Thanks! That will come in handy.
I ended up solving it another way: I had my IsAttacking variable inside a function; moving it to the actual event graph worked to fix it. And then I figured out how to actually blend two animations together and save them into a single animation, bypassing the original need and just having a proper sequence with a “lunge step”.
But cheers again, I’m sure the GetThirdPersonCharacter bit will help clean stuff up when it gets more complex down the road. TY!