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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Storm Raven" data-source="post: 2774385" data-attributes="member: 307">Because, for the purpsoes of the rules, they are different. There doesn't need to be any more. Your ally is not your foe's ally, and thus your foe does not meet the conditions of flanking, whther you pay attention to your ally or not. End of story. This line of argument is a loser for you, you should drop it and move on.Yes, it is. Because there is no other way to evaluate the rules except based upon what they say. They make a clear distinction, one which you keep trying to ignore. Thus, your argument is fatally flawed.Defend equally is a standard of your own creation. And it is clearly inapplicable. If you are flanked by two sets of opponents (i.e. you are surrounded by four flankers) their flanking bonuses don't go up because you are now dividing your attention between four opponents instead of merely two. The flanking bonus accrues when you have to spend any amount of attention on a foe.To treat you as helpless with respect to that opponent - because you must completely ignore them to negate the distraction caused by flanking.Your initial premise is flawed. That means your chain of illogic doesn't hold up at all.And if you spend any effort at all defending against them you are distracted, and thus flanked. Thus, to ignore them, and avoid being flanked, they get to treat you as being helpless.To grant a flanking bonus, your ally must become your attackers ally. Until that happens, it doesn't matter how much attention you pay to your ally.It doesn't work that way. You are not actively ignoring the NPC ally. Hence, no coup de grace. In other words, your hypothetical never comes up, and you are just inventing a strawman.</blockquote>

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