Enemy

[shroudb]

What defines when someone is an "enemy"?

Is it a conscious decision from the "caster" to define who is an enemy?
If so, can he decide that in an instance a party member (or even himself) is an enemy, and in the next instance that it isn't?

Is it something vague that makes the effect target things?
If so, does it even target if a caster is unaware of them being hostile?

[SuperBidi]

The only rule we have is: "If it isn’t clear, the GM decides who counts as an ally or an enemy."

I think enemy and ally have to be understood from a PC point of view. You shouldn't be able to define who's your enemy or your ally as it can open the way to a lot of shenanigans. And if the character is unaware someone is or will become an enemy they are neutral (or even ally) from their point of view.

[shroudb]

What got me thinking originally was the Sanguivolent Roots Impulse.

It damages enemies and releases Vitality energy on Allies and Undead in the area.

Could a kineticist, as an example, be able to define a party member as an "enemy" in the occasion there was no other living enemy just so that he could leech that vitality and harm the undead in the area?

Could he define himself?

[breithauptclan]

shroudb wrote:

Could a kineticist, as an example, be able to define a party member as an "enemy" in the occasion there was no other living enemy just so that he could leech that vitality and harm the undead in the area?

Could he define himself?

Excellent examples of the shenanigans that SuperBidi was mentioning.

No, allowing that isn't really broken. At least not in most cases - or the obvious one of using this to try and heal up after a battle.

But it is definitely not the intent and flavor of the Impulse as it is presented.

[shroudb]

breithauptclan wrote:

shroudb wrote:

Could a kineticist, as an example, be able to define a party member as an "enemy" in the occasion there was no other living enemy just so that he could leech that vitality and harm the undead in the area?

Could he define himself?

Excellent examples of the shenanigans that SuperBidi was mentioning.

No, allowing that isn't really broken. At least not in most cases - or the obvious one of using this to try and heal up after a battle.

But it is definitely not the intent and flavor of the Impulse as it is presented.

If it's allowed or not is secondary for me (I was just browsing the abilities, it's not for something active), it was just the trigger that prompted me to think if it can be done to begin with (didn't even think about out of combat healing lol, which I do agree feels kinda out of bounds).

That said, imo the flavor is simply "Roots eat the vitality from a and release them towards b" so I can't see it being against the flavour of the ability to have a friend "sacrificing" his own vitality to blast the undead around him.

[breithauptclan]

Yeah, the opposition is more on principle than any interactions caused from this particular proposal.

Declaring a party member as an enemy shenanigans are usually niche use at best.

More problematic are ones declaring a combat opponent as an ally. That lets you do things like Overcrowd into a combatant's space - which prevents them from targeting you with cone spells.

Even more problematic is if you can declare yourself to be an enemy or ally of someone else. I vaguely remember a feat that let you use a reaction to let yourself be targeted as though you are an ally by an enemy's spell that targets all allies in an area. I can't remember it well enough to find it now.

But in general it is just safer to have enemy/ally designations be for narrative reasons and be fairly permanent. Not something that you manipulate for game mechanics reasons. It doesn't seem like the feats were designed with the ability to quickly change your attitude towards your party members or combatants in mind.

[SuperBidi]

I must admit I've "played" a bit with the ally thing with my Superstition Barbarian, considering myself neutral for the Bard Inspire Courage. The GM allowed me to do so, because the other ways would have been painful for everyone.