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I'm in a 4E dnd game, built from lvl1, and we're lvl6 now. My build is a fighter/ranger polearm fighter, kind of a striker/defender build, combining the whole polearm proning with high damage attacks, using either when needed.

Anyway, I was looking at Polearm Gamble at lvl11, and wondering what to take next. I saw Repel charge, and I was curious if having Polearm Gamble negated the need for Repel Charge. There's a million articles on forced movement and Polearm Gamble, but nothing about Repel Charge.

If anyone is interested in my build, I think it will work pretty well and I've tried to make it different enough to not be cookie cutter.

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up vote 6 down vote accepted

Stick with Polearm Gamble

If you have any kind of forced movement on your OA (and especially if it can trigger Polearm Momentum), then Polearm Gamble is almost strictly better than Repel Charge. Polearm Gamble works when an enemy enters an adjacent square for any reason (except forced movement, and possibly shifts as described in the comments below), while Repel Charge only works if they charge you; not the guy next to you, not someone beyond you, only you.

The sole advantage of Repel Charge is that it doesn't make you grant combat advantage to the enemy, but if your opportunity attack can either push 1 or push 2+ and knock prone (with Polearm Momentum), then you don't care about granting combat advantage because they won't be able to attack you.

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I've seen a reference to Polearm Gamble being errated to not affect shifts. Damned if I can find what they were actually talking about in that errata document though. –  Simon Gill Nov 2 '12 at 16:53
It's the part of the errata document that talks about shifting, lower left of page 3. I'd say it's up to the DM whether that applies to Polearm Gamble, though; it just says shifting doesn't provoke OAs, and Polearm Gamble doesn't say enemies provoke an OA when they move next to you, it says you can make an OA against them when they move adjacent to you. A rules lawyer would say that since Polearm Gamble says nothing about provoking OAs that shifts not provoking OAs doesn't exempt them from Polearm Gamble attacks. Take it to a new question if you disagree with that interpretation. –  Oblivious Sage Nov 2 '12 at 17:08
I would agree with that wording, since a power or feat bending the rules for specific instances is the basic concept behind their power. Thanks for the replies, much appreciated. –  Squirreljester Nov 2 '12 at 19:42
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