What the Heck Goes in the Attack Workspace?
Calling out to 4e Fans to Share Your Perspective
Say what you will about 4th edition, I don’t think anyone would argue that the creators paid masterful attention to details. The rules are tight. The calculations solid. It seems they thought of everything when they put this game together. As a DM, if I have a question about something, nearly 100% of the time I can quickly find the answer in the rule book.
Now this is not to say I always adhere to those rules as written. I just like to know what I am breaking before I toss it aside.
But if there was one area where I feel there is a bit of confusion, it has to do with one particular section of the character sheet. The Attack Workspace and Basic Attacks.
The problem here is that the rules on what to do with these fields is a bit ambiguous. For a game that prides itself on dotting every ‘i’ and crossing every ‘t’, this part stands out to me as surprisingly ambiguous.
Let’s take a look…
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So what am I on about? This is the section in question.
It seems simple enough. Just enter in the values and total up the attack bonus and damage. But what attacks am I supposed to put here?!
A first level character might have six, or more, different attacks depending on their character. There is room for but two attacks and damage in the Workspace and then just four attacks in the Basic Attacks. And the Basic Attacks area doesn’t contain any cells to perform the calculation. So am I supposed to do the calculation in the Workspace and then carry it down to the Basic Attacks rows? If so, why have two sections?
The most obvious path when figuring this out is to read the rules and see what they say. After-all, the writers were so thorough in every other area, surely they spelled this out very clearly.
Or did they?
Let’s look at the Workspaces first. Here are the instructions from pages 30 and 31 in the Player’s Handbook.
That is not terribly helpful.
On the surface, my most frequent attack might be my basic attack. But I will typically be using an At-Will power for my attacks. So do I enter in the values for my two At-Will powers? If so, then why did they not just say that?
The Basic Attack section adds a little more confusion to the mix.
This very clearly is referring to basic attacks. You can list out the basic attack bonus and damage for your Shortsword, your Crossbow, your Daggers, and your Sling—if so equipped. The description clearly talks about basic attacks that you would use when you make an Opportunity Attack. Ok. That seems obvious enough. This section is, as labeled, used to record your basic attacks.
But wait a minute. Let’s look at the block a little closer.
It clearly says, “or Power”. But I cannot, generally, use a power when making an Opportunity Attack. Everything else in the explanation talks about Basic Attacks. This reference to powers seems out of place.
Which brings me back to my original quandary. What the heck is supposed to go in these sections?
I know full well that I am being obtuse here. This is not a huge problem like I am making it sound. The obvious answer is to just put whatever you want in these fields. Use them for whatever works best for you to help you play your character.
I point all of this out merely because of how specific everything else is in 4e. This type of ambiguity has always bugged me. And I am very curious how everyone else uses these fields.
Rather than me try and tell you what you should do, I put it out to the community.
What do you put in these sections? Basic attacks? Powers? Something else? Nothing? Am I completely missing something in the rules that makes this clear as day?
Let us know down in the comments.
This post is open for everyone to comment on. Please keep it respectful and constructive.
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I use the first section to calculate the bonus for my most common attacks. With a Paladin for instance I do both Strength and Charisma with any bonuses for each or with a Cleric the Strength melee total and the Wisdom implement total which might have added bonus is my implement is +2 or whatever. I do the damage section the same way and have the totals available for all my various powers.
Many powers in the game state they can be used in place of a melee or ranged basic attack. Off the top of my head, the first level Sorcerer At-Will Power Dragonfrost comes to mind. So it's a power, but it's also a basic attack.