"...directly protect or favour..."

[Falenthal]

I play it like Majestic says: Weary can only be unchecked after a night's rest. This way, Rally Comrades is more useful before people get Weary, as is taking off the helm or doing a knockback.

Also, it makes sense with the fact that Encumbrance is only recalculated for the Fatigue Threshold after a night's rest, not instantly.

[bluejay]

Mirkwood Elves seem to be benefit most from protecting and aiding their allies. Between Folk of the Dusk and Deadly Archery, they're most likely to have not merely an attribute bonus, but sometimes even more.

I believe you can only use the Hope for attribute bonuses so it won't apply to Deadly Archery.

The bonus gained from Deadly Archery is added when a point of Hope is being spent on an Attribute Bonus so it would apply (as long as the usage met the "... directly protect or favour..." qualifier).

You're absolutely right I was thinking of Stinging Arrow...

[zedturtle]

Pick the archer.

Bergmál had four people pick her as FF.

[Angelalex242]

Because this seems to favor Mirkwood Elves beyond any other race...

You'd think Thranduil would know that, understand it, and take advantage of that. He's probably got his warriors set up in pairs, archer with spearman, so that they can abuse the heck out of deadly archery and folk of the dusk with their focuses. Speakers can also work with attribute bonuses.

Dwarf: Dwarf Wrought Hauberk (when using protect ally, naturally)
Hobbit: Brave at a Pinch
Lakeman: Merchant Prince, Trader's Savvy,
Woodman's Poison Remedy if used on the focus and you need to use an attribute bonus to make the craft roll, but not the hope to make the remedy in the first place. River Blooded also helps.
Dunedain's Strength of Will(against the unseen), but only if he has the great success needed to cover for his buddy, Endurance of the Ranger, only on a great success used on your buddy, Royalty Revealed if the Awe roll qualifies anyway, Ways of the Wild when applicable, Star of the Dunedain if your friend needs rest badly,
High Elves: Might of the Firstborn if the hate was spent against your pal, and maps of lore may qualify because it keeps your pal from taking Shadow, which is always important.

[Rich H]

You'd think Thranduil would know that, understand it, and take advantage of that. He's probably got his warriors set up in pairs, archer with spearman, so that they can abuse the heck out of deadly archery and folk of the dusk with their focuses. Speakers can also work with attribute bonuses.

Not all rules in a game's system exist and can be consistently evidenced in the reality of the game world (presuming that you can accept it's existence). Many rules in a game system are not used to model the real world physics of the environment they are representing but are there to meet some other objective of the game's design; and even if they are put there to express an in-world behaviour they don't always directly correlate. If you start trying to explain the lack of a certain behaviour of characters within a world based upon a specific rule then you'll often come up short because the rules in many games haven't been designed with that purpose in mind.

Also, Thranduil and his spearmen aren't PCs so aren't subject to the same FF rules as player characters; which is a perfect example of what I'm talking about above - ie, there are FF rules but only the PCs get to use them and PCs aren't something that can be identified internally within the in-world reality; they are an artefact of the game and its system.

[Angelalex242]

Heh. Maybe I've been reading Order of the Stick too much.

The whole webcomic is 'how would D&D characters behave if they knew the PHB, DMG, and Monster Manual existed and could buy copies of them at their local bookstore...IC.'

[Rich H]

Heh. Maybe I've been reading Order of the Stick too much.

The whole webcomic is 'how would D&D characters behave if they knew the PHB, DMG, and Monster Manual existed and could buy copies of them at their local bookstore...IC.'

... And it's awesome for it. You can never read too much OotS.