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I've seen this feat debated a lot and want to know your thoughts on it. Inexorable Shroud reads as follows: "If an enemy is reduced to 0 hit points while it is subject to two or more of your shrouds, you can move up to two shrouds to a different enemy within 5 squares of you." This feat was published in dragon magazine 401.

The part I'm concerned with is here: Before you make an attack roll against the target, you choose to invoke either all your shrouds on it or none of them. If you invoke your shrouds, the attack deals 1d6 damage per shroud, minus one shroud if the attack misses, and all your shrouds then vanish from the target.

So the question is does the feat trigger before they are able to vanish from my target since the shroud damage is additional and not extra? Am I allowed to move two shrouds from one target to another due to inexorable shroud if my target has died even after invoking them? Assassin's shroud was published in dragon magazine 379.

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From a RAW standpoint, the invoked shrouds vanish...

The feat doesn't say anything about moving shrouds instead of the shrouds vanishing. All the damage from the attack you invoke the shrouds for happens at once (both the attack's damage and the additional damage from the shrouds), so the shrouds would vanish before the target was reduced to zero.

...but you should houserule that they move.

The shroud assassin is a genuinely bad striker class, and the fact that shrouds keep disappearing has a lot to do with that (the near total lack of later support doesn't help either). A houserule that allows the assassin to move 2 shrouds to another target even if they invoked them to kill the original target is hardly overpowered; you could give assassins that benefit for free and it still wouldn't make them competitive with the better striker classes.

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    \$\begingroup\$ Technically, the description of Assassin's Shroud says "If you invoke your shrouds, the attack deals 1d6 damage per shroud ... and all your shrouds then vanish from the target." From a strict (but favorable) RAW reading, this could be interpretted as "shrouds don't vanish until after the damage is dealt" and "shrouds only vanish from the target they're invoked on, not from any other creature that might have them" (despite that normally being impossible). So one could even argue that it's technically within RAW (and it's certainly within RAI, so there's that). \$\endgroup\$
    – Michaellogg
    Commented Aug 23, 2015 at 14:14
  • \$\begingroup\$ @MikeKellogg That's not an unreasonable argument, though I would still take the side that the shrouds vanishing and the target dying happen simultaneously as results of the attack, and that moving the shrouds takes place afterwards (when there are no shrouds left). As I said, though, moving them on kill is something the assassin ought to get for free; using RAW to nerf their feat tax is just adding insult to injury. \$\endgroup\$
    – Oblivious Sage ♦
    Commented Aug 23, 2015 at 14:57
  • \$\begingroup\$ When I first read that feat, I thought it was clear that you could only move the shrouds if you didn't invoke them. You don't actually say that in your answer, but it looks like you would agree (by RAW)? \$\endgroup\$
    – DCShannon
    Commented Aug 25, 2015 at 4:26
  • \$\begingroup\$ @DCShannon The first part of my answer says that yes, I think the RAW is that you can only move shrouds if you don't invoke them (or if someone else lands the killing blow, which obviously wouldn't involve you invoking). \$\endgroup\$
    – Oblivious Sage ♦
    Commented Aug 25, 2015 at 13:01

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