Aberssax wrote:
thenobledrake wrote:
Feats like Intimidating Glare which do not use the language "when you use the [name] action" in their description apply whenever the action they modify is done - whether it is as a subordinate action or not.
is this specifically called out anywhere in the rule books? I'm looking for some verbiage that I can point to.
thanks,
Subordinate Actions:
Quote:
An action might allow you to use a simpler action—usually one of the Basic Actions—in a different circumstance or with different effects. This subordinate action still has its normal traits and effects, but it's modified in any ways listed in the larger action. For example, an activity that tells you to Stride up to half your Speed alters the normal distance you can move in a Stride. The Stride would still have the move trait, would still trigger reactions that occur based on movement, and so on. The subordinate action doesn't gain any of the traits of the larger action unless specified. The action that allows you to use a subordinate action doesn't require you to spend more actions or reactions to do so; that cost is already factored in.
Using an activity is not the same as using any of its subordinate actions. For example, the quickened condition you get from the haste spell lets you spend an extra action each turn to Stride or Strike, but you couldn't use the extra action for an activity that includes a Stride or Strike. As another example, if you used an action that specified, “If the next action you use is a Strike,” an activity that includes a Strike wouldn't count, because the next thing you are doing is starting an activity, not using the Strike basic action
---
In general there are 2 types of abilities/feats that modify Actions, ones that modify the effects of an Action, like Intimidating Glare, and ones that specifically call you to perform an Action and then change the effects within said Action/Activity like Vicious Swing.
As long as an ability merely modifies/adds an effect to an Action passively (not calling out that the effects occur only when you use this specific Ability), that Action has that modification whenever it's called, be it a subordinate Action or a normal Action (since the base Action carries all of its effects, including those you've altered with other features, even if it's inside an Activity/subordinate Action).
Whenever though an ability asks you to specifically perform an Action and then modifies it, you cannot substitute that in an Activity merely doing the base Action.
---
So, if for an example you have an Ability that says "your Strikes are Agile" it will modify all the Strikes, even those inside other Activities like Sudden Charge, by making them Agile.
But if you have an Ability that says "make a Strike" you can't substitute that Strike for other abilities that do a Strike (so you couldn't, as an example, do a Sudden Charge and substitute the final Strike for a Vicious Swing).
