Battlefield Champions

Whether it be the Player Characters or Villains, the champions of each army do not take the center stage in major battles, instead contributing indirectly towards victory on the field. During Strategic Combat, this takes the form of character actions. Once a battle reaches the Tactical Combat stage (if it does), then the champions of both sides come back into full play in a climactic showdown in an attempt to turn the tide of battle, or finish the job their army started.

Character Actions

A character can take one action per round, unless the party is attempting to engage the enemy champions (see below). This action is taken before their units' actions.

Joining units: Many abilities have you join a unit in combat. While joined, you are considered to be embedded with that unit. Characters are not bound by movement limitations and can freely join any unit allowed by the ability, regardless of their position on the battlefield. Any unit you are embedded with has the inspired condition so long as you remain embedded. At the start of your turn, you can break away from a unit for free, immediately ending any of the effects of joining that unit. If a unit is shattered or wiped out while you are embedded, you lose 1d4 x 10% of your maximum health (rounded down) and immediately break free of the unit. The effects of these types of abilities do not stack - only the most recently used join ability takes effect. You may continue to take other actions while remaining embedded with a unit. You are not limited to embedding in your controlled units, but any unit can only have one embedded character at a time.

• Encourage allies: Give all your controlled units the Encouraged modifier for 1 round. You cannot use this ability while embedded with a unit.
  
• Inspire Unit: Give a unit the Inspired condition for 1d4 rounds. You cannot use this ability while embedded with a unit.
  
• Demoralize Enemies: Give all units engaged in melee with one of your units the Unsettled condition for 1 round. You cannot use this ability while embedded with a unit.
  
• Reserve Action: Use an item, cast a spell, or use a special ability with a personal effect (max 1 rd cast/activation time). If you are not embedded with a unit, you can cast a spell or use an item on an ally who is also not embedded with a unit, and the maximum cast/activation time is 10 minutes.
  
• Target Champion: Choose an enemy unit with a champion embedded. All attacks by your units deal half damage (rounded down, calculated before damage reduction) to that unit. For each point of damage reduced this way, the embedded champion loses 5% of their max HP (rounded down). If the champion is reduced to 0, the unit gains the Broken condition and retreats, carrying away their fallen champion.
  
• Lead the Attack: join a unit in combat - add your Base Attack Bonus to the unit’s attack bonus and increase their damage by 1 for every 3 character levels you have. Any time this unit takes 2 or more damage, reduce it by 2 and lose 10% of your max HP (rounded down).
  
• Arcane Bombardment: join a unit in combat - Once per round, you can choose to sacrifice two arcane spell slots (or spells per day for spontaneous casters) of any level. If you do so, you can choose one enemy unit within 2 spaces of that unit and make an attack roll using your caster level plus your casting ability score modifier against them, with damage equal to twice the level of the lowest spell slot sacrificed.
  
• Protective Charms: Join a unit in combat - sacrifice two spell slots (or spells per day for spontaneous casters) of any level. The unit gains a bonus to defense equal to the level of the lowest spell slot sacrificed. This bonus lasts for one round per three caster levels.
  
• Offensive Charms: Join a unit in combat - choose a unit adjacent to that unit and sacrifice two spell slots (or spells per day for spontaneous casters) of any level. That enemy gains a penalty to defense equal to the level of one of the sacrificed spells and a penalty to attack equal to the level of the other one. This penalty lasts for one round per three caster levels.
  
• Flanking Maneuver: Join a unit in combat - add half your character level to that unit’s movement, and increase their damage against flanked targets by 1 for every die of sneak attack damage you have. Any time this unit takes 2 or more damage, reduce it by 1 and lose 5% of your max HP (rounded down).
  
• Battlefield Triage: Join a unit in combat - Once per round you can sacrifice a divine spell slot or spell per day to heal the unit an amount equal to twice the spell’s level. If you have the healing domain, the healing is increased by an additional 2 points. If you have the channel positive energy feature, you can expend one use of that instead to heal an amount equal to your effective channel energy level.
  
• Rally Units: You can sacrifice a divine spell slot or spell per day of your highest and second highest currently available spell levels to heal a broken unit for an amout equal to twice the higher spell's level. If you have the channel positive energy feature, you can expend two uses of that instead to heal an amount equal to your effective channel energy level. If the unit has more than half their maximum hit points after being healed this way, place them back on the field in one of your reinforcement zones, and Join that unit in combat (if used on a broken unit that has not yet left the battlefield, they remain where they are).
  
• Combat Challenge: Join a unit in combat - If that unit makes a melee attack against another unit with an embedded character, you can challenge that character instead of making an attack roll. If the character rejects the challenge, they are removed from that unit, the unit gains the Unsettled condition, and you can attack the unit as normal. If they accept, you take two rounds of melee combat against that character (roll initiatives, begin in melee range). Either side can yield on their action and end the fight, and are treated as though they rejected the challenge. If a character falls to 0 in this combat, their unit gains the Broken condition, retreating with their fallen champion. Characters can only be killed in this way under extraordinary circumstances (critical effects, coup de grace, massive damage, etc).
  
• Inspiring Tune: Join a unit in combat - Once per round you can expend a use of bardic music to give all allied units within 2 squares of you +1 to attack, damage, defense, and morale, plus an additional +1 for every 4 character levels you have. This ability lasts until the beginning of your next round. If an enemy champion within 2 squares of you attempts to use this ability while yours is active (or if you attempt to use this while theirs is), both characters roll a performance check. Only the character with the higher roll’s bardic music functions for that round (on a tie, neither music has an effect).

Fallen Characters: If a character falls while embedded in a unit, that unit gains the Broken condition, and must retreat to a reinforcement zone. If the unit is immune to the broken condition, they must still spend their action retreating as though they were broken. If they cannot retreat, they are removed and the fallen character is taken prisoner or executed by their captors. If they reach a reinforcement zone, the character is returned to 1 hp and breaks away from their unit.