I've got Inspirational Performance, Distract Opponet, and like anybody I can Assist Ally with a PR8(4). My question is can I use a bull whip and stack all three on the same ally? Doing so would give the heavy hitter at the table a net +7 to hit +2 to damage every 5 ticks. Assuming that I flank the mob that I am giving the bonus to hit against, does tactical edge stack as well?

All Inspirational Performance abilities are 1/Scene.

Distract Opponent is a Talent, just like Inspirational Performance, and both grant a static bonus which is the exact same type of bonus as Inspirational Performance (albeit a different number). Therefore they do not stack as per stacking rules.

Assist Ally is a Combat Action, but done at weapon speed. As neither of the above bonus' are Trivial or Simple actions, you cannot combine them with Assist Ally, but the effects would stack if they could somehow be combined.

Whips have range, so you can assist from a distance.

Does it matter that assist ally is a combat action and the others are talents? I thought under the stacking rules everything from allies fell under the "allies" source, and thus one ally using a talent, one using a spell, and one using a combat action, and none would stack.

Combat advantage would though since it is more of a field of combat condition, not an ally bonus.

Thanks Cody. Just remember that inspirational performane buff LASTS the scene as well.

When I say stack Assist Ally and Distract Opponet here is how I would do it.

Tick 1
Speed 2 Distact Opponet
Tick 3 Assist Ally with whip.
Tick 6 Ally with speed 5 weapon or manuver attacks.

So it is possible to combine the two assists as two seperate actions. But doesn't the fact that distract is a speed two action make it a simple action?

Eric

"Ally" is considered its own source, but I don't think the said ally can grant bonus' from the same source as the Ally would be trying to stack Talents meaning they are the same thing, while the receiver would only get "Ally". That said, you'd be getting multiple "ally" bonus', which shouldn't stack.

It seems overly complicated, and my ruling (unless otherwise corrected) would be that it still does not stack.

A Simple Action can be combined with another action as per the rules. A Speed 2 Action (not specified as Simple) cannot.

John

Thanks for clearing that up John.

What I'm saying is that I didn't think it mattered what source the ally was using (spell, talent, or combat action), they wouldn't stack. Even if they were from entirely different types of sources, if three different allies give you +1 to hit, you only have a +1, no matter what sources those allies used - because the source for all three is "allies"

You are correct in that talent and combat actions from an ally shouldn't stack. They are both from the source ally.

Spells function differently in that they do not stack with either, whether they were cast from an ally or yourself.

Question then. What if the ability comes from different ally's? Say that Bob distracts OozeJumper while Fred flanks OozeJumper. Does Acturis get +2 or +4 to attack Oozy.

By the logic of this concensous Acturis only gets +2. The consequense of this is that a whole host of talents and action choices are marginalized by the ruling that situational bonuses are ally bonuses. I'd be fine with that IF the Avoidance of Mobs writen into moduals was consistant with a Max bonus to hit of +2 from allys. But the reality is that many MOBS of recently written moduals can only be effectively hit if mulitible allys provide assistance with the attack.

Either we should be able to hit a MOB with our own attack reasonably well, Or be able to hit by cooperation. But writing encouters with Avoidance 32 and no effective way to hit Advoidance 32 religates the story to a slug fest.