IMO yes, and I had a PC who could leap & Strike who'd often just leap and swing at the air (to technically complete the action).
Of course then I knew beforehand.
I could see some similar abilities that imply some sort of commitment once begun or that the choice be made beforehand, though I wouldn't lean that direction without strong wording.
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Scout's Charge is very specific on the strike target ("Choose one enemy. Stride, Feint against that opponent, and then make a Strike against that foe.") so striking the ground or air is definitely not an option. Offhand, I'd say this is an "all or nothing" ability.
Honestly, I'm not really seeing a reason you would want to use this ability and not actually strike: I can see maybe not wanting to step out of a flanking position if your Skirmish Strike failed to down your foe, but I'm not seeing a equivalent scenario with the charge...
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I'm not sure what the point is of using the abilities without the strike. These activities combine multiple actions to save on action economy.
Skirmish Strike: Strike and Step (or reverse) for one action. Without striking, you can just Step for one action.
Scout's Charge: Stride, Feint, and Strike, for 2 actions. Without the Strike, that's a Stride and Feint, which is STILL two actions.
You aren't getting anything special by dropping the Strike part of the activity.
You might see something you hadn't, namely that the target wasn't actually an enemy because now you can see their holy symbol or maybe you've burst onto a stage and it's a fake scene.
Niche, yet in most cases I'd say one could stop.
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I'm not sure what the point is of using the abilities without the strike. These activities combine multiple actions to save on action economy.
Skirmish Strike: Strike and Step (or reverse) for one action. Without striking, you can just Step for one action.
Scout's Charge: Stride, Feint, and Strike, for 2 actions. Without the Strike, that's a Stride and Feint, which is STILL two actions.
You aren't getting anything special by dropping the Strike part of the activity.
There may be some odd cases with Skirmish Strike where the strike changes your tactical situation significantly (perhaps you were flanked and planned to step away, but you crit with your strike and unexpectedly dropped one of your flankers so you now want to stay where you are).
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There may be some odd cases with Skirmish Strike where the strike changes your tactical situation significantly (perhaps you were flanked and planned to step away, but you crit with your strike and unexpectedly dropped one of your flankers so you now want to stay where you are).I'm not sure what the point is of using the abilities without the strike. These activities combine multiple actions to save on action economy.
Skirmish Strike: Strike and Step (or reverse) for one action. Without striking, you can just Step for one action.
Scout's Charge: Stride, Feint, and Strike, for 2 actions. Without the Strike, that's a Stride and Feint, which is STILL two actions.
You aren't getting anything special by dropping the Strike part of the activity.
Skirmish Strike is Striking and Stepping at the same time. It has the option to do it before or after the strike only so it makes sense in game terms, since you can't strike someone if it's out of reach, but realistically it all happens in one movement. Once you chose where you're going to step you can't suddenly teleport to a different position if the creature you hit drops.
You might see something you hadn't, namely that the target wasn't actually an enemy because now you can see their holy symbol or maybe you've burst onto a stage and it's a fake scene.
Niche, yet in most cases I'd say one could stop.
The point of activities is that you focus in on it until it's finished. You are deciding to charge an enemy, so until you finish charging you aren't really paying attention to what's going on around you. You could Sudden Charge into an enemy, then realize it's not actually an enemy but an ally, but if you started the charge it needs to finish. You could decide to stride to a different target, or use a different attack, but it's going to finish one way or another.
This is a common misconception of activities, that you do each action in order and resolve them one at a time, in case something changes in the middle of the action, when they're actually a single fluid action that combines multiple actions together. Once you start an activity it needs to finish, since you've already decided to commit to those actions. The only exemption is if something interrupts your activity, like an enemy reaction knocking you prone or something.
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And for the inevitable questions on where it says what I just mentioned, look at the Activity Rules. It makes no mention of willingly stopping an Activity once it starts, only what happens if you're interrupted.
It's basically the same as Casting a Spell. With that, you are providing a Somatic component, which is a Manipulate Action, and a verbal component, which is a Concentrate Action. I'm sure no one would argue that they don't happen simultaneously, even though it's two actions.
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You can not ready an action for when an enemy "ends their move". You need to use triggers that are visible in the game world, not using mechanics of the game. You could ready an action against an attack, or taking damage, or an enemy moving within a certain range, ect. You could say "stops moving" but that doesn't trigger if a creature uses a second move, since chaining move actions is seamless.
You also don't HAVE to use a readied action if you end up not wanting to, as readying just allows you to use the action as a reaction instead. If a situation that matches the trigger happens to not be a good situation you can choose not to react.
Also please read the rest of my explanation on how activities work.
I had an extensive trigger discussion last summer
fwiw, RAW has some explicitly listed trigger deals at least as convoluted as the above
here is a wee bit o dem
all page references are CRB
p35: Trigger You attempt a saving throw against a magical effect, but you haven't rolled yet
p48: Trigger An ally ends a move action adjacent to you.
p59: Trigger You would be reduced to 0 Hit Points but not immediately killed.
p77: Trigger You use Quick Alchemy to craft an alchemical bomb with a level at least 1 lower than your advanced alchemy level.
p78: Trigger You use Quick Alchemy to craft an alchemical item that has the elixir trait and is at least 2 levels lower than your advanced alchemy level.
p89: Trigger A foe within reach attempts to move away from you.
p90: Trigger A creature within your reach uses a manipulate action or a move action, makes a ranged attack, or leaves a square during a move action it’s using.
p93: Trigger Your turn begins, and you are at half or fewer Hit Points.
p107: Trigger An enemy damages your ally, and both are within 15 feet of you.
p107: Trigger An enemy damages, Grabs, or Grapples your ally, and both are within 15 feet of you.
p113: Trigger A foe’s attack against an ally matches the trigger for both your Shield Block reaction and your champion’s reaction.
p126: Trigger You critically hit a creature that is not on its home plane.
p145: Trigger You use the Shield Block reaction, and the opponent that triggered Shield Block is adjacent to you and is your size or smaller.
p148: Trigger An ally within your melee reach is hit by an attack, you can see the attacker, and the ally gaining a +2 circumstance bonus to AC would turn the critical hit into a hit or the hit into a miss.
and on and on
What does the sensor perceive?
by RAW, this is one example:
p529: Trigger Three or more living creatures remain within 100 feet of the trap for 6 seconds or longer.
it has
- a timer
- a not insignificant range of sensing
- an ability to count
oh yeah,
- the ability to determine ‘alive or not’
triggers, just using the examples in the CRB, have a wide range
those extensive examples are, well, apparently, examples of what PF2e indicates are acceptable trigger criteria
and that list of what is in a RAW trigger is broad and extensive, including:
- and conjunctions [more than one criteria must be met]
- or conjunctions [only one of a list of criteria must be met]
- combinations of the above
- counting (3 or more)
- ranges (within 100 feet)
- timer (for 6 seconds or longer)
- taking actions (use the Shield Block reaction; use Quick Alchemy to craft)
- being recipient of an action (would be hit by an attack or targeted by an effect)
- fail (fail a saving throw)
- succeed (successfully use Stealth to Hide)
- alignment detection (against an evil creature)
- turn begins/ends (Your turn begins/Your turn ends)
and on and on and on
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If it's from the PC's POV, Ready triggers would be limited to the PC's senses & interpretations.
If it's from the player's POV, well that's pretty darn messy all around.
If it's from an omniscient POV, that seems overpowered IMO.
If the first, let's not confuse triggers for special Reactions (like those via a feat or for NPC abilities) with those for Readying, which is a generic, conscious, in-game choice by the PC so comes from the PC's POV.
Yes, I may wrong about that last part, Ready might be/allow more metagame, yet I believe it's not. Yes, there are many abilities that bypass that limitation; that's part of what makes them special.
or part of what makes it easy to misinterpret them
I’d suggest reviewing that list on listed triggers in the CRB
I have a longer one if it matters (as I mentioned, my group discussed this extensively last June)
then do a compare along the lines of ‘what has this listed trigger? how does its capabilities vary from a character’s?’
you’ll find more overlap, much more, than not
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...since chaining move actions is seamless
Is it? I have searched and could not find anything expressing exactly that. It comes up a lot when you intend to Stride with movement restrictions. Example, you use an action to Stride in difficult terrain. Your normal 25 foot move effectively becomes 20 because you don't have enough movement to move into that third square. If you decide to take two Strides, you either lose 2 five-foot squares because of this or you chain your move into one 50 foot move which would get you the full five squares instead of four. I have seen GMs adjudicate it both ways in org play so I'm not sure if there is an "official" position by Paizo.
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However the rules for movement only say
Switching from one movement type to another requires ending your action that has the first movement type and using a new
I did see that entry and though perhaps the same thing, but its certainly short of being clear and makes us jump to a conclusion that is no better than speculation. I've never seen an argument come up about it regardless of which way the GM rules, but I could see it happening in an org play environment.
If a character just sprints from A to a far away point B for several rounds they use 3 Strides per round for this.
I refuse to think that the character stops for a split-second every 25ft because they completed a Stride. Multiple connected Strides are seamless unless you work at The Ministry for Silly Walks.
If it's from the PC's POV, Ready triggers would be limited to the PC's senses & interpretations.
If it's from the player's POV, well that's pretty darn messy all around.
If it's from an omniscient POV, that seems overpowered IMO.If the first, let's not confuse triggers for special Reactions (like those via a feat or for NPC abilities) with those for Readying, which is a generic, conscious, in-game choice by the PC so comes from the PC's POV.
Yes, I may wrong about that last part, Ready might be/allow more metagame, yet I believe it's not. Yes, there are many abilities that bypass that limitation; that's part of what makes them special.
RAW I would say it's most likely the second one (player's POV), actually, as the text under readying an action doesn't mention any limitations about what the trigger can be, and as Deth Braedon mentioned, triggers are very versatile.
That being said, I'd personally be inclined to set the limitation you described. Not so much for balance reasons, but more for flavor reasons of what the character is actually preparing himself for, since thematically they're waiting for something, and so it should be something that they can notice in some way or another, rather than something intangible within the game world that a player happens to know about ooc.