for purposes of talents such as Field commander and heightened senses, does the character with the talent count as an ally. IE: can these benifits extend to yourself?

Sirkamina said:

This might be my experiences with the Inspiration and Leadership talent trees for the Noble in Saga Edition talking, but I'm inclined to say the character with the talent doesn't count as being an ally in those instances, and is excluded from said talent's effects.

For Field Commander, I could see it being used with the character barking at his allies, "Move you apes! You wanna live forever?!" and then falling in right behind them with his own maneuver to move right after them.

On Heightened Senses, the guide could just be generally pointing various things out to his buddies, which helps them recognize things of danger and/or importance.

I concur with DM.

Generally speaking in games i've played, allies means something that excludes the user. Typically if the person with teh talent/ability is to be included, they'll say all "allies (including the character)" or something to that effect.

That being said… if you feel it's important then go ahead and play it the way that makes sense to you. but it may distort future talents that may or may not operate under that assumption.

I've always ruled that unless it specificaly states that the user is not effected, they are. Its only 1 more target that gets a bonus, and not game breaking.

Donovan Morningfire said:

I have an issue with both of these.

For field commander you give the ability to take an extra action for 1 strain to a number of allies based on your presence. The talents chapter elaborates further saying that this does not count against the 2 move limit. So with this the characters can move 3 times each round and really hustle. It seems odd that the one giving the orders could not keep up with his men.

As for Hightened senses, you should not be capable of "pointing out various things" if you are not very perceptive.it would seem odd to have you roll 1 green die and one yellow die and have the rest of the party rolling one green, one yellow and 2 blue.

Hopefully this question gets answered in the next update.

Sirkamina said:

I was just giving possible "in play" suggestions for how the talents might appear from an in-character perspective.

With Field Commander, the bonus movement occurs on the Field Commander's turn, which means the allies get a free maneuver's worth of movement when they otherwise wouldn't be able to move. So the character using this talent could very easily "keep pace" with the troops, since they're all moving on the same turn. This would free up the affected allies to use their maneuver to Aim while not lagging too far behind an enemy that is trying to retreat, or getting into optimal firing range against an enemy that's dug-in, or even allow them a better chance to fall back while still being able to cover their retreat by firing at the bad guys.

For Heightened Senses, the very wording of the talent suggests that the person with it doesn't gain any benefit, particularly given the part of the talent that states "allies engaged with him." Again, it wasn't meant to be a concrete rules-specific description, just a fluff-based in-character rationale about how the talent might be applied. That and there's already a talent that grants boost dice to Perception and Vigilance checks (Uncanny Reactions & Uncanny Senses, each of which only provides a single Boost die to one of those two skills), so allowing the character with Heightened Awareness to always get 2 Boost dice to both skills at all times with no restriction just feels off, and seems too good of a perk for a single talent.

However, regarding the original question, there might be insight as to a possible answer on page 133, nestled in the Conflict & Combat chapter. On Table 6-2: Spending Advantage & Triumph in Combat, on the 2nd Row of the chart (2 Advantage or 1 Triumph), it notes the following:

- Add 1 Boost die to any allied character's next check, including the active character.

Now this could simply be a note that the acting character can give themselves a Boost die for their next turn, or could mean that the term "ally" covers "anyone on the same side of a fight, including yourself." Frankly, it could be read either way, but the fact that FFG choose to word it that particular suggests to me that "ally" does not typically include oneself.