Just a quick question. A Samurai gets resolve back when he defeats the target of his challenge. Does the final blow have to come from the Samurai or does he still get resolve back if one of his allies puts down the challenged opponent?
Good question and the answer is kind of fuzzy. Here is my take and why...
Whenever the samurai defeats the target of his challenge, he regains one daily use of his resolve, up to his maximum number of uses per day. Defeating the target of his challenge usually involves reducing the target to 0 hit points or fewer, but the GM might rule that an enemy who surrenders or flees the battle is also defeated.
I would say the letter of the law (so to speak) is that the Samurai has to be the one who reduces the opponent to 0 HP. Then I would use the GM rule part to adjudicate the situation based on the order of the Samurai. So if they were Cockatrice or Ronin (depending on how they design their own code) I might leave it that way. If they were part of an order that encourages or even demands teamwork I would rule in favor of it counting even if their ally strikes the killing blow.
That all said, I would actually house rule it as it does not need to be the samurai striking the final blow as I want to encourage my players to work together, not encourage people to kill steal from one another.
Sean Mahoney