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Maldeen's Hunt (11th level)

You gain a +5 bonus to Perception checks to track creatures, and you and your allies can cover 5 miles an hour overland. When you end your movement 2 squares from an enemy, you can shift 1 square as a free action.


Free Action

[...] You can take as many free actions as you want during your or another combatant’s turn. [...]

Can the free shift from Maldeen's Hunt trigger Maldeen's Hunt if you continue to end your movement 2 squares from an enemy?

This seems like an obvious NO, but does anyone have a citation for it?

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    \$\begingroup\$ Wasn't sure whether to invent the [recursion] tag or not :) \$\endgroup\$ Commented Apr 28, 2011 at 22:12
  • \$\begingroup\$ what's this from? \$\endgroup\$ Commented Apr 28, 2011 at 23:49
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Brian It's from the Pack Master warlord paragon path. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Apr 29, 2011 at 0:01

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I think "end your movement" means that a character could do this once at the end of a move action or other action that involves movement (much like making a stealth check).

In my opinion the wording is sloppy, somewhat typical of the older Dragon articles.

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Happily there is a stipulation in free action that:

In certain circumstances, the DM might decide to limit the use of free actions further. For instance, if an adventurer has already used free actions during a particular turn to talk, drop things, and use a class feature, the DM might rule that the adventurer can use no more free actions during that turn.

This clearly falls within that restriction. But prima facie there is nothing preventing the warlord from shifting all over the battlefield. Happily, it's not particularly useful.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ This is the same conclusion I was leaning toward, but was hoping to find a concrete rule disallowing it. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Apr 29, 2011 at 0:55
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    \$\begingroup\$ No, that is the concrete rule. This has an explicit "GM common sense" line that emphasises rule 0. Amusingly, this recursive move isn't very useful for a warlord, even one with a reach weapon. It can be incredibly broken for a ranger or other melee striker though. However, as it's been around for ages and hasn't reached any kind of "broken" status with builds, I wouldn't worry too much about it. It's a great great way to get horribly out of position, and tricky to take tactical advantage of. Let us know how its use, unrestricted, turns out. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Apr 29, 2011 at 1:48
  • \$\begingroup\$ There's actually a bug(?) in the online character builder that prints this path feature as When you end your movement **within** 2 squares of an enemy. That's much easier to abuse, and why it came up during play. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Apr 29, 2011 at 13:35
  • \$\begingroup\$ oh. Yeah. That's... that's a lot more useful. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Apr 29, 2011 at 13:37
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While it is technically moving the one square shift would not be counted as more movement for the ability. This is because the ability triggers on the end of your movement and so the shift would be after the end and not applicable.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ False. In 4e, a "shift" is a subset of "move" actions. As it involves vacating one square to enter another, it absolutely counts as a move. Any instance of movement, whether it is done willingly or unwillingly. Whenever a creature, an object, or an effect leaves a square to enter another, it is moving. Shifting, teleporting, and being pushed are all examples of moves. Applying 3.5 logic just breaks 4e (and 4e doesn't use feet at all) \$\endgroup\$ Commented Apr 29, 2011 at 1:46
  • \$\begingroup\$ Wow, you are correct the second part of my thing is wrong! Here let me remove it for you. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Apr 29, 2011 at 2:55

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