Incremental Elemental Assault Feat Clarification


Rules Questions


1 person marked this as FAQ candidate.

I am a little confused in trying to understand the RAI of this feat, and would request that a FAQ/Clarification be made (and your help with it would be appreciated).

Here's the Issue:
Incremental Elemental Assault Feat wrote:

You may activate and quench your elemental assault ability multiple times per day.

Prerequisites: Suli.

Benefits: You may use your elemental assault ability in 1-round increments, up to a maximum number of rounds per day equal to your character level. These rounds do not have to be consecutive. Activating the ability is a swift action; ending it is a free action.

Normal: You can use elemental assault once per day. It lasts a number of rounds equal to your class level.

Elemental Assault wrote:
Elemental Assault (Su): Once per day as a swift action, a suli can shroud her arms in acid, cold, electricity, or fire. This lasts for one round per level, and can be dismissed as a free action. Unarmed strikes with her arms or hands (or attacks with weapons held in those hands) deal +1d6 points of damage of the appropriate energy type.

The bolded parts in each of the quotes seem to tell me that the feat only allows you to use the Elemental Assault trait as a Swift Action for 1 Round. If you want to keep using the ability, you must spend a Swift Action each round in order to maintain it.

However, re-reading the zoomed-in text (the enlarged text, more-or-less) it then seems to imply that the feat allows you to disable the ability as a Free Action at any point during your turn in a given round, meaning that the ability is constant.

With both of these interpretations conflicting, which one is the correct one to implement? Does the feat allow you to enter and exit the Elemental Assault trait in 1-Round Increments (up to your level), or does it require you to utilize a Swift Action each turn to maintain the trait, having it otherwise fade as a Free Action (and your other rounds are still available)?

Some (official-preferred) clarification would be grateful. I could just be reading too far into it, but with stuff like this, you can't be too sure. If you too would like an answer to this question, please hit the FAQ button, in hopes that an answer is provided. Thanks!


The ability is constant, you do not need to spend an action reactivating it every round. The difference is that if you end it without Incremental, your once per day ability has been used up and you cannot activate it again until the next day, but if you have Incremental and end it, you can activate it again later that day as long as you have rounds of duration left.


Moglun wrote:
The ability is constant, you do not need to spend an action reactivating it every round. The difference is that if you end it without Incremental, your once per day ability has been used up and you cannot activate it again until the next day, but if you have Incremental and end it, you can activate it again later that day as long as you have rounds of duration left.

It doesn't say that it lasts until you run out of rounds or until you discharge it, whichever comes first, only that you can activate it in single-round increments; this would be taken to mean that you activate the ability for a Single Round, and then it stops working. However, there is also wording that suggests what you propose, but the RAW is conflicting, resulting in one or the other (but not both); hence why I am asking for an answer.


There is no listed action to maintain, so therefor no action is needed to maintain it. With the feat, you may use it in 1-round increments, so after your first turn, you may choose to continue using it, or end it with a free action and activate it again with a swift action later. If you have used all of your rounds, then you can't use it anymore.


Normally you may not use it in one round increments, rather you can use it once a day. The feat allows you to use it in increments as low as one round. That's why it says you may, not you must.


...that's somewhat confusing.


CrystalSpellblade wrote:
There is no listed action to maintain, so therefor no action is needed to maintain it. With the feat, you may use it in 1-round increments, so after your first turn, you may choose to continue using it, or end it with a free action and activate it again with a swift action later. If you have used all of your rounds, then you can't use it anymore.

That's not what the RAW says. RAW says you may activate the ability in 1-round increments, and that activating it is still a swift action. RAI would seem to imply that, but RAW says you can activate it as 1-round increments, and that activating it (in 1-round increments) is [still] a swift action.

The thing is, the RAW conflicts with the RAI, and a change should be applied to reflect the RAI, since the RAW doesn't seem to do so very well.

@ Scythia: I did notice that you can choose to activate it as a 1-round increment for a swift action (keeping all your other rounds you would otherwise have) until you have no rounds left, or you can activate it once per day as a swift action as the rounds burn away. The feat allows you to have that first option, though why would they add in the "ending it is a free action" clause if the effect is technically already dispersed by then?

You see the dilemma? It can be either your interpretation (where it gives them a choice to only have to spend it as 1-round increments, but consumes any other Swift Actions they may take for the round to activate it each round), or it can be Crystal's interpretation (you can activate it as a Swift Action, and dismiss it as a Free Action, though one round must elapse before you can do so, and can continue to do this until you run out of round per day). By RAW, both can technically be correct, but they are also mutually exclusive, since using one interpretation invalidates the other.


I understand what you're saying. However, if it was intended to only last for one round increments, there would be no free action to end it, it would expire automatically at the end of the round. The inclusion of a method to end it suggests it continues unless ended.

Given the precedent of rounds per level per day sorcerer bloodline powers, which also may be used in one round increments, I'd say the meaning is reasonably clear. Not to say you can't use whatever one you like.


The word -May- is the key in the ability.

Darksol wrote:


That's not what the RAW says. RAW says you may activate the ability in 1-round increments, and that activating it is still a swift action.

Correction, it says you "may -use- the ability in 1 round increments", not you "may -activate- the ability in one round increments". If it did say that, like you had typed, then you would be correct and it would burn your swift action every round, which would suck.

With Elemental Assault:
You -May- use the ability as a swift action, maintain it as long as you like up to one round per level for no action, and dismiss it as a free action, using all rounds in one shot, but if you dismiss it before it expires, that's your one for the day.

Or , with Incremental you -may- :
Use your normal Elemental Assault ability, or Use the ability as a swift action, maintain it for as long as you like for no action, dismiss it as a free action, and so long as you have rounds left in the day, re-activate it as a swift action sometime later, maintain it for however many rounds for no action, and dismiss it again as a free action, until you run out of rounds.

For it to function as you worried about, it would have to state "This ability -must- be used in one round increments." not use the word -may-. Or have been as you typed and use the word -activate- in the first line, instead of -use-.


The problem I see is more that you can't use it in 1 round increments because you need a free action to end, which you can't do out of your turn.
So you either end it before your turn ends (and don't have it for AoOs or you keep it running, which yould use up another round once your next turn starts.


@ TGMaxMaxer: Hmmm...the term "use" can be fairly ambiguous in regards to intent. The Defending weapon property is a prime example of this, in that the PC must make attacks with it in order to utilize its power.

The same concept here, "use" can mean to just have the ability constantly active, but can only be disabled in one-round increments. It can also be intrajectory for the term "activate," since in a given sentence (e.g. "I will use the Staff's Powers." v.s. "I will activate the Staff's Powers.") they are almost identical.

RAI, I will agree that you would be correct in your assumption and would concede to that. RAW, however, my stance is still maintained.

Community / Forums / Pathfinder / Pathfinder First Edition / Rules Questions / Incremental Elemental Assault Feat Clarification All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in.