Stunt and Strike as utility?

[Obdurator]

I'm taking a look at the Stunt and Strike alternate feature for operatives from the Character Operations Manual, and I'm fascinated by how useful many of these stunts are. And this brings up a question about the use of Stunt and Strike itself: Is it possible to benefit from these stunts when out of combat? Such a scenario could be: "I'm using Stunt and Strike with my unarmed strike to attack nothing, but I activate my Wordless Pidgin stunt to convey something to my buddies!"

Of course these have to be within reason. Such limits would be like using the Blindsense (Computers) stunt when you don't have access to a computer system or pulling off a Mighty Leap (Athletics) stunt when in zero-g. That I get, but still I ask, "Can these stunts be used outside of combat?"

If so, then the things operatives can do may have gotten more ridiculous.

[thistledown]

Stunt & Strike is also great when you only want to do a 1 or 2 level dip into Operative.

[HammerJack]

You run into a lot of detail problems like "the DC of your skill check is based on the enemy you don't have and aren't attacking".

As a Rules question, I think the answer is "in combat isn't the issue, exactly, but to use Stunt and Strike, you have to use Stunt and Strike, which involves attacking someone."

As an Advice answer, I think the best answer is "Maybe. Handle specific stunts and circumstances case-by-case and give narrative consistenCy some weight."