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:
- Raise Shield
- Use Sudden Charge
- Stride once at half distance
- Stride a second time at half distance
- Strike
Best Answer
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:
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.