Brilliant Tactician
Prerequisites: Outwit and Perplex

Choose a character.

Outwit does not need to show in the character's stat slot in order for the character to use this feat.

When the character uses Perplex, the character can affect every target friendly character that shares a team symbol or keyword with it. The character must have a clear line of fire to each target.

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Mastermind: MANIPULATOR: Mastermind can use Shape Change. Once per turn, Mastermind can use either Outwit, Perplex, or Probability Control.

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Batgirl, Shadow of the Bat: [+1] Seems the clues I found are paying off: Perplex.

[-2] LET'S SEE WHAT BATGIRL CAN DO: Outwit. When Batgirl uses it, after resolutions she can use Charge at no cost, but can only attack the character she targeted with Outwit.

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QUESTION: What happens if either of these two characters attempts to assign and use his/her Perplex alongside Brilliant Tactician? Mastermind can only choose either Perplex or Outwit at any given moment, and Batgirl only gains one power or the other at a time through her Title Character abilities.

If memory serves, both won't be able to use it with their powers because they have to make a choice to use OW, they can't just use it... same could be days for Goblin King, Jakeem, etc. When a character has to make a choice in order to use OW (as opposed to a power just saying they can use OW), that's not the same as being able to use OW, which is what Brilliant Tactician keys off of.

I thought that was the case. I couldn't find the right way to phrase that to a friend of mine who brought this up with the Batgirl tonight.

Thanks, Burleigh!

No prob. The effective wording I recall is that those powers don't work as prerequisites because you can't actually use the power until you do what the power requires (a certain action, occupy a certain terrain, make a choice, or whatever the power instructs).

I might not be understanding you, but are you sure?

Last I knew, feats could be assigned to anyone, so if you assigned BT to Goblin King and Goblin King chose outwit and perplex as his powers, or just outwit on clicks 9-10, then why wouldn't he meet the prerequisite?

He can use outwit and perplex, after all.

Now when the prerequisites were required in order to assign the feat then absolutely. A character that can use outwit when in hindering terrain can not use outwit when the feats are assigned and thus wouldn't meet the prerequisite, but like I said, last I knew that wasn't how it worked any more.

Goblin King would meet the prerequisites in the situation you described and be able to activate Battlefield Tactician.

As I've explained pretty much every time Brilliant Tactician has come up the past several years, the Outwit requirement is pretty much null and void under the last set of Feat rules. Ignore it entirely.

Prerequisites are only checked when the Feat is being used. BT specifically says the character doesn't have to be able to use Outwit when you would use BT. So it's completely meaningless.

If a character is assigned BT, they can use it when they use Perplex. Simple as that.

You are conflating a completely different scenario that has nothing to do with Feats. These kinds of effects will not count for other effects looking for a character being able to use those powers until the choice is made. That has nothing to do with this situation. Obviously, once you've made the choice to use Perplex, you can now use Perplex, so you qualify for the Feat.

That is I was saying... he couldn't normally just because he could theoretically choose OW, but would have to choose it as one of his powers. I didn't really flesh that all out when I mentioned him.

Logistically, that makes sense as you can assign it to any figure regardless... but that's just stupid that it would go against the whole basis of the feat.



But you need to be able to use perplex in all of those examples (the only real remaining requirement as you've said).
Now that I know the other aspect of your post, I agree with the rest.

While I don't necessarily disagree, that's just how it works. I wouldn't call it stupid. BT never got errata after the Feat rules were changed, and the game no longer had a way to check for the Outwit requirement. It doesn't really go against the basis of the Feat, since it functionally never had anything to do with using Outwit to begin with.

Feats are a broken cluster@#*& to begin with. This is hardly the worst example of having to hammer a square peg into a round hole when it comes to them.

And of course, like 75% of Roderic's questions are about Feats.....

I've gotten good at hammering round pegs into square holes...

Fastball special was a cluster (I finished my Feats doc just because Roderic started asking). #cheapplug

Lol! Yeah, I've had to ask a few of those questions because of wording updates, too... with them adding so many "powers" (not standard powers, but the abilities to do unusual things) to various figures in a time when the game was more simplistic, some of their potential abuse has gotten out of hand. Lol!

For what it's worth, I also think the change to Earthbound is stupid along the same lines because of several giants and tiny figures that have it specifically to reflect them returning to regular size (which they no longer do) or a flyer losing their ability to fly (which they essentially do but can still carry a same sized figure)... it just takes away a lot of the flavor that could have easily been simplified better. Just my 2 cents, I know.

Yeah, the current version of Earthbound causes some weird situations that I don't think were fully explored during the rules changes. Its something that will likely get tweaked in the future.