4e (I think) issues

While DM'ing for a 4e group, I sometimes encounter these issues:

I can't purposely recreate these, so I realize that tracking them down will be problematic.

1) Sometimes, when a player clicks "next" to end their turn, initiative does not advance. From that point forward, we must rely on the roster; and I must move players.

2) Sometimes an attack, that should result in damage, applies 0 damage. Which requires that I notice that the damage was incorrect; ande then manually damage the mob. These are not mobs with any DR or ER.

3) Occasionally, attacks that are set to "Max" for their "Crit" value, do not accurately calculate "Max" damage.

I have noticed these issues in 2.1.0, 2.1.1, 2.1.2; but waited to report them, until I was familiar enough with the software to be certain that it was not operator error.


Definetly 4e related, is "Dragon Breath" not being included as an attack for dragonborn characters.

 

Thanks for the quick response.

For clarification.

Advancing the initiative as the GM has no effect.

The 0 damage attack appears on attack that have behaved normally in the past, and behave normally again in the future.

The less than max damage on a crit, occurs when no other special dice are present. I think this problem is somehow tied to the 0 damage issues; as it is just as random. IE a player can use the same at-will attack every round, sometimes it will hit for 0 damage, sometimes it will crit for less than max damage, sometimes it will work just fine.

I know that sporadic bugs are the hardest to track down. So I will attempt to get mor information on these items the next times(s) they occur.

Oh, just in case i described it incorrectly before:

Character attacks mob, character hits mob, damage is calulated as "X", I apply the damge to the monster, the visual (and log) show that monster actually takes 0 damage. The monster has no DR or ER; and is damaged normally (by the same attack) in previous and subsequent rounds.

Also, it occurs to me, that these problmes seem to appear more often (but my perception could be off) when we make judicious use of the "Q" (quick attack) function.

 

Last night, we encountered the 0 damage twice. Once while using Dragon Breath via the "Q" feature; and once while casting "Magic Missile".

Additionally, I have identified some additional 4e (import) problems.

The "Cleric" power "Healing Word" transfers as a 1/1 Charge ability. While i have no issue with it being listed as a "Charge", the cleric in question is level 18 and is eligible for 3 uses per init.

All of my group "had" to take the "Arcane Initiate" feat at level 6 (For story line purposes - at the end of the story arc, they will be able to drop the feat). With the arcane initiate feat, comes the ability to learn a single magic user "at-will" spell to use on a "per init" basis. Each player chose "Magic Missile", and every player has "Magic Missile - 1/1 Init" in their abilities tab. However, out of 5 players (1 Cleric, 2 Fighters, 1 Assassin, 1 Ranger) only the Cleric had Magic Missile included on their attack page. For the record, it was the Cleric's MM which caused the 0 damage issue listed above.

 

We are supposed to play again tonight.

I will make a spare map, and should the 0 damage or inaccurate crit damage show itself; I will copy the offending character and creature to the map.

I don't think we had any bad crits last night; but crits having a low occurrence in the first place - further bedevil the issue.

Edit: Either way, I will attach the appropriate ddi files.

 

Here is a zipped folder with the DDI export files in question. I have also included a text file with those things that I can immediately identify as export/import issues.

Edit: July update not applied to DDI character Builder

 

Yup, they aren't earth shattering.

Unfortunately, last nights session had fewer encounters; and neither the crit or 0 damage bug showed itself. The next several sessions will probably not have any encounters whatsoever; so it may be awhile before I can provide further information on that front.

Edit: On a, mostly, unrelated note - WoTC has seen fit to alter how MM works. It is once again incapable of missing.

 

Update:

While I have not been able to zero in on the zero damage issue, I believe I have found at least one cause of the wrong-crit problem.

It seams that if the damage type doesn't include certain keywords, the attack will not crit properly.

For example, "Lance of Faith" which does only "Radiant" damage, will not properly generate "Max" damage. While "Healing Strike" which does both "Bludegeoning" and "Radiant" damage works fine. This situation continues for other damage types as well. IE attacks listed as only "Magic" will not properly generate max damage.

Obviously a work-around is to add a "physical" damage type to all of my attacks.

I will update again, if I have any luck with the 0 damage bug.

 

Ok, while it doesn't happen 100% of the time, I have a scenario that results in 0 damage semi-regularly (5%-10% perhaps).

While this does happen to other characters and I do believe it happens when the player doesn't use the Q option, I see this most often on the dragonborn fighter using his breath weapon (Because he tends to hit lots of mobs and therefore the bug has more opportunity to present itself).

In 100 attacks (which I fudged to always hit, regardless of the actual attack roll) the error happend 0 times if I accepted the computer generated damage result.
In 25 attacks (which I fudget to always hit ...) the bug appeared twice if I manually entered the damage.

My players are inconsistent as to whether they want to roll damage or not (except for the dragoborn who always rolls all of his own dice).

So, it might not be Q that is the culprit, but rather the manual entering of damage ...

At any rate, I have attached a map with a test monster, and the Dragonborn Warrior and Human Cleric (Tested for the non-physical damage /max crit bug) so that you might compare results.

 

Excellent catch.

I will have to watch the screen and look for the color change you mention.

Edit: Update, using the information you provided, I can recreate this behavior at will; and can spot the issue before the application of the damage.

Thank You!!

 

Periodically, WoTC posts an overall errata.

You can find the current rules, here: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/Article.aspx?x=dnd/updates

I imagine it will take awhile for the change to be reflected in the compendium.

Edit: The change has definetly been incorporated into the latest "Character Builder"