reapersaurus said:
Geez, I can't BELIEVE how people are making up rules to accomodate this rogue tactic!
Listen: you CAN'T have the rogue throw an object at the opponent to distract them.
That is an attack.
You can't have them fire a "warning shot" to distract them.
That is an action.
Every distractionary tactic that works at range I can think of is an ACTION.
You can't just wave away a problem with an application of a social skill (only combat-related because of the Feint paragraph) to ranged combat by giving the rogue free actions which shouldn't be free actions!
My dictionary defines feint as "a pretended attack intended to take the opponent off his guard, as in boxing. (2) to deliver such an attack." Now, before people start yelling at me that the game doesn't define feint in that manner, I say this: "feint" is a loaded word because it has a meaning outside the game, and if the game designers didn't intend for us to interpret the game maneuver with this "outside" definition in mind, they would have called the maneuver something else.
Now, my point here is that in melee combat, a Feint typically involves making an attack-to-miss (a "pretend attack") so you can open your opponent up to further attack. Now, a turn-based combat system makes this all seem weird because the penalty from the feint has to apply for a full six seconds, but that is just an artificiality of the system.
A ranged feint that involves a "pretend attack" is inherently no different than a feint in melee. Mechanically it is the same (though it may force the expenditure of ammunition in ranged combat), and may be justified in the exact same way as in melee combat. It is no different than a melee feint, in that it requires some sort of action to perform.
The problem as I see it, is the aforementioned artificiality of the turn-based system. Feinting at range stretches even further the credibility of distracting your opponent into vulnerability for a full six seconds. It is an oddity that is a product of the rules, like the problems associated with square maps, moving diagonally, and AoOs.
So, I think that when people say that 'feinting at range is in the rules, move on' they are just acknowledging the problems involved in simulating realistic combat actions and chosing to make the best of the tools at their disposal.
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