Hi , the Action card "duelists strike " action cards says.

"melee weapon equipped , engaged with the target and not engaged with any other characters "

I interpret this as the pc must be fighting the monster alone and not fighting near any other monsters or other pcs. Now the reason I ask is that one player has said he thinks that the card means he may use it as long as he is not engaged with any allies just monsters . So for example , the number of eneimes doesnt matter as long as the player is not engaged with any other allies then he could the card.

I suppose the confusion is over the word characters , does characters mean allies enemies of both ? personally I would say both but thats just me.

what are your thoughts on this , thank you very much for your comments.

drallcome said:

I agree. You can't "duel" someone when you are part of a mob.

I think characters stand for both, and would not allow it for either multiple enemies or allies.

I haven't looked at the card recently (and might change my mind if it were super strong), but I'd agree with your player and let him use it when he is 'alone' fighting one or more enemies. I've seen Errol Flynn, and many other greats, buckle plenty of swash when fighting two or even three enemies.

I would probably allow it to be used if there was more than one Enemy engaged, but I would add 1 or 2 misfortune dice per additional enemy engaged to reflect the difficulty of attempting something that's intended to be 1:1 in a 1:many situation.

I would suggest the Action is all about the Boon effect (moving the engagement to another location). And with 0 recharge it's a very manipulative card and potentially very powerful at the right moment, especially climactic battles against the mob leader or level boss etc. It's not Errol Flynn piling into 4 men-at-arms, it's Errol Flynn against Guy Gisburne duelling up the steps and out onto the battlements and then up into the tower, etc. I would definitely only allow it to be used 1 on 1.

I agree with Monkeylite - this is a Mano-a-Mano action not crowd control.

Yep agreed.

Other action cards specifically refer to not being engaged with other "enemies" (some of the ranged cards, for instance). Assuming FFG are going to keep their use of terminology consistent (OK, that's a big "if", but...!!), then if it was to be used as your player suggests rather than the one you have read it, the card would have specifically referred to enemy rather than character.

Looking through the cards the only other reference to "character" I found was in the Agrophobia insanity. It is clear that it is used there to mean allies or enemies.

Having read the card I agree... I was just going by the name... silly monkey. If they offered a .pdf file of all the cards for sale I'd buy it just to use as a reference here. Would also be nice to be able to make character sheets for people who are used to 4E with a little creativity.