| tadrinth |
| 18 people marked this as FAQ candidate. 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I am looking to play a Holy Tactician Paladin (from ultimate combat). However, the Battlefield Presence ability isn't worded spectacularly well.
You grant allies a teamwork fight by using a standard action. The ability does not list a duration, but it says that you 'direct your allies in battle.' Because it's a standard action and because it says 'in battle' my DM is ruling that I have to activate it as a standard action at the start of every battle. He doesn't think a duration of 'forever' is reasonable. The only ability I know of that only works in combat is the various Style feats, which specifically state that you have to turn them on at the start of a fight. Those are swift actions, though. I don't know of any class abilities which only last until the end of battle; everything either has a listed duration or lasts until you rest.
The most similar ability is the cavalier's Tactician ability, which is also a standard action but has both limited uses per day and a duration of rounds. The fact that the paladin version doesn't have limited uses makes me think it might really be intended to last all day. Or, that they just completely forgot to put any limits on it.
On the other hand, if it really does last all day, why does it need a standard action to activate?
The ability doesn't function while you're flatfooted or unconscious. Does that mean the bonus is suppressed while flatfooted or unconscious, or that they lose the teamwork feat and I have to spend a standard action to reactivate it? If they lose the feat entirely when I'm flatfooted, then I always have to activate the ability at the start of the battle because I'm flatfooted until I go (unless I go first, in which case arguably I'm never flatfooted). Unless of course I do some crazy rogue multiclass in order to never be flat-footed.
The ability grants the feat to allies within 30', and only functions as long as they can see and hear me. Does that mean if they go farther away than 30', they lose the benefit? Because that would be pretty useless, as soon as a party member charges they'll probably be outside of range.
The errata for Ultimate Combat doesn't mention it at all at the moment.