Evade Clarification
Quick question: The rules for Evade state:
As a 1-turn action, characters who are not stunned move at least 10 feet or up to half Move, stopping upon entering a threatening foe’s EZ. For one round thereafter, all missile attacks against them have a penalty equal to five times their Effective Dodge Index. Evaders may not make melee strikes, but can mitigate Area Attacks (page 166).
And then on p. 166, they state:
Characters who are not stunned may select the Evade action if they move at least ten feet (up to half Move), stopping in threatening EZ.
This seems to imply that a combatant taking the Evade action MUST end in a threatening EZ. Do I understand that correctly?
If so, then this means one cannot take an Evade action if, say, running across a battlefield where someone is taking pot-shots at him. Instead, one takes the Evade action as a sort of dodgey-slow "charge" of sorts, most likely at the person targeting him with a missile weapon.
Or is it that the combatant doesn't HAVE to end his turn in a threatening EZ, but rather, "if" he should enter one, he has to stop?
Not a major deal. Just want to make sure I have this right.
Thanks!
Evade
The last phrase of the page 166 reference you quoted is intended to imply that "you must stop moving upon entering a threatening EZ, as usual", but I can see where its truncated phrasing ("stopping in threatening EZ") is unclear. So, you were right at the end of your post: you DON'T have to stop—to end up in—a threatening EZ in order to be allowed to take the Evade action!
The RAW Evade action is a very "jerky" evasive movement—it could even imply looking around you (the Dodge skill includes PER in its SB, after all)—so that's why it's limited to just a half Move. It has a similar, but inverted "game weight" as the Charge action (half move + special offensive action) versus the Evade's half move + special defensive action.
As the RAW stands, taking a full or double Move implies fairly steady, even predictable moving, and so only garners the -10 Moving Target penalty.
However, a very plausible Advice & Option entry would be to suggest allowing an Evade action at a full Move—but you would suffer 5 fatigue (offset by an END SR success). A different variant on this optional rule would be to allow an Evade action at a full Move—with NO fatigue—but at a lessened effectiveness, such as half the normal Evasion modifier. Thus, if your normal half Move Evasion mod (Effective Dodge Index x5) is usually 30 (from Dodge 60), then your full Move Evasion would be 15 in this second variant. Both of these options are a little crunchier but certainly sound plausible and realistic. I also like the idea of such a full Move Evasion likely only being effectively pulled off by folks with Dodge 50 or more (anything less would just produce the flat -10 Moving penalty).
Perfect!
Thanks, as always, sir!
Evading
You're welcome, dmmilner. I have two follow-up comments regarding the Effective Dodge Index x5 calculation.
1) As is perhaps obvious, the qualifier "Effective" is important because it means that the Index is derived from Dodge EML, which logically includes encumbrance, fatigue, and impairment penalties.
2) There are two instances when this Effective Dodge x5 "evading" modifier affects Missile attacks:
2.1: when the target has chosen the formal Evade action (as discussed in our previous posts).
2.2: when the target is simply actively fighting in melee (notice this point in step 3 on page 163, under the Target Movement header: it's called Evading).
This means that such a target engaged in melee does NOT have to choose the Evade action to become harder to hit by an archer—the 'Evading' modifier automatically applies for them merely from the result of the unpredictable movement inherent to melee combat.
This is why in the Melee [Dodge] skill entry on page 79, at the bottom, the special header is called Evading—the more broader term that includes both 2.1 (the Evade action) and 2.2. ('evasion'-type of unpredictable movement).
Perhaps more info than you wanted, but the point is that GMs could apply the 'evading' mod in other circumstances that might arise, apart from the formal Evade action.