Can a champion Refocus in combat?

[Ravingdork]

Can a paladin of Iomedae refocus while in combat since Iomedae's edicts include "fight for justice and honor" and Champion Refocus says you can use "the Refocus activity to pray to your deity or do service toward their causes."

For example, focus for 5 minutes while exploring an enemy stronghold, getting into a 10 round fight with a wondering patrol, and then spending the remaining 4 minutes finishing the refocusing while continuing onward.

Based on the above, I'm inclined to rule yes as a GM, but it's also my understanding that you're really not supposed to mix encounter and exploration activities, so I'm uncertain if that's the correct way to go (at least from a RAW standpoint).

[cavernshark]

Ravingdork wrote:

Based on the above, I'm inclined to rule yes as a GM, but it's also my understanding that you're really not supposed to mix encounter and exploration activities, so I'm uncertain if that's the correct way to go (at least from a RAW standpoint).

You just answered your own question.

Refocus wrote:

You spend 10 minutes performing deeds to restore your magical connection. This restores 1 Focus Point to your focus pool. The deeds you need to perform are specified in the class or ability that gives you your focus spells. These deeds can usually overlap with other tasks that relate to the source of your focus spells. For instance, a cleric with focus spells from a good deity can usually Refocus while tending the wounds of their allies, and a wizard of the illusionist school might be able to Refocus while attempting to Identify Magic of the illusion school.

As the GM you determined that fighting a wandering patrol counts as "figthing for honor and justice" and that overlaps the Refocus activity. If the wandering patrol is just some wild animal, it might not count, but again that comes to your judgement at the GM.

[Lightdroplet]

I wouldn't allow it, not because of anything with the Paladin class, but rather out of fairness with the other classes who can't Refocus in battle.
And also because it seems wierd to me to be allowed to both continue taking an exploration activity and fight at the same time, when the rules do call out that you can't take any other complex actions or activities while you are using an exploration/downtime activity.
Finally, Sorcerers would be a bit of an issue with this ruling because their Refocus does not require them to do anything specific, meaning they would always be recovering Focus Points, which to me seems a little bit unbalanced.

[Cordell Kintner]

I would not count the time in an Encounter toward refocusing, but if they wanted to refocus by "Slaying some of that Demon horde for 10 Minutes" and the demons are weak enough to not pose an actual challenge, then sure. It's flavorful and mechanically similar to other's refocusing so no one's getting an unfair advantage.

[PossibleCabbage]

If your combat is lasting for 100 rounds, something has gone terribly wrong.

If you're going from "patrol, to combat, to patrol" that's not one activity that's multiple activities, some of which are not exploration mode activities. So I lean "no" on refocusing.

Plus, when is the time table going to be so tight that "10 minutes to refocus" is going to be an issue but 5 minutes to do the same is not.

[Salamileg]

This is what the Desperate Prayer feat is for.

[Qaianna]

Salamileg wrote:

This is what the Desperate Prayer feat is for.

I'd have to agree. With a feat designed to do what you're asking, it seems like the idea of 'refocus in combat' has already been given thought. Something that can be done once per day when you are just Out Of Focus.

I'd grant it if you were studying or planning an assault, but I think the chaos of actual combat would detract from your ability to meditate and regain focus.

Core rulebook page 461 wrote:

You can often do other things off and on as you carry out these activities, provided they aren’t significant activities of their own. For instance, if you’re Repairing an item, you might stretch your legs or have a brief discussion, but you couldn’t Decipher Writing at the same time.

If an activity outside of an encounter is interrupted or disrupted, as described in Disrupting Actions below, you usually lose the time you put in, but no additional time.

In this case, you'd lose the five minutes of exploring because you've interrupted it with another significant activity, Fighting For Your Life (uses six seconds of game time, grants three actions you can use during an encounter). You could start refocusing after.

And if you fight one minute, then end, you've interrupted your Fighting For Your Life activity with something less stressful.

[The Raven Black]

Salamileg wrote:

This is what the Desperate Prayer feat is for.

No. OP is not asking to regain a focus point during combat (what Desperate Prayer is for).

However, I do not know when such a situation would happen when you are interrupted in your 10 minutes of focus, survive the encounter, then are again interrupted in your 10 minutes of focus.

In the end, I believe it makes no real difference to either allow it or forbid it.

[Ventnor]

No, I wouldn't allow it. The Refocus Activity has the Exploration tag, which means it can only be used in Exploration mode, not encounter mode.

[breithauptclan]

I would also forbid it solely for reasons of game mechanics and character balance.