An Ogre with Knockback hits a Hero for enough damage to kill that Hero. The Hero has the Divine Intervention Skill (kills all unnamed monsters within 3 spaces)

Which triggers first? If Knockback triggers first the Hero can be moved three spaces thus preventing the Ogre from dying in the DI blast. If DI triggers first, the Ogre is toast.

read the rulebook. it is clear standing there that knockback is resolved first

Turric4n said:

It is?

Knockback says that it takes effect "after inflicting damage with an attack." (p.22)

Divine Retribution is not in the rulebook at all, being a skill, but it says that it takes effect "when you are killed by an enemy figure."

A hero is killed "when a hero loses his last wound token" (p.16)

The rules for the attack resolution sequence (p. 9-11) aren't terribly clear, and don't seem entirely in order; they also seem to jump straight from calculating damage to applying wounds without even explicitly converting one into the other ("To determine actual damage dealt, simply subtract the target’s armor rating from the total damage dealt to it...For each wound a hero suffers..." p.11). There is nothing that lists when secondary attack effects like Burn or Knockback should take place, as far as I can tell.

What part of the rules makes it clear to you that Knockback is resolved first?

the part that you convieniently left out:

Knockback
After inflicting at least 1 damage (before applying the
effects of armor) to a figure with a Knockback attack,
the attacker may immediately move each affected target
figure up to three spaces away from its current location.

emphasis by me.

Btw rulebook page 10:

in step 5 of the combat all surges and abilitys are used. in step 6 wounds are applied and after the wounds of a figure drop to zero it dies.

"Before the effects of armor" is generally taken as a clarification that it triggers off the attack's total damage, rather than the wounds actually inflicted. It should be noted that in the abilities summary on the back of the WoD, AoD, and ToI manuals, that parenthetical is replaced with a footnote that says "determine whether damage is inflicted before applying the effects of armor," so taking it as meaning anything else is extremely dubious.

Nothing I can find in step 5 says that abilities are used--it says power enhancements, surges, and fatigue. In fact, you can gain additional abilities during step 5 by spending surges, which suggests that abilities must be used after that point. Which is actually good for your argument, since if Knockback occurred during step 5, that would directly contradict your reading of the timing based on the text of the Knockback ability that says it occurs during step 6 between between when total attack damage is calculated and when armor is subtracted.

And in fact, there can't possible be one single point in the sequence where all attack abilities are applied, since some (e.g. Sorcery) can change whether the attack succeeds or causes damage, while others (e.g. Knockback) are dependent on whether the attack succeeds or causes damage.

I think this question could very reasonably go on the list that Thundercles is preparing to send to FFG.

Anitistone FTW...lol

In the past, I have ruled it as the hero gets knocked back before DI triggers. Mainly based on the "Immediately" in the knockback rules.

The guys I am playing with now didn't think it was logical that a hero could knock a monster over their head and back 10 spaces around corners. I tired to argue that RAW its allowed, but it was 2 against 1. I also tried to tell them that Logic + Descent = Madness. Oh well.

still.. damage are not wounds. wounds is the result out of all abilitys and dice involved in the attack. another hint is that one sequence should be resolved in its entirety before continuing with the next (faq page 5).

now to make things more complicated we will hit corbin (-1 wound) with the knockback and slam him into a pit. will he get -1 wound or -1 and cancel the pit damage?

Until this become clarified in a FAQ, and will all due respect to Antistone, the general consensus on this question has always been (on both the older boards and this board) that Knockback happens first and then DR happens. If the general consensus is wrong and it is officially clarified, fine. Until then, I would recommend that you go with the quite reasonable general consensus.

What happens in this situation if the Riposte feat is played? The card states : Play after a monster has attacked you with a melee attack. If able, you may immediately attack that monster. After your attack, the overlord resumes his turn as normal.

As far as I can tell, the feat can only take effect after you have been attacked, which would mean after the dice have been rolled. Does that mean that damage is rolled, if there is at least one damage on the dice the figure is knocked back three squares immediately, then damage is applied, causing wounds and possibly death. If the hero dies, Divine Retribution takes effect at this point. If he survives, he could play Riposte now that the attack is resolved, but would most likely be unable to reach the attacker, making this feat useless against monsters with knockback?

I read Riposte as happening after the attack is completely resolved, and therefore after you are moved by Knockback, whether that happens before or after you suffer wounds.

And I'm really not concerned if Riposte is useless against monsters with Knockback. That represents a small fraction of monsters that are kind of on the sucky side anyway. Also, it's not really true, as there's lots of situations in which a monster with Knockback may choose to place you in a location that's still adjacent to itself (this is required if a large monster wants to throw you behind its back, for example), and the OL doesn't know whether you have the feat or not.

True, but this wasn't really intended as a comment about the usefulness of the feat. I still should have said ''less useful'' rather than ''useless'' against monsters with knockback. I was just curious because the situation arose during one of the last games we played and I was pretty sure we didn't play it right, so I needed to clarify ''after being attacked'' and the timing of knockback. Thanks.