RangerWickett
Legend
Players in my game, and one DM I know, think that the 5-ft. step to avoid an attack of opportunity is silly. You hop back 5 ft. and cast a spell, or you hop back 5 ft. and shoot three arrows, or whatever. So in my game, we're house ruling it this way:
Five-Foot Step: As a move action, you can move 5 ft. across clear terrain without incurring any attacks of opportunity.
Pretty simple, but less silly. No more archers stepping back and beating on people. Slightly less of mages hopping away and casting safely.
Now, for initiative. Two things, one for ease of play, one for drama's sake.
Initiative: At the beginning of each session, players should seat themselves in a loose ring in order of their initiative modifier, from highest to lowest. Whenever combat begins, one player rolls initiative for the party, and every player character determines their initiative from that roll. The NPCs likewise get one roll, or possibly more if there are very distinct groups of NPCs (henchmen and main villain, or two different opposing groups). The DM then determines where that initiative count would come in the ring of players, and initiative progresses from highest to lowest, going around the circle. This avoids the DM having to hop around the room in initiative order, because order progresses in a nice ring.
Reactions: A character may at any time interrupt a current action by spending an action point. The character can take a partial action immediately, and then gives up his or her entire action in the next round. The character must be aware of the action to interrupt it, and can only use this option once per round.
If you try to react to an attack roll, that attack roll is going to apply to someone. If you try to flee in reaction to an attack, you can't get clear fast enough. However, you could use your action to try to yank a foe into your place and let him get hit, or an ally could run in and take the hit for you.
This action is typically used for catching allies who fall off cliffs, for jumping in the way of attacks, counterspelling, and making daring attacks just before your foe crushes you.
Five-Foot Step: As a move action, you can move 5 ft. across clear terrain without incurring any attacks of opportunity.
Pretty simple, but less silly. No more archers stepping back and beating on people. Slightly less of mages hopping away and casting safely.
Now, for initiative. Two things, one for ease of play, one for drama's sake.
Initiative: At the beginning of each session, players should seat themselves in a loose ring in order of their initiative modifier, from highest to lowest. Whenever combat begins, one player rolls initiative for the party, and every player character determines their initiative from that roll. The NPCs likewise get one roll, or possibly more if there are very distinct groups of NPCs (henchmen and main villain, or two different opposing groups). The DM then determines where that initiative count would come in the ring of players, and initiative progresses from highest to lowest, going around the circle. This avoids the DM having to hop around the room in initiative order, because order progresses in a nice ring.
Reactions: A character may at any time interrupt a current action by spending an action point. The character can take a partial action immediately, and then gives up his or her entire action in the next round. The character must be aware of the action to interrupt it, and can only use this option once per round.
If you try to react to an attack roll, that attack roll is going to apply to someone. If you try to flee in reaction to an attack, you can't get clear fast enough. However, you could use your action to try to yank a foe into your place and let him get hit, or an ally could run in and take the hit for you.
This action is typically used for catching allies who fall off cliffs, for jumping in the way of attacks, counterspelling, and making daring attacks just before your foe crushes you.
