Dragon 404 - Character Themes - Samurai and Yakuza

[MatthewJHanson]

How often do you really see yourself within 2 squares (heavy armor) or 3 squares (light armor) at the beginning of combat to make the ability useful?

I think it depends on your play style, but I can see it happen once a session or so. To test this I decided to take a look at the adventures I've published for Sneak Attack Press. Here's a list featuring the number of times you may be close to foes at the start of battle out of the total combats in the adventure.

Blessed by Poison: 2/4
Good Little Children Never Grow Up: 2/3
The Golden Banner: 1/4
Hunting Deathcloud: 0/3
Axes of Evil: 1/3

Plus start battle shifts can be good for other things, such as simply closing the distance, or stepping out of an area burst cluster.