this post was submitted on 16 Sep 2025
4 points (100.0% liked)

pathfinder

347 readers
7 users here now

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

@pathfinder Does Stay down proccing on an enemy standing up prevent Reactive Strike of another character from working on that same enemy? Does Topple Foe from Marshal archetype attempt to Trip an enemy before or after the Reactive strike if the trigger was a reactive strike for re-prone pseudo-Stay Down purposes?

top 5 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] kichae@wanderingadventure.party 2 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

So very often, these types of questions remain fully mired in the realm of naked mechanics, but I find it helpful to imagine what's actually happening in the fiction. The mechanics are there to aid the fiction at the table, after all.

So, what's taking place during Stay Down!? How is the creature keeping the target down?

To me, this has real "stomp" energy, where the user is putting their foot on the target's back, or dropping a knee on them, or something, while yelling at them to stay down. The target tries to get up, but is forced back down to the ground before they can really move -- after all, if the prone creature can get up into a plank position, or up onto their hands and knees, it becomes significantly harder to force them back into a prone position.

That is to say, it happens very early.

Reactive Strike, on the other hand, is about looking for openings to strike, where the target has let their guard slip (or abandoned it altogether). This is why it applies when the target is trying to stand -- it's very hard to defend yourself from a determined attacker when you're transitioning from lying prone to getting into almost any other position.

But when the first creature uses Stay Down, they are functionally putting themselves between the target and anyone else who might want to strike. An ally might not want to take the chance in this situation, particularly since the fiction is not "attacking someone who's being held down", but "attacking at the same time that your ally is getting in the way".

Topple Foe, on the other hand, is entirely about taking advantage of a distracted or staggered target and trying to sweep or tackle them to the ground. And unlike Stay Down! and Reactive Strike in the first example, it doesn't even have the same mechanical trigger as the reaction you're trying to pair it with. This is just a pure tag team shine spot.

[–] Zagorath@aussie.zone 1 points 34 minutes ago

I like your idea of looking to the fiction, but I disagree with the outcome in this case if you do. Allies don't generally get in the way of each other, they cooperate. To both be in range of Reactive Strike, you're probably standing on opposite or at least adjacent sides of the same enemy, not one physically behind the other where blocking might make sense.

Your attempt to knock them back down shouldn't stop your ally attacking them as they try to stand.

[–] DmMacniel@feddit.org 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Mhm the reactions are all triggered, would be insane when someone could interrupt the triggering action so that other reactions are then wasted.

[–] Reshirams_Rad_Slam@mastodo.neoliber.al 0 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

@DmMacniel What about the second one. Does Topple Foe re-prone an enemy hit with Reactive Strike since Reactive strike is triggered by standing up and Topple foe is triggered by being hit?

[–] DmMacniel@feddit.org 2 points 23 hours ago

You only have one reaction per turn.

So if an ally (which does excludes you) Reactive Strikes a prone enemy that tries to Stand (which is an action with the Move trait) and succeeds, you can then react to that successful strike to Topple Foe to Trip them thus causing them to get the prone condition again.

So yeah in a duo this would be possible, alone not.