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Situation:

  1. An elf summons a creature
  2. The summoned creature misses with an attack.

Is the elf allowed to reroll the attack using his Elven Accuracy racial power?

Inspired by a post on EnWorld.

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4 Answers

up vote 10 down vote accepted

Yes, the elf is allowed to reroll the summoned creature's attack.

The Rules Compendium p121, the "Attacks and Checks" portion of the Summoning power description says,

"If a summoning power allows the summoned creature to attack, the summoner makes an attack through the creature."

Thus the summoned creature's attack is actually the elf's attack and he can benefit from his Elven Accuracy.

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1  
I think your over reading, that. The Summoner makes an attack throught the creature is just a way to explain how the summoned creatures actions work. More to the point the perosnal range of the Elven Accuracy racial power is "You affect only yourself"(phb 273) regardless of how you read the summoning keyword, personal is pretty clearly not your summoned pet. – Logos7 Sep 30 '10 at 4:38
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I respect your opinion but I find it hard to gloss over the phrase "The summoner makes an attack" To me, that means that the summoner makes the attack, the summoned critter is just the conduit. – Pat Ludwig Sep 30 '10 at 4:42
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I really think this is a case of the RC trying to use ordinary language to explain summons as apposed to the summoner some how becoming or acting thru the summon. – Logos7 Sep 30 '10 at 22:36
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I agree with @Pat Ludwig: in fact, the attack benefits from implements and feats the summoner may have, and is also expressed in the form "[Ability] vs. [Defense]", even if the summoned creature lacks abilities. It's quite similar to making a Flaming Sphere attack or a Ranger's attack through her Beast companion. – Erik Burigo Nov 26 '10 at 13:06
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Errata to my last comment: Beast companions actually use the animal's statistics. – Erik Burigo Nov 26 '10 at 19:29
up vote 7 down vote

It doesn't matter who makes the attack. It matters who makes the roll. (important distinction to be had here.) Elven Accuracy simply allows a re-roll. It does not actually require you be the one to make the attack. However, you cannot re-roll someone else's dice, only your own.

In the case of a summoned creature, you are making the roll, therefore you can re-roll it, therefore Elven Accuracy applies perfectly.

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Specifically Elven Accuracy grants a re-roll for "an attack roll" you make. My recollection is that "attack roll" is a defined term, which would make this looser interpretation of "you made the roll, and the roll is an attack" a little more difficult to defend. – Simon Withers Oct 14 '10 at 19:50
up vote 3 down vote

Given the personal keyword on the power, as a GM I would rule that only attacks made by the elf can be re-rolled. Even though the elf should be spending their action on the summoned creatures (most summoned creatures attacks use the standard action of their master), the summoned creature is a not the elf and therefore can't benefit from a personal power.

On the other hand if a leader (such as a Warlord) gave the elf the ability to make an attack on the leader's turn and the elf missed the attack, I would allow the re-roll since in this case it is the elf making the attack directly (i.e. fitting within the personal keyword of the racial power).

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up vote 0 down vote

I think there is a feat described in the Martial Power supplement book that relates to this. However, this is with a beast companion. If I remember correctly this feat allows the beast to access the Wild Step and Elven Accuracy racial powers. You might consider altering this feat for summoners.

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I think you are referring to "Elven Beast Mastery" but as is noted in the comments to the accepted answer, for summoned creatures you probably don't need it. – Simon Withers Feb 3 at 3:20

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