Investigator - Devise a stratagem (DAS)

[aarcc]

OK, you make your roll for DAS you roll poorly and are convinced you're not going to hit with an Attack Stratagem or succeed in a meaningful Skill Stratagem.

So, can you decide to opt not to use DAS this round and instead eg. make 3 melee attacks. So, your 1st melee attack will be at your full attack bonus.

or having opted not to use DAS your next attack is at -5?

[Castilliano]

DAS is the roll. Your first Strike vs. that target will be that roll. The only way to opt out of using that roll is to not Strike that enemy that round. At all. After you accept you'd miss using it, you still have to make a Strike to get it out of the way of more Strikes.

So the most natural thing to do is attack a different enemy. (Note that if you return to that first enemy, the DAS's roll is still waiting for you.)
Or you can use a non-Strike, like an Athletics check, to Trip them or something (unless you took the feat that applies DAS to maneuvers.)
Or you can cast a spell you acquired from outside the class (which is what many people did in the early days).
You might even Aid another PC's attack, which the DAS roll might be high enough to help with even if it wouldn't hit on its own.
Then there are other skill abilities like Bon Mot, Demoralize, Dirty Trick, and so forth.
If at a loss your PC can still Raise a Shield/Parry, move to flank, pull out a useful consumable, perform Medicine on an ally, etc.

Essentially one should build around the fact that when facing a single enemy, you very well might lose a Strike to a poor DAS roll. To balance that, one should also be able to capitalize on a great DAS roll, like perhaps having a Fatal weapon handy or bomb w/ a great crit effect.

[Super Zero]

You don't use the roll for a Skill Stratagem.

You can use a Skill Stratagem, then use skill actions, cast spells, or attack different enemies.

[Castilliano]

Right. Paizo's put in that avenue to alleviate that miss by giving bonuses to the mental-skill alternatives. Still no way to bypass the DAS roll on the way to better Strikes vs. the original target as you want, aarcc.

[Dr. Frank Funkelstein]

You know beforehand if the roll is bad, don't make that a bad thing.
If you roll a 20, you can pull out your fatal gun and fire it with risky reload, or use something else that is powerful and one-time use, for example a spellstrike from a magus dedication.

Attacking another target is an easy out - if there is one.

[Teridax]

Unfortunately no, OP, you can't opt out of your DaS -- if you want to Strike your DaS target before your next turn, that next Strike will be forced to use your roll.

However, that still leaves you with plenty of options:

You can use a Skill Stratagem instead to gain a bonus to your next mental skill check or Perception check against the target. Unlike an Attack Stratagem, you don't use your DaS roll for this check, so you'll have a chance of rolling better.

You can ignore DaS entirely and make a physical skill check against the target instead. If you pick Athletic Strategist, you'll be forced to use your DaS roll for your next Athletic maneuver against the target that turn, but otherwise you could still try to Hide, Sneak, or use Dirty Trick if you have the feat.

If you have Defensive Stratagem you can use that instead to boost your defenses against the target, effectively stalling until the next turn.

You could try some entirely different action that wouldn't be affected by DaS: if you're an Alchemical Sciences Investigator, for instance, this might be a good opportunity to use Quick Tincture to make an alchemical item and use it this turn (just don't make a bomb and throw it at the target!), and if you're also a spellcaster, such as by being a Palatine Detective, you could Cast a Spell -- including against your target!

You can focus on a different target instead this turn, if one exists. You still wouldn't be able to Strike the original target without having to use that bad roll, but at least you'd be able to affect someone else.

If it's really important to you that you deal some amount of Strike damage to your target this turn, you can just eat the bad roll by Striking the target, applying the roll's result, then Striking the target again, which would this time let you make a new attack roll.

All of which is to say: DaS can feel restrictive by preventing your next Strike against the target from succeeding, but in practice you still get to do quite a few other things instead, and can even brute-force Striking your target if that's a priority. The ability's there more to provide information about your Strike in advance, which can be particularly important if you're spending lots of actions on a single attack as with a Spell Strike or a sure strike-enhanced attack, and which is also why it's particularly effective when you get to use it as a free action.

[Finoan]

Castilliano wrote:

You might even Aid another PC's attack, which the DAS roll might be high enough to help with even if it wouldn't hit on its own.

A minor detail may make a significant difference here.

Aid does not involve Strike, so your bad Devise roll would not apply. You make an attack roll as part of Aid, but not a Strike. So this appears to me to be a better option than you were originally thinking it was.

[aarcc]

Teridax wrote:

You can focus on a different target instead this turn, if one exists. You still wouldn't be able to Strike the original target without having to use that bad roll, but at least you'd be able to affect someone else.

If it's really important to you that you deal some amount of Strike damage to your target this turn, you can just eat the bad roll by Striking the target, applying the roll's result, then Striking the target again, which would this time let you make a new attack roll.

All of which is to say:...

If you STRIKE another opponent with your 1st STRIKE of the round; are you at full TH bonus, albeit you had checked your DAS vs another opponent?

[HammerJack]

Devise a Stratagem is not an Attack. It does not affect MAP in any way.

Actually making an attack with that roll affects MAP normally.

This is also why an investigator who rolls a 20 will sometimes want to Strike a different target first, or use an Athletics maneuver with the Attack trait or something, and then use the 20 on the Stratagem target at 2nd attack MAP.

[Finoan]

aarcc wrote:

If you STRIKE another opponent with your 1st STRIKE of the round; are you at full TH bonus, albeit you had checked your DAS vs another opponent?

Seconding HammerJack. Devise a Strategem and the roll involved in that does not progress MAP - against anyone.

If your first action is to Devise a Strategem and you roll badly on Devise, you can certainly change plans and attack a different target. Your MAP is still at zero at this point.

You will be having to make your attacks against that other target using your strength or dexterity. You can only do the Intelligence attribute substitution on your Devised attack against your initial target.