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Can the Sudden Charge and Shielded Stride feats be used together?

The description of the Sudden Charge feat says:

Two actions

With a quick sprint, you dash up to your foe and swing. Stride twice. If you end your movement within melee reach of at least one enemy, you can make a melee Strike against that enemy.

The description of the Shielded Stride feat says:

When your shield is up, your enemies' blows can't touch you. When you have your shield raised, you can Stride to move half your Speed without triggering reactions that are triggered by your movement (such as Attacks of Opportunity).

It looks like Shielded Stride is not an action, but instead a feat that modifies the Stride action when you have your shield raised. The Sudden Charge action has Stride as a subordinate action.

So if you have both feats, could you:

  1. Raise Shield
  2. Use Sudden Charge
    • Stride once at half distance
    • Stride a second time at half distance
    • Strike
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They can be used together.

As you noticed, Shielded Stride doesn't grant you a new action, it specifically modifies your Strides (and your Swims and Flies too if you have the corresponding movement speeds).

If the intent was to make that not-compatible, Shielded Strike could have easily have been formulated like:

When you have your shield raised, you can use an action to Stride half your speed without triggering reactions that are triggered by your movement.

Or it could even have the little "one action" symbol. As there is none of that there is no reason to think this modification of Strides can't apply to the ones granted by Sudden Charge.

Also, charging through a crowd with your shield raised to catch a specific target is definitely a flavor win if you ask me.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ And if the intent was to be compatible, it should have been phrased "When you stride with your shield raised, ...". Still, I think you're right based on the lack of symbol, and based on the wording of the last sentence of Shielded Stride. \$\endgroup\$
    – ikegami
    Apr 11 at 19:42
  • \$\begingroup\$ @ikegami This other formulation would mean you have to use this effect any time you Stride with a shield raised. The actual formulation makes it optional (which is good) \$\endgroup\$
    – Anne Aunyme
    Apr 12 at 14:49
  • \$\begingroup\$ Not so, "...you may... \$\endgroup\$
    – ikegami
    Apr 12 at 18:31
  • \$\begingroup\$ @ikegami But then you'd have a very clunky formulation that looks like it's from DnD: "when you stride with your shield raised, you may choose to reduce your speed by half to make this movement not trigger reactions". And then you'd get all the weirdness because someone somewhere has an ability that prevents speed reductions. Not saying it isn't possible to make something that works by wording the way you suggest, but that is also has its downsides. \$\endgroup\$
    – Anne Aunyme
    Apr 13 at 1:39
  • \$\begingroup\$ Re "And then you'd get all the weirdness because someone somewhere has an ability that prevents speed reductions", That's not relevant. Nothing about the current (ambiguous and confusing) wording avoids that either. General rule for this is restrictions trump permissions ("can't trumps can"). \$\endgroup\$
    – ikegami
    Apr 13 at 3:33

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