Can this Pact Hag power make the target move?

Question

So in D&D 4e, Monster Manual 3, there's the Pact Hag (p.108).

One of their attacks is the Compelling staff. The description says this: "Hit: 1d6 + 5 damage, and the target makes a melee basic attack as a free action against a creature of the hag's choice."

Now, my question is: can the target perform a move action to move towards the second target, before doing their melee basic attack?

The description doesn't seem to imply so. But it seems to me that, if the target cannot move at all and HAS to attack someone that's adjacent to them, then it seems to me that this Hag power is not really that great at all. Because I don't really see a lot of situations in a combat encounter in whihc two PCs will be directly adjacent one to another. It can happen sure, but it probably won't happen that often.

Answer 1

No, the target cannot move.

The ability doesn't say that the target moves, so the target doesn't move.

However, this does not make the ability useless! A melee basic attack targets one creature within melee range, and there is always at least one valid target within melee range: the creature making the melee attack. While the best case is obviously to have a target with a good MBA whale on its squishy allies, the hag can always just have the target attack itself.