Heart of the Streets: Humans from bustling cities are skilled with crowds. They gain a +1 bonus on Reflex saves and a +1 dodge bonus to armor Class when adjacent to at least two other allies. Crowds do not count as difficult terrain for them. This racial trait replaces the skilled racial trait.
Does the save bonus and the AC bonus only apply when next to 2 allies, or is that the case for the AC bonus (obvious) and you get a reflex save bonus all the time? I think the latter. Correct or confirm. Thanks.
The way I have read that alternate racial trait in the past is that you only get the +1 Reflex when adjacent to at least two other allies. So both of those benefits are only active if adjacent to two allies. I believe that to be their intention.
That is how I read it. Hope this helps :)
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Heart of the Streets: Humans from bustling cities are skilled with crowds. They gain a +1 bonus on Reflex saves and a +1 dodge bonus to armor Class when adjacent to at least two other allies. Crowds do not count as difficult terrain for them. This racial trait replaces the skilled racial trait.
Does the save bonus and the AC bonus only apply when next to 2 allies, or is that the case for the AC bonus (obvious) and you get a reflex save bonus all the time? I think the latter. Correct or confirm. Thanks.
Speaking from a semantic and syntax standpoint, the fact that there is no comma before the "and" means that both entities on either side of the "and" are conjunctive. Meaning they are equal and irrevocably connected to each other. Anybody remember Grammar Rock? Conjunction-junction what's your function? Anyone? No?
Simple version? The two bonuses always only apply when the character has two allies adjacent.
I'm with Robot on this one. If they had intended to give the save all the time, it would have read "They gain a +1 dodge bonus to Armor Class when adjacent to at least two other allies and a +1 bonus to reflex saves" or "They gain a +1 bonus on Reflex save, and they gain a +1 dodge bonus to Armor Class when adjacent to at least to other allies."
There are quite a few of these ambiguous rules out there (superstitious barbarian springs to mind), and I think the general assumption is that unless indicated otherwise, the adverbial phrase at the end applies to the whole sentence.
Heart of the Streets: Humans from bustling cities are skilled with crowds. They gain a +1 bonus on Reflex saves and a +1 dodge bonus to armor Class when adjacent to at least two other allies. Crowds do not count as difficult terrain for them. This racial trait replaces the skilled racial trait.
Does the save bonus and the AC bonus only apply when next to 2 allies, or is that the case for the AC bonus (obvious) and you get a reflex save bonus all the time? I think the latter. Correct or confirm. Thanks.
Speaking from a semantic and syntax standpoint, the fact that there is no comma before the "and" means that both entities on either side of the "and" are conjunctive. Meaning they are equal and irrevocably connected to each other. Anybody remember Grammar Rock? Conjunction-junction what's your function? Anyone? No?
Simple version? The two bonuses always only apply when the character has two allies adjacent.
No, it is not that clear cut. Syntactically it is ambiguous if the phrase "when adjacent to at least two other allies" applies to both halves of the sentence, or just to the understood subject of the second half. For example: "The boy held the office of class president of his elementary school and President of the United States when he grew up." Clearly, the boy was not class president of his elementary school when he grew up. "When he grew up" applies only to the second half of the sentence.
It is an awkward construction (relying on an understood, elided parallel construction), but it is a syntactically sound. Either interpretation works.
If there had been a comma before and, making it:
They gain a +1 bonus on Reflex saves, and a +1 dodge bonus to armor Class when adjacent to at least two other allies.
then it becomes a sentence fragment. the [words], and [words] construction implies that both [words] sections are independent clauses. They aren't here, so a comma just makes it wrong.
A lot of grammar science.
Okay, you definitely beat the grammar out of me. When I was saying "if" there was a comma, I was also implying that that would necessitate an implied subject after the comma. ", and they gain" which would be implied but does not need to be stated. Much like in your sentence about the President. I think, and this is just me, it would make more sense with a comma before the "and" so the adverbial phrase at the end doesn't get applied to anything it shouldn't have. This of course, again, necessitates inferring an implied subject in the second half. Or, as you point out, maybe put the adverbial phrase somewhere else so the confusion is gone. As I see it though, the lack of punctuation other than a period at the end, to me anyway, says the adverbial is meant to apply to both equally. If I were going to rewrite it it would look like this:
When the character is immediately adjacent to at least two allies they gain: a +1 bonus on Reflex saves and a +1 dodge bonus to Armor Class.
That makes it a lot clearer. I was about to post with the following (relevant text in bold):
Heart of the Streets: Humans from bustling cities are skilled with crowds. While adjacent to at least two allies they gain a +1 bonus on Reflex saves and a +1 dodge bonus to armor class. Crowds do not count as difficult terrain for them. This racial trait replaces the skilled racial trait.