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So I was working on a Barbarian, and when I was looking at weapons I noticed the Charge trait on the Lance.
If you moved at least 10 feet on the action before your attack, add a circumstance bonus to damage for that attack equal to the number of damage dice for the weapon.
So I was thinking, that seems pretty cool. But then I thought about it. It explicitly only works if the action before your attack was a movement. As a melee Barbarian I of course have the Sudden Charge feat, which lets you move up to double your speed and Strike as a single two-action activity. So I'm just curious how these two interact? There's two real ways I can see it working:
- The "Move up to twice your speed" part of Sudden Charge is the first 'action' of the Activity, and thus it would meet the conditions of the Charge trait.
- You would have to take a Stride (or other movement) action that moves at least 10 feet before performing the Sudden Charge in order for the Charge trait to trigger.
I'm curious which it's supposed to be. I hope it's the first one, but suspect it's the second. If it is the first, it might be worth making that more clear, and if it's the second... I'm curious as to why that is, whether it's an oversight or some kind of balancing function or something.
It seems obvious to me that spirit of the rules should be that these work together.
I was just writing how despite that, the first argument seems strained on its own merit, but reading p. 296 more closely I'd say that's what the letter of the rules says as well:
"An activity typically involves spending multiple actions
to create an effect that’s different from merely the sum of
those actions."
"An action, activity, free action, or reaction might call
on you to use a simpler ability—usually one of the
actions under Basic Actions on page 307—in a different
circumstance or with different effects. The dependent
ability still has its normal traits and is modified in any
ways listed in the more complex ability. For example,
an activity that tells you to Stride up to double your
Speed modifies the Stride action by changing how far
you can move."
... actually, reading p. 296 even more closely:
"An activity doesn’t count as any of its dependent actions
or other abilities. [...]
As another example, if you took an action that specified,
“If the next action you use is a Strike,” an activity that
includes a Strike wouldn’t count, because the next thing
you are doing is starting an activity, not using the Strike
basic action."
So it seems that Sudden Charge is a 2 action activity, that does indeed include a Stride dependent ability and a Strike dependent ability, but not a Stride or a Strike action?
So wording like "if you Stride" works with Sudden Charge, but wording like "if your next action is a Stride" doesn't?
I would expect that's not the intent, and even if it is, it's pretty obscure.
Fortunately that exact rule doesn't apply because the Charge trait calls out neither Stride nor Strike, but it does call out separate actions so it really comes down to can you trigger a multiple-Action ability off of an Activity.