Elro the Onk's page

Simple question. Probably a simple answer ("no"). But I realised I'm not 100% sure.

The context is the extra action from the Haste spell. It's almost certainly supposed to be limited in applicability, but Sneak seems kind-of in zone.

Relevant rules text:

It gains the quickened condition and can use the extra action each round only for Strike and Stride actions.

So far so good, though it doesn't quite say "the" Strike and Stride [basic] actions.

Most notably, you’ll use Interact, Step, Stride, and Strike a great deal. Many feats and other actions call upon you to use one of these basic actions or modify them to produce different effects. For example, a more complex action might let you Stride up to double your Speed instead of just up to your Speed, and a large number of activities include a Strike.

Hmm. This talks about "modifying" the basic actions. Is a "modified" basic Stride action still a Stride action?

You can attempt to move to another place while becoming or staying undetected. Stride up to half your Speed. (You can use Sneak while Burrowing, Climbing, Flying, or Swimming instead of Striding if you have the corresponding movement type; you must move at half that Speed.)

That's certainly a Stride in there. Does that mean it's a Stride action?

So Wall of Stone creates a 120 ft. long, 20 ft. high wall. It can be shaped, but lacks the text from Wall of Thorns "the wall can be of a shorter length or height". By inference, Wall of Stone can't be shortened - this seems to make its utility seriously limited in most dungeon (or even fairly big cavern) type environments, given that it must be placed in unbroken empty space. It's only really useful RAW for vertically partitioning enormous caverns (or clear outside areas), or bridging canyons that are ~100 ft. wide...

(It's also not clear - given that it's only shapeable on 5 ft. square boundaries - how it can be used to make the "set of stairs" in its example text. Surely stairs with a 5 ft. rise only??)

Could we get the text cleaned up a bit to at least 1) allow shorter/narrower bridges; 2) allow the kind of "crumple" shaping necessary to make stairs?

The Conditions section can be reasonably read that Enfeebled ("... conditional penalty ... to attack rolls, damage rolls, and Strength-based checks") applies to all attacks, irrespective of whether melee/ranged/Finesse or not, and similarly Sluggish ("... conditional penalty ... to AC, attack rolls, Dexterity-based checks, and Reflex saves").

At first I thought this was loose language (i.e. Enfeebled should have specifically stated it applied only to STR-based attacks, and Sluggish to DEX-based attacks), then I decided it was a sensible simplification.

On reading through the spells though, the various Form spells take care to specify which stat they use (viz Aerial Form "... These are Dexterity-based (for the purpose of sluggish, for example)" and Animal Form "These are Strength-based (for the purpose of enfeebled, for example)") - this seems inconsistent with a RAW reading that Enfeebled and Sluggish apply to all attacks, irrespective of the ability modifier involved.

It seems that either the spells could be simplified, or that the conditions should specifiy STR- and DEX- based attacks. Presumably there's a similar case for Sluggish not Enfeebled applying to the Rogue's Dex to damage

Am I missing something?

So ... engine damage causes a penalty on pilot actions (p321).

Does this include the Piloting check at the commencement of the Helm phase to see who goes last (p317)?

RAW I think probably not, as this check is not listed as a pilot action (p324).

But, the simple Fly action doesn't require a check. Neither does the Glide minor action (p326), whose text ("... if no other pilot actions") is certainly suggestive that it counts as one, and therefore that the list on p324 is not exhaustive.

It seems to me like there should be some penalty for all movement, especially at higher states of damage (beyond Glitching). One obvious penalty would be to decrease your chance of going last, by having the engine damage penalty also apply to the initial Helm check.

What do you guys think?