Beacon of Hope and Burning Hands clarification (4e)

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1. Beacon of Hope
Flavor-wise, love this one in play as it lasts the whole encounter and has that 'ah-ah!' Angels-singing factor....however, not to sure on the mechanical effect:

If you don't successfully roll vs each enemy in the burst area do all allies in the area still receive the healing?

I get everyone gaining 5 Hit Points straight away (or up to your max I assume) but then it says, "..and your healing powers restore +5 Hit Points until the end of the encounter."  How does that bit work - is everyone constantly topped up 5 whenever they're hit until the end of the fight? Or is just your PC?

2. Burning Hands

2d6+INT FIRE damage. It's not 'ongoing' so is the fire just for effect? Do we assume it burns itself out come the next round? Or is this DM's discretion. Our Wizard scorched some the Skeletons were magical we assumed they didn't burn just became 'disoriented/combat disadv' for a another round....?

Appreciate any clarification
Just as a note, Rules in 4E mean literally how they read. They are generally very strict and use language in such a way as to minimize ambiguity (sometimes not the case, but in general, they are good).

That said, the following answers your question.


Beacon of Hope

You release a burst of divine energy that weakens your foes even as it heals your allies. The energy lingers within your holy symbol for a short time, improving your ability to heal your allies.

Daily        Divine, Healing, Implement
Standard Action      Close burst 3

Target: Each enemy in the burst

Attack: Wisdom vs. Will

Hit: The target is weakened until the end of its next turn.

Effect: You and each ally in the burst regain 5 hit points. Until the end of the encounter, whenever you restore hit points with a healing power, the recipient regains 5 additional hit points.

Any power with an 'effect' has the effect happen regardless of whether the power hits or misses. The effect is exactly that, an effect that happens by using the power. As the power says, when you restore hit points with a healing power, you +5 to the HP healed. So if you use 'Healing Word' on an ally or yourself, they/you get the normal healing + 5. This will be any power with the healing keyword.


Burning Hands

A gout of flame erupts from your hands and scorches nearby foes.

Encounter        Arcane, Evocation, Fire, Implement
Standard Action      Close blast 5

Target: Each creature in the blast

Attack: Intelligence vs. Reflex

Hit: 2d6 + Intelligence modifier fire damage.

Miss: Half damage.


A power lists the exact effect that it causes. Burning hands does fire damage. That means any damage it causes is of the type fire. If the monster resists fire damage, then it will resist this damage. If it is vulnerable to fire damage, then it will take more damage from this damage. No monster will become 'disorinted/combat disadvantage' from this power as the power does not state it causes this effect. It just hurts them, with fire, and that is that. If the power causes ongoing damage, it will explicitly state this.

Basically you want to avoid trying to 'read to much into' the rules or trying to decide for yourself what a power/effect does. It does exactly what it states it does, no more, no less. If you want it to do more, then it will be a houserule from your DM, but your risk seriously imbalancing the game as you might allow 'at will' powers to do far greater effects than they are designed to do.

Thanks - that's clearer. Although the two Power stats you supply are slightly different to what I'm reading from my book (and the Beacon one is clearer)-PHB1. Have these been 'corrected' since publication...?
Ah, yes, they do 'errata' the books if the initial publication is ambigious in any way.

If you have the access, visit the compendium

otherwise the all erratas are available here

Sometimes the compendium is a bit more clear as they reformat the wordings to work in the web better. Other times it can be confusing as it isn't correctly formatted and the book is better. These types of differences won't be in the errata (I.E, the Beacon of Hope change is not in the errata that I can see, it was just rejigged for web display).