
attacks do, and high-level powers generally deal more damage than
low-level ones. If you use a weapon to make the attack, your weapon also
affects your damage. If you use a greataxe to deliver a power, you deal
more damage than if you use a dagger with the same power.

DAMAGE ROLLS

✦Roll the damage indicated in the power description. If you’re using a
weapon for the attack, the damage is some multiple of your weapon damage
dice.

✦Add the ability modifier specified in the power
description. Usually, this is the same ability modifier you used to
determine your base attack bonus for the attack.

In addition, any of the following factors might apply to a damage roll:

✦Racial or feat bonuses

✦An enhancement bonus (usually from a magic weapon or an implement)

✦An item bonus

✦A power bonus

✦Untyped bonuses

Weapon
Damage Dice: A [W] in a damage expression stands for your weapon’s
damage dice. The number before the [W] indicates the number of times you
roll your weapon dice. If a power’s damage is “2[W] + Strength
modifier” and you use a dagger (1d4 damage), roll 2d4, then add your
Strength modifier. If you use a heavy flail (2d6 damage) with the same
power, roll 4d6, then add your Strength modifier.

Damage Types:
In addition to normal damage, such as the damage a weapon or a monster’s
claws deal, powers and other effects can deal specific types of damage.
For example, a hell hound’s breath deals fire damage, a scorpion’s
sting deals poison damage, a mind flayer’s telepathic blast deals
psychic damage, and a wraith’s touch deals necrotic damage.

When a
power deals a specific type of damage, the power description specifies
the type before the word “damage.” A fireball deals 3d6 + Intelligence
modifier fire damage, for example. All the damage it deals is fire
damage. If a power doesn’t specify a damage type, the damage has no
type.

Example: Valenae. a 12th-level eladrin paladin, hits a foe
with thunder smite. The attack deals 2[W] + Strength modifier thunder
damage and knocks the target prone. The damage would be 2d8 (longsword’s
1d8 × 2) + 7. The +7 bonus includes her +3 Strength modifier, a +2 feat
bonus (Weapon Focus), and a +2 enhancement bonus (from her +2
thundering
longsword).

If she scores a critical hit, she deals
maximum damage of 23 points and adds 2d6 thunder damage from her
thundering longsword. If she wanted to use her thundering longword’s
encounter power on this hit, she would add 10 thunder damage and push 1.

Some
creatures are resistant or vulnerable to certain types of damage. Some
powers can grant you a similar resistance, or impose vulnerability on an
enemy.

Resist: Resistance means you take less damage from a
specific damage type. If you have resist 5 fire, then any time you take
fire damage, you reduce that damage by 5. (An attack can’t do less than 0
damage to you.)

Vulnerable: Being vulnerable to a damage type
means you take extra damage from that damage type. If you have
vulnerable 5 fire, then any time you take fire damage, you take an
additional 5 fire damage.

Some creatures have additional
weaknesses tied to damage types. For example, if you use cold against an
elemental made of magma, you might slow it or otherwise hinder its
moves or attacks.

✦ You grant combat advantage.

✦ You can’t see any target (your targets have total concealment).

✦ You take a –10 penalty to Perception checks.

✦ You can’t flank an enemy.

✦ ou grant combat advantage.

✦You can take either a standard action, a move action, or a minor action
on your turn (you can also take free actions). You can’t take immediate
actions or opportunity actions.

✦You can’t flank an enemy.

✦ You can’t hear anything.

✦ You take a –10 penalty to Perception checks.

✦ You’re dazed.

✦ The dominating creature chooses your action. The only powers it can make you use are at-will powers.

✦ You’re unconscious.

✦ You’re at 0 or negative hit points.

✦ You make a death saving throw every round.

✦ You grant combat advantage.

✦ You can be the target of a coup de grace.
Note: Usually you’re helpless because you’re unconscious.

✦ You can’t move from your space, although you can teleport and can be forced to move by a pull, a push, or a slide.

✦ You take a –2 penalty to attack rolls for any attack that doesn’t target the creature that marked you.

✦ You have been turned to stone.

✦ You can’t take actions.

✦ You gain resist 20 to all damage.

✦ You are unaware of your surroundings.

✦ You don’t age.

✦You grant combat advantage to enemies making melee attacks against you.

✦You get a +2 bonus to all defenses against ranged attacks from nonadjacent enemies.

✦You’re lying on the ground. (If you’re flying, you safely descend a
distance equal to your fly speed. If you don’t reach the ground, you
fall.)

✦You take a –2 penalty to attack rolls.

✦ You can drop prone as a minor action.

✦ You grant combat advantage.

✦ You’re immobilized.

✦ You can’t be forced to move by a pull, a push, or a slide.

✦ You take a –2 penalty to attack rolls.

✦Your speed becomes 2. This speed applies to all your movement modes,
but it does not apply to teleportation or to a pull, a push, or a slide.
You can’t increase your speed above 2, and your speed doesn’t increase
if it was lower than 2. If you’re slowed while moving, stop moving if
you have already moved 2 or more squares.

✦You grant combat advantage.

✦You can’t take actions.

✦You can’t flank an enemy.

✦ You grant combat advantage.

✦ You can’t take actions, other than free actions.

✦ You can’t flank an enemy.

✦ You’re helpless.

✦ You take a –5 penalty to all defenses.

✦ You can’t take actions.

✦ You fall prone, if possible.

✦ You can’t flank an enemy.

✦ Your attacks deal half damage. Ongoing damage you deal is not affected.

Some
creatures, such as wailing ghosts, are insubstantial, and some powers
can make you insubstantial. When you are insubstantial, you take half
damage from any attack that deals damage to you. Ongoing damage is also
halved.

Some powers deal extra damage on
consecutive turns after the initial attack. An efreet might hit you with
a burst of fire that sets you alight, dealing ongoing fire damage. When
a snake’s venom courses through your blood, it deals ongoing poison
damage. A mummy’s rotting touch deals ongoing necrotic damage, and a
kruthik’s corrosive spittle deals ongoing acid damage.

ONGOING DAMAGE
✦Start of Your Turn: You take the specified damage at the start of your
turn. Example: If you’re taking ongoing 5 fire damage, you take 5 points
of fire damage at the start of your turn.

✦Saving Throw: Each
round at the end of your turn, make a saving throw against ongoing
damage. If you succeed, you stop taking the ongoing damage.

✦Different Types of Ongoing Damage: If effects deal ongoing damage of
different types, you take damage from each effect every round. You make a
separate saving throw against each damage type.

✦The Same Type
of Ongoing Damage: If effects deal ongoing damage of the same type, or
if the damage has no type, only the higher number applies. Example:
You’re taking ongoing 5 damage (no type) when a power causes you to take
ongoing 10 damage. You’re now taking ongoing 10 damage, not 15.

When you roll a natural 20 and your total attack roll is high enough to hit your target’s defense, you score a critical hit, also known as a crit.

CRITICAL HIT DAMAGE

✦Natural 20: If you roll a 20 on the die when making an attack roll, you score a critical hit if your total attack roll is high enough to hit your target’s defense. If your attack roll is too low to score a critical hit, you still hit automatically.

✦Precision: Some class features and powers allow you to score a critical hit when you roll numbers other than 20 (only a natural 20 is an automatic hit).

✦Maximum Damage: Rather than roll damage, determine the maximum damage you can roll with your attack. This is your critical damage. (Attacks that don’t deal damage still don’t deal damage on a critical hit.)

✦Extra Damage: Magic weapons and implements, as well as high crit weapons, can increase the damage you deal when you score a critical hit. If this extra damage is a die roll, it’s not automatically maximum damage; you add the result of the roll. You automatically score a critical hit when you deal a coup de grace.

Some powers allow you to force your target to move in specific ways. Depending on the power, you can pull, push, or slide your target.

Many powers take effect and then end; their effects are instantaneous, perhaps as brief as a single swing of your sword. Some powers last beyond your turn, however. Unless otherwise noted, a power is instantaneous and has no lasting effect. The two types of durations are conditional and sustained.

DURATIONS
✦Conditional Durations: These effects last until a specified event occurs.

Until the Start of Your Next Turn: The effect ends when your next turn starts.

Until the End of Your Next Turn: The effect ends when your next turn ends.

Until the End of the Encounter: The effect ends when you take a rest (short or extended) or after 5 minutes.

Save Ends: The effect ends when the target makes a successful saving throw against it.

✦Sustained Durations: An effect that has a “sustain standard,” a “sustain move,” or a “sustain minor” duration lasts as long as you sustain it. Starting on the turn after you create an effect, you sustain the effect by taking the indicated action: a standard action, a move action, or a minor action. (You can sustain an effect once per turn.) Some effects do something, such as attack, when you sustain them.

A power’s description indicates what happens when you sustain it or let it lapse. At the end of your turn, if you haven’t spent the required action to sustain the
effect, the effect ends.

✦ Overlapping Durations: If a target is affected by multiple powers that have the same effect but end at different times, the effect with the most time remaining applies.

Unless a description says otherwise, you can sustain a power with a sustained duration for as long as 5 minutes. However, you can’t rest while sustaining a power, so you can’t regain the use of your encounter powers or second wind until you stop sustaining a power. Rituals can create effects that last for hours, days, or years.

✦ End of Turn: At the end of your turn, you make a saving throw against each effect on you that a save can end. Roll a d20, with one of the following results: Lower than 10: Failure. The effect continues. 10 or higher: Success. The effect ends.

✦ Choose Order: Whenever you make a saving throw, you choose which effect to roll against first, which effect to roll against second, and so on.

✦ Modifiers: A saving throw normally doesn’t include modifiers; it’s just a d20 roll. Some powers, feats, or racial traits might modify a saving throw A saving throw gives you slightly better than even odds to shake off an effect. Most of the time, you can’t improve the odds, and your chance of success doesn’t have anything to do with an effect’s severity. What makes a giant snake’s poison worse than a normal snake’s is not how hard it is to shake off the poison’s effects, but how easily it affects you in the first place (its attack bonus) and what it does to you while it remains in your system (its ongoing damage or other effect).

Each round, at the end of your turn, you roll a saving throw against each effect on you. Sometimes an effect is a single condition or one type of ongoing damage. Another kind of effect is like an imp’s hellish poison, which includes both ongoing poison damage and a –2 penalty to Will defense. You don’t make separate saving throws against the ongoing poison damage and the Will defense penalty; you make a single saving throw each round against the hellish poison itself.

Some powers create effects that require multiple saving throws to fully escape. These powers include aftereffects that apply after you save against the initial effect. For example, a power might knock you unconscious until you save but have an aftereffect that slows
you. Once you save against the unconscious condition, you need to save against the slowed condition before you’ve fully escaped the power’s effects. An aftereffect doesn’t begin until after you’ve rolled all your saving throws at the end of your turn.

This means you can’t make a saving throw against an aftereffect at the end of the same turn when you saved against the initial effect.

Enemies behind a low wall, around a corner, or behind a tree enjoy some amount of cover; you can’t hit them as easily as you normally could.

COVER
✦ Cover (–2 Penalty to Attack Rolls): The target is around a corner or protected by terrain. For example, the target might be in the same square as a small tree, obscured by a small pillar or a large piece of furniture, or behind a low wall.

✦ Superior Cover (–5 Penalty to Attack Rolls): The target is protected by a significant terrain advantage, such as when fighting from behind a window, a portcullis, a grate, or an arrow slit.

✦ Area Attacks and Close Attacks: When you make an area attack or a close attack, a target has cover if there is an obstruction between the origin square and the target, not between you and the target.

✦ Reach: If a creature that has reach attacks through terrain that would grant cover if the target were in it, the target has cover. For example, even if you’re not in the same square as a small pillar, it gives you cover from the attack of an ogre on the other side of
the pillar.

✦ Creatures and Cover: When you make a ranged attack against an enemy and other enemies are in the way, your target has cover. Your allies never grant cover to your enemies, and neither allies nor enemies give cover against melee, close, or area
attacks.

✦ Determining Cover: To determine if a target has cover, choose a corner of a square you occupy (or a corner of your attack’s origin square) and trace imaginary lines from that corner to every corner of any one square the target occupies. If one or two of those lines are blocked by an obstacle or an enemy, the target has cover. (A line isn’t blocked if it runs along the edge of an obstacle’s or an enemy’s square.) If three or four of those lines are blocked but you have line of effect, the target has superior cover.

If you can’t get a good look at your target, it has concealment from you, which means your attack rolls take a penalty against that target. You might be fighting in an area of dim light, in an area filled with smoke or mist, or among terrain features that get in the way of your vision, such as foliage.

OBSCURED SQUARES
✦ Lightly Obscured: Squares of dim light, foliage, fog, smoke, heavy falling snow, or rain are lightly obscured.

✦ Heavily Obscured: Squares of heavy fog, heavy smoke, or heavy foliage are heavily obscured.

✦ Totally Obscured: Squares of darkness are totally obscured.

Effects that cause concealment obscure vision without preventing attacks.

CONCEALMENT
✦ Concealment (–2 Penalty to Attack Rolls): The target is in a lightly obscured square or in a heavily obscured square but adjacent to you.

✦ Total Concealment (–5 Penalty to Attack Rolls): You can’t see the target. The target is invisible, in a totally obscured square, or in a heavily obscured square and not adjacent to you.

✦ Melee Attacks and Ranged Attacks Only: Attack penalties from concealment apply only to the targets of melee or ranged attacks.

Part of the challenge of attacking a target you can’t see is knowing where to direct your attack. You have to choose a square to attack, and the target might not
even be in that square (see “Targeting What You Can’t See,” below).

A variety of powers and other effects can render you invisible, effectively giving you total concealment.

INVISIBLE
✦ You can’t be seen by normal forms of vision.

✦ You have combat advantage against any enemy that can’t see you.

✦ You don’t provoke opportunity attacks from enemies that can’t see you.

Each creature falls into one of six size categories, which correspond to the number of squares a creature occupies on the battle grid. A creature’s space is an expression of the number of squares it occupies.

SPECIAL RULES FOR SIZE
Creatures smaller than Small or larger than Medium have special rules relating to position and attacking.

✦ Tiny: Four individual Tiny creatures can fit in a square, but a swarm of Tiny creatures might consist of hundreds, or even thousands, of them in a square. Most Tiny creatures can’t attack, and if they can, they can’t attack adjacent targets. They can attack only targets in the space they occupy. They can enter and end their turn in a larger creature’s space.

✦ Small: Small creatures occupy the same amount of space as Medium creatures. However, Small creatures cannot use two-handed weapons. If a onehanded weapon can be used two-handed for extra damage, a Small creature must use it two-handed and doesn’t extra damage by doing so.

✦ Large, Huge, and Gargantuan: Very large creatures take up more than 1 square. For example, an ogre takes up a space 2 squares by 2 squares. Most Large and larger creatures have melee reach greater than 1 square—that is, they can make melee attacks against creatures that aren’t adjacent to them. A creature’s basic body shape usually determines its
reach—a Large ogre has a reach of 2, but a Large horse has a reach of 1.

Your speed is measured in squares on the battle grid, with each 1-inch square representing a 5-foot square in the game world. A character who has a speed of 6 can move up to 6 squares (or 30 feet) on the battle grid by using a move action. Your speed is determined by your race and the armor you wear.

DETERMINING SPEED
Determine your speed as follows:

✦ Start with your race’s speed.

✦ Take your armor’s speed penalty, if applicable.

✦ Add any bonuses that apply.
Your speed is your base walking speed, in contrast to your speed while swimming or, if you’re affected by a power, flying.

A creature is considered to occupy the square or squares within its space.

MOVING THROUGH OCCUPIED SQUARES
✦ Ally: You can move through a square occupied by an ally.

✦ Enemy: You normally can’t move through an enemy’s space unless that enemy is helpless or two size categories larger or smaller than you. Moving into a nonhelpless enemy’s space provokes an opportunity attack from that enemy, because you left a square adjacent to the enemy. (Some powers let you move through an enemy’s square without provoking an opportunity attack.)

✦ Ending Movement: You can end your movement in an ally’s square only if the ally is prone. You can end your movement in an enemy’s square only if the enemy is helpless. However, Tiny creatures can end their movement in a larger creature’s square. If you don’t have enough movement remaining to reach a square you are allowed to be in, your move ends in
the last square you could occupy.

✦ Standing Up: If you’re prone and in the same square as another creature, see “Stand Up,” for how to stand up.

[spoiler=Terrain and Obstacles]

Most battles don’t take place in bare rooms or plains. Adventurers fight in boulder-strewn caverns, briarchoked forests, and steep staircases. Each battleground offers its own combination of cover, concealment, and poor footing.

This section explains how terrain affects movement. For information about how it affects vision and defense, see “Cover and Concealment”.

DIFFICULT TERRAIN
Rubble, undergrowth, shallow bogs, steep stairs, and all sorts of other impediments are difficult terrain that hampers movement.

✦ Costs 1 Extra Square: Each square of difficult terrain you enter costs 1 extra square of movement.

✦ Large, Huge, and Gargantuan Creatures: If such a creature enters two or more squares with different types of terrain, count that square of movement according to the most difficult terrain. Count only squares it is entering for the first time, not squares it already occupies.

✦ Ending Movement: If you don’t have enough movement remaining to enter a square of difficult terrain, you can’t enter it.

✦ Flying: Creatures are not hampered by difficult terrain when flying.

✦ Terrain Walk: Some creatures have a special ability to ignore difficult terrain in specific kinds of environments. For example, dryads have forest walk, which allows them to ignore difficult terrain in forests.

Because difficult terrain costs 1 extra square of movement to enter, you can’t normally shift into a square of difficult terrain. On the other hand, if a power lets you shift 2, you can shift into a square of difficult terrain.

OBSTACLES
Like difficult terrain, obstacles can hamper movement.

✦ Obstacles Filling Squares: An obstacle such as a large tree, a pillar, or a floor-to-ceiling wall blocks a square entirely by completely filling it. You can’t enter a square that is filled by an obstacle.

Corners:When an obstacle fills a square, you can’t move diagonally across the corner of that square.

✦ Obstacles Between Squares: Some obstacles run along the edges of squares instead of through squares. An obstacle such as a low wall between two squares makes moving from one square to the other just like entering a square of difficult terrain, even if the squares on each side of the wall are not difficult.

Some kinds of terrain present a unique danger: a precipitous drop. When you fall at least 10 feet, you take damage.

FALLING
✦ Falling Damage: You take 1d10 damage for each 10 feet you fall.

Fast Alternative: If you fall more than 50 feet, take 25 damage per 50 feet, plus 1d10 per 10 extra feet.

✦ Prone: You fall prone when you land, unless you take no damage from the fall.

✦ Jumping Down: If you are trained in Acrobatics, you can make a check to reduce the amount of damage you take from a fall.

✦ Catching Yourself: If a power or a bull rush forces you over a precipice or into a pit, you can immediately make a saving throw to avoid going over the edge. This saving throw works just like a normal saving throw, except you make it as soon as you reach the edge, not at the end of your turn.
Lower than 10: Failure. You fall over the edge.
10 or higher: Success. You fall prone at the edge, in the last square you occupied before you would have fallen. The forced movement ends.

✦ Large, Huge, and Gargantuan Creatures: If only part of a creature’s space is over a pit or a precipice, the creature doesn’t fall.

One of the simplest combat tactics is for you and an ally to move to flanking positions adjacent to an enemy.

FLANKING
✦ Combat Advantage: You have combat advantage against an enemy you flank.

✦ Opposite Sides: To flank an enemy, you and an ally must be adjacent to the enemy and on opposite sides or corners of the enemy’s space.

When in doubt about whether two characters flank an enemy, trace an imaginary line between the centers of the characters’ squares. If the line passes through opposite sides or corners of the enemy’s space, the enemy is flanked.

✦ Must Be Able to Attack: You and your ally must be able to attack the enemy, whether you’re armed or unarmed. If there’s no line of effect between your enemy and either you or your ally, you don’t flank. If you’re affected by an effect that prevents you from taking opportunity actions, you don’t flank.

✦ Large, Huge, and Gargantuan Creatures: If a flanking creature’s space takes up more than 1 square, the creature gains combat advantage if any square it occupies counts for flanking.

Certain powers and effects allow you to pull, push, or slide a target.

PULL, PUSH, AND SLIDE
✦ Pull: When you pull a creature, each square you move it must bring it nearer to you.

✦ Push: When you push a creature, each square you move it must place it farther away from you.

✦ Slide: When you slide a creature, there’s no restriction on the direction you can move it.

Whether you’re pulling, pushing, or sliding a target, certain rules govern all forced movement.

FORCED MOVEMENT
✦ Line of Effect: You must have line of effect to any square you pull, push, or slide a creature into.

✦ Distance in Squares: The power you’re using specifies how many squares you can move a target. You can choose to move the target fewer squares or not to move it at all. You can’t move the target vertically.

✦ Specific Destination: Some powers don’t specify a distance in squares but instead specify a destination, such as “adjacent” (a square adjacent to you).

✦ No Opportunity Attacks: Forced movement does not provoke opportunity attacks or other opportunity actions.

✦ Ignore Difficult Terrain: Forced movement isn’t hindered by difficult terrain.

✦ Not a Move: Forced movement doesn’t count against a target’s ability to move on its turn. A target’s speed is irrelevant to the distance you move it.

✦ Clear Path: Forced movement can’t move a target into a space it couldn’t enter by walking. The target can’t be forced into an obstacle or made to squeeze into a space.

✦ Catching Yourself: If you’re forced over a precipice or a pit, you can try to catch yourself before you fall. See “Falling”.

✦ Swapping Places: Some powers let you swap places with a target. You slide the target so that its space overlaps your space, and then you shift so your space includes at least one square that the target just left.

Many powers and rituals allow you to teleport—to move instantaneously from one point to another. Unless a power or a ritual specifies otherwise, teleportation follows these rules.

TELEPORTATION
✦ Line of Sight: You have to be able to see your destination.

✦ No Line of Effect: You can teleport to a place you can see even if you don’t have line of effect to it.

✦ No Opportunity Attacks: Your movement doesn’t provoke opportunity attacks.

✦ Destination: Your destination must be a space you can occupy without squeezing.

✦ Instantaneous: When you teleport, you disappear from the space you occupy and immediately appear in a new space you choose. Creatures, objects, and terrain between you and your destination don’t hinder your movement in any way.

✦ Immobilized: Being immobilized doesn’t prevent you from teleporting. If you were immobilized because of a physical effect, such as a creature grabbing you, you can teleport away and are no longer immobilized or restrained, if applicable. If you were immobilized because of an effect on your mind or body, teleporting does not end that effect; you’re still immobilized when you reach your destination.

Some creatures, such as shadow snakes, have a special ability called phasing, and some powers allow you to phase. When you are phasing, you ignore difficult terrain, and you can move through obstacles and other creatures but must end your movement in an unoccupied space.