Coup de grace vs Temp HP / DR

[Brotato]

So a scenario played out last night in the RotR game I'm GMing that originally ended with one dead player but was rewound due to a curious turn of events.

RotR Chapter 2 Spoilers:

So it's Chapter 2 and the PCs are desperately trying to follow Iesha as she makes a beeline for Aldern. Everything's going ok until they get pincered by the goblin ghasts and the 4 ghouls from the side passage. I allow certain standing orders as I'm aware that my players, playing only once a week, can forget things that their characters, who live the adventure never would. The character (a sohei/rogue) in question has the Sihedron medallion and has a standing order that he activates the False Life effect when he reaches 50% health, unless he tells me otherwise. The PCs have fought the ghouls from the farms and made high Know(religion) checks, so they were familiar with the ghoul tactic of CDG on a paralyzed target.

So the PC gets paralyzed by a ghast for 2 rounds. His turn comes and goes, and then a ghoul shifts in and starts a CDG, but is split in half by the Oracle's AoO. Another ghoul then shifts into range and completes the CDG (no combat reflexes on the Oracle) but only rolls 6 damage. Even so, the rogue fails the 16 Fort save, and that appears to be that.

However, directly after the combat, as I'm assuring the player that the character can be rezzed easily enough and that he can help me during the short time his character will be down, the player playing the sorcerer mentions the False Life effect. This is obviously one of those situations where the character would have thought to try this last ditch gambit, even though none of us, myself included, had.

After some rules digging and conversation, I can't find any reason to say that activating the False Life effect is anything but a purely mental action. Even if the roll was minimum, that would be 6 temp hp, which would have completely absorbed the damage in the first place. Since the rogue never actually took damage, I ruled that there was no system shock, and so no Fort save was needed. The rogue lives yet again (this is not the first time he's been on death's door.)

While I'm confident in my ruling and am not likely to change it, I'm curious as to what others would rule given their interpretation of the rules at play here. If the damage from a CDG fails to pierce a temp hp shield or even DR, do you think the creature should still have to make a Fort save or die, and why would you rule that way? If you do, what should that DC be and why?

[Jeraa]

Quote:

You automatically hit and score a critical hit. If the defender survives the damage, he must make a Fortitude save (DC 10 + damage dealt) or die. A rogue also gets her extra sneak attack damage against a helpless opponent when delivering a coup de grace.

If DR negates all of the damage, then the character took no damage. Therefore, the save should never be triggered, as it requires you to survive the damage - damage which you never took. The attack was negated.

Quote:

Whenever damage reduction completely negates the damage from an attack, it also negates most special effects that accompany the attack, such as injury poison, a monk's stunning, and injury-based disease. Damage reduction does not negate touch attacks, energy damage dealt along with an attack, or energy drains. Nor does it affect poisons or diseases delivered by inhalation, ingestion, or contact.

Temporary hit points, however, are still hit points. The rogue still took damage, even if it was only to hit temporary his points.

[Majuba]

In a home game, I'd make the exact same determination Brotato. I do agree with Jeraa as far as how to rule it though.

[Anguish]

Brotato wrote:

So the PC gets paralyzed by a ghast for 2 rounds. His turn comes and goes, and then a ghoul shifts in and starts a CDG, but is split in half by the Oracle's AoO. Another ghoul then shifts into range and completes the CDG (no combat reflexes on the Oracle) but only rolls 6 damage.

Can I get some clarity here? The original ruling that temporary hit points don't play into the matter is correct. That said, maybe I'm mis-reading this but the CDG shouldn't've happened in the first place.

Ghoul A "starts a CDG" but is stopped.
Ghoul B "completes the CDG" after "shifting into range". You specifically call out that the Oracle doesn't have Combat Reflexes, which means said shifting wasn't a 5ft step. It was a move or it wouldn't have provoked and you wouldn't be mentioning the lack of the feat.

So how does THAT work? CDG is a full-round action. Ghoul A failed. Ghoul B can't CDG on its turn. It can start a CDG as a standard, but finishes its CDG as a standard on its own next turn. It can't move, then use a standard to in any way finish Ghoul A's work.

Am I mis-reading what you're writing?

[Tarantula]

CDG also provokes Anguish. I think he was saying the oracle stopped the first CDG with his AoO, but was unable to take a second AoO against the other CDG.

[Majuba]

What Tarantula said, plus:

Anguish wrote:

Ghoul B "completes the CDG" after "shifting into range".

"Shift" is a 4e term for 5' step I believe.