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Hi, just got my copy of Adventurer's Companion and I am currently reading it...I've got a question about Sudden Attack: can it be tried if the loremaster's got more enemies than heroes? I guess the answer is no - the loremaster would have the upper hand here and will engage an enemy to the ungaged hero before he/she has the chance to act - but I'll appreciate opinions.

Related: I guess there's no problem trying combos like sudden attack + savage blow? I can't find anything that prevents it ...

Yeah, you can only use it when you outnumber the enemy barring a very unusual situation.

And yeah, there's nothing preventing it from being combined with any Called Shot option.

Well, it only says 'unengaged companion'--this doesn't necessarily have to work out during the engagement phase of combat. If two companions are engaging an enemy, and during the round one of them kills it, before the other companion's turn, that companion is now suddenly unengaged, and can turn and direct their attack where it isn't expected.

That would be my reading of it anyway. (Actually, now I'm looking at the book, this exact situation is described in the box on p.108.)

As for the Combat Action--Called Shot combo . . . I'm not sure. Can see it both ways. I think probably not tho? None of the original Combat Actions had anything to do with rolling against weapon skills, so it's tricky, and I hasn't come up before. The Two-weapon Attack specifies no called shots . . . But then this one doesn't. Hmmmm . . . Anybody else?

cuthalion wrote:Well, it only says 'unengaged companion'--this doesn't necessarily have to work out during the engagement phase of combat. If two companions are engaging an enemy, and during the round one of them kills it, before the other companion's turn, that companion is now suddenly unengaged, and can turn and direct their attack where it isn't expected.

That would be my reading of it anyway. (Actually, now I'm looking at the book, this exact situation is described in the box on p.108.)

This is true, but it usually only comes up when the enemy don't outnumber the PCs any more. I mean...two PCs actually can't be engaged with the same enemy when the enemies outnumber the PCs, so the example situation sure can't come up, and if an archer kills the only enemy on someone, people re-engage before any melee PC's turn comes up.

I'm sure there's some way for it to happen when the PCs are outnumbered, but I can't think of anything off the top of my head, so it's certainly a very niche circumstance.

cuthalion wrote:As for the Combat Action--Called Shot combo . . . I'm not sure. Can see it both ways. I think probably not tho? None of the original Combat Actions had anything to do with rolling against weapon skills, so it's tricky, and I hasn't come up before. The Two-weapon Attack specifies no called shots . . . But then this one doesn't. Hmmmm . . . Anybody else?

Like I said, I see no reason it wouldn't work.

Combat Tasks and Called Shots are typically compatible. As already mentioned, Two Weapon Fighting explicitly mentions that it cannot be used for Called Shots.

Absolutely no problem with using Sudden Attack and Savage Blow together.

If not another situation, then I would allow the 'ward' to spend a Hope to execute a non combat action - stealth - and be unengaged next round. A Hope is probably too high a cost for anyone to use it.