Assist

[Gaterie]

Let's assume I play a goblin sorcerer named Jar-Jar with Str 8, I have a dagger (attack +0) and a sawtooth sabre because why not (attack -2).

My friend is a fighter named Steve with Dex 16 and a breastplate and a shield, total AC 19.

We're fighting John-Bob Goblin, a random level 0 goblin who happens to be better than my friend at using weapon (attack +6) because why not, and he has AC 14.

I don't want to spend spell or limited ressources on a random level 0 goblin, even knowing he's the famous John-Bob and his legendary weapon training.

Case 1: I draw my dagger and assist Steve.

I roll attack (+0) against AC 14, I have 20% chance of giving a +2 circumstance to John-Bob, 30% chance of giving the same bonus to Steve, 5% chance of giving double bonus to Steve.
Average: +0.4 to Steve.

Then I assist again, my to-hit bonus is -3. I have 45% chance of giving a +2 circumstance to John-Bob, 5% chance of giving the same bonus to Steve, 5% chance of giving double bonus to Steve.
Average: -0.6 to Steve.

Since I'm highly motivated, I assist a third time with a to-hit of -8. I have 70% chance of giving a +2 circumstance to John-Bob and 5% chance of giving the same bonus to Steve.
Average: -1.3 to Steve.

Note about stacking effects: the effect caps at -2 attack for John-Bob/+2 attack to Steve.

Case 2: I shoot "Aha, I've deceived you Steve! I was working with John-Bob since the beginning!". While Steve shoots "oh no, I didn't see it coming !" and the combat music becomes more epic to outline the drama, I draw my sawtooth sabre and assist John-Bob.

I roll attack (-2) against AC 19, I have 5% chance of giving a +2 circumstance to John-Bob and 55% chance of giving the same bonus to Steve.
Average: +1 to Steve.

Then I assist again, my to-hit bonus is -7. I have 5% chance of giving a +2 circumstance to John-Bob and 80% chance of giving the same bonus to Steve.
Average: +1.5 to Steve.

Since I'm highly motivated, I assist a third time with a to-hit of -12. I have 5% chance of giving a +2 circumstance to John-Bob and 95% chance of giving the same bonus to Steve.
Average: +1.8 to Steve.

Note about stacking effects: the effect caps at +2 attack to Steve, but I can give -infinity attack to John-Bob.

Questions: Why would I assist my ally? Shouldn't I betray them at every fight and assist their enemy? Added bonus: more drama, more epic music.

Even for a martial character, it seems pretty reasonable to make the following sequence of actions: attack the enemy with a melee weapon/attack the enemy with a melee weapon/assist the enemy with unarmed strike.

Subsidiary question: If I'm charmed/dominated, can I assist my master or is it metagaming?

[Long John]

You should have named your character Elan. And then everything would make sense that he makes things better by trying to make them worse.

[Gaterie]

Anyway, I forgot goblins don't have strength penalty, so Jar-Jar doesn't work as advertised. Let's replace him with a gnome bard named Elan.

[Mudfoot]

Well spotted, sir.

In similar vein, you might try healing the enemy with Medicine. On a critical fail, you do 1d10 damage, and can do this 3 times per round. As it's DC20, doing that untrained with low Wisdom is pretty lethal. It's a Manipulate action, but as the enemy probably doesn't get AoOs you should be OK. Just don't roll a 20 by mistake.

This doesn't work at higher levels, of course, but by then 3d10 per round isn't so exciting. Unless you take the Assurance feat, in which case you'll always get an end result of 10 and so always critically fail!

Finally, a genuine use for Assurance! Bells ring, banners fly, etc.

[Zwordsman]

I really do wish that Assit was TAC at the least.. if nots something else..

its not like we're hitting.
we're distracting and making an opening for others...

[Gaterie]

Zwordsman wrote:

I really do wish that Assit was TAC at the least.. if nots something else..

It wouldn't change anything since the TAC is always within 3 point of the AC; for most characters, it's easier to hit the AC of an enemy with a sword than hitting the TAC of an ally with a kick. Just kick your allies with your third attack to help them.

I don't even know why this TAC concept exist, except to make everything more complicated and confusing. They could write "you get a +2 to hit" and be done and the result would be the same.

[ErichAD]

It's unfortunate you can't assist or battle medic creatures that aren't allies, otherwise I'd roll these character concepts right out just to see how people responded.

Assist is pretty lame and too dangerous. I'm not sure what it's there for or why. Is this what alchemists are supposed to do when you're out of resonance?

[Gaterie]

ErichAD wrote:

It's unfortunate you can't assist or battle medic creatures that aren't allies, otherwise I'd roll these character concepts right out just to see how people responded.

Ally isn't defined as a game term. As far as I know, you can simply betray your party and declare their enemies are your allies.

[Elleth]

I need to check the assist rules but you'd think that, given the usual wording of things in this system, the recipient should be willing.

If this isn't mentioned it probably needs a small edit.