Are tentative traits confusing?

[SuperParkourio]

Various things in the game have certain traits that they don't have by default but that tentatively take on those traits. For example, Create a Diversion gains the manipulate trait if a gesture is used, meaning it provokes an Attack of Opportunity. However, the manipulate trait doesn't appear in the list of Create a Diversion's traits, because it doesn't always apply.

I haven't played my first game yet, but I do wonder if this gets confusing seeing as the list of traits isn't enough to rule out whether a trait applies. I think it would be easier if these "tentative traits" appeared in parentheses to indicate that they sometimes apply.

Create a Diversion [one-action]
Mental (Manipulate) (Auditory) (Linguistic)
Description of action...

[Castilliano]

No, they're not confusing, but yes, they could be overlooked, leading to a deadly AoO for example. So yes, parenthetical notations would be useful, or at least an asterisk to know to look in the body of the description.

[Dancing Wind]

They are "situational" traits, not 'tentative'.

I like Castilliano's idea of an asterisk to alert players to unique situational changes.

I don't like the idea of squishing them all together on a single line, since that would make them appear like they applied in all situations.

[YuriP]

I agree it's a situation and the traits depend how do you want to use it.

Let suppose that you are facing a fighter and a dog and you want to thrown a snack to distract a dog to Create a Diversion while you are fighting someone with AoO this will trigger the reaction. At same time you that you say "look a monster behind you" to this same fighter it's don't trigger AoO but also don't work against the dog (due the linguistic trait).

The action have different mechanics to different uses in different situations. They player need to choose how to use it better.