does Leader need Concentrate + roll Leadership to grant AbTactics rerolls to Ally?

[Plane]

MA60 mentions a Leader can grant his Ally a Reroll.

TG22 mentions if your Ally is using "One Foe" they cannot receive the reroll because it is based on "coordination or communication".

B366 mentions a Concentrate maneuver used for "making a Leadership roll to give orders"

Put together, it seems like to get these rerolls a leader would be making concentrate maneuvers to give out orders (which a One Foe ally is unable to perceive)

This is workable if you're only using rerolls on attacks (just have leader use Concentrate then his Ally uses an Attack, or a Wait and Attack if their Basic Speed is lower) but doesn't seem workable on defenses...

Like basically you'd need the Leader to Concentrate to grant the reroll in expectation the ally would be attacked, meaning you couldn't do it quickly enough to react to an attack on an ally that you didn't see coming.

I guess you could Concentrate "to reroll your defense if you get attacked this turn" but that means you wasted your Concentrate if they don't end up getting attacked (would that use up the rerolls?)

Another idea I had might be allowing giving orders as a free action (you can after all, talk as a free action) instead of using a Concentrate, but then there would be a -10 penalty via the "Time Spent" rules since you're doing it in a rushed/reactive way?

Free actions being done in response to something is sorta like using Insubstantiality as a Power Dodge so I could see doing something akin to that (active defense roll) to see if you give your orders quickly enough to impart the rerolls before the attack completes.

Instead of being DX-based like power dodges though, I could see basing it on your Leadership or Public Speaking skills, plus maybe also requiring a Hearing and Interpretation rolls from the ally to see if they understand your orders quickly enough to use the reroll?

[Eric Funk]

If I read correctly the essence of the mechanic on MA60 is:
Tactics roll will grant the party one-shot uses of Luck for the skirmish based on degree of success.

It's up to you how hard you want to make it to use them.

My Reading of M60 says a Leader can give "rerolls" to "any ally who has just attempted a combat-related die roll". The leader's player just needs to describe how "factors such as cover" help.


Yes, normally talking is a free action (B363). Tactics on B224 and MA60 are explicit that the main skill use is before combat. I think you are conflating Tactics with Leadership. Leadership (B204) AFAICT is almost required to motivate hirelings in combat. It is to "spend your turn doing nothing but giving orders and encouragement."

Tactics is to analyse the ground (and roll skill) at the beginning of combat and Leadership is to help people against fear and self control rolls (I think likely when things change such as a boss using an intimidating power).

So IMO you CAN use a beginning-of-combat Tactics to help a single ally against a single foe if they listen to you and you can roleplay how your vantage point can help. Then later you can also use Leadership to help them against phobias, self-control rolls, etc (which requires your whole-turn Leadership roll at that time).


EDIT: FAQ Links:
Tactics: http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=147257
Leadership: http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=141048