D&D Action Economy - Alternative

I'm playing around with some rules, hoping to mess with how D&D combat feels...but not too much.

Instead of movement, action, reaction, and unlimited saving throws, a character would get four actions:

Fight / magic: attack or cast a spell

Movement: change position on the map, all at one time

Defense: make a saving throw or dodge

Free: your choice of one of the above.

You could take actions on your turn, or use them as reactions. So a fight action as a reaction resembles an opportunity attack, or a defense action as a reaction resembles a saving throw. The free action allows you to double up on an action, so two fights would be a full attack, two movements would be a sprint, or two defenses a full defense.

One immediate consequence is that without unlimited saves, a character has to think about what potential attacks he'd like to avoid (like when that dragon breath comes out). What other consequences do you see? Does this make combat more tactical, make casters too dangerous, ruin the entire reaction mechanic (okay ignore that, because it's probably true)? Is it still D&D combat, or a completely different beast?

Armor is already super crazy unreliable in this edition, so limiting the number of defenses allowed would strongly encourage berserker play. Focused fire would be even more important than it already is, because nobody would have any ability to tank hits.

It is very hard to say, because such changes will have huge repercussions to class balance as well as to combat dynamics.

I would not worry too much about the variant combat rules threatening fidelity to D&D. The way I see it, combat action economy is not essential to D&D tradition, and in any case in your game you can do what you want.

But the part about being forced to actively choose when defending yourself (limited saving throws and armor bonus uses), well THAT is indeed unprecedented in D&D, as far as I know. Defense in D&D has always been passive, and even variant systems which have you roll AC didn't limit your bonus to a number of times. I am not saying it can't be done, and even in 5e you actually do have something already that costs an action in exchange for boosted defense: Dodge.

Overall, I would expect these rules to make combat slightly more random and risky, increasing the player's tension. It then depends if your players like that or not, also considering the additional bookkeeping required (since actions and reactions are a shared resource, each player has to remember what actions were already taken).

You might also want to check if you're sure you want the possibility of casting 2 spells of any kind in a round, or if this needs the same restriction as for bonus action spells.

There is a gaming convention at Princeton University that's been going on for 43 years and counting that recently switched to 5e. You create a character when you register and they advance over the course of the weekend, with shared setting and a dozen DMs with 4-6 sessions each one their own theme and furthering the convention-wide plot. For decades it was running on their own (evolving) system based on early D&D and later d20. One of the things they had was a phase system, where each type of action happened in sequence:

Here it is from PCon 40.

Phases
Each character may act in each combat round. Certain actions are faster than others, so the combat round is broken into phases. Actions within a phase are usually resolved simultaneously, but take effect before actions in the following phases. In general, each character acts in only one phase of the round, though there are several exceptions to this principle.

Phase Summary
I. Declaration: This phase is mainly a time for players to decide how to act and declare their intentions for the round. This is generally not binding, except for two cases:
• If you are dropping saving throws for the round, it must be announced now.
• A mage or guardian casting a spell must declare the spell being cast (though not the target or modifiers).
There is only one action which takes place during this phase: Mage spells cast with the Power Word modifier are resolved.
II. Powers: Innate abilities such as breath weapons and gaze weapons are resolved. Regeneration and continuing damage (e.g. poison) are applied.
III. Combat: All attacks with missile and melee weapons are resolved. Natural weaponry, unarmed strikes, and grappling attempts are included. Most combat is simultaneous. AC modifiers for defensive fighting, charging, or the Combat Maneuvers feat take effect now and apply for the rest of the round.
IV. Prayer: Prayers are announced and take effect in order of increasing prayer point cost, although clerics cannot be distracted by effects suffered in this phase.
V. Spell: Spellcasters choose the modifiers and targets of the spell they have declared, or else drop the spell (taking no action and spending no points). Spells take effect in order of increasing spell point cost, although casters cannot be distracted by effects suffered in this phase.
VI. Item: Characters may switch weapons, get things out of packs, etc. General manipulation of objects (e.g. opening or closing doors) takes place now.
VII. Movement: All characters who have not done anything else may move. Characters with the Halfmove feat take their partial move now. Characters who are dodging take their retreat now.

For more than a decade III. Combat was broken up into a missile phase and then a melee phase.

Oh, and all spells - including healing, buffs and other helpful spells - had to get past a character's saves. So the reference to "drop saves" is that a character could voluntarily fail all saving throws for the round. This probably wouldn't be part of a 5e phase system, but I figured I'd explain it.

Another point was for most years any damage prior to casting in the round would prevent spellcasting. For divine casters they just didn't cast and did something else. For arcane casters since they had declared a spell they didn't get any other action. Though I don't think they lost the spell points needed to cast the spell though.

How about lifting a rule from the glorious Dragon Warriors?
Shields: don’t add to your AC but if you’re hit, roll a d6. On a 6, no damage.
Maybe give different quality of shields different amounts of hits (number of) or HP (worth of damage).
Just a thought. Would it bust the game?

Li Shenron said:

...something already that costs an action in exchange for boosted defense: Dodge.

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Adding to OP. I'd be leaving in passive AC (because who doesn't love finding out that their attack was worthless?), but the Defense action would be a choice between Dodging or Saving. [MENTION=6775031]Saelorn[/MENTION]: so tanking hits would still be possible - just not tanking spells/saves.

Li Shenron said:

You might also want to check if you're sure you want the possibility of casting 2 spells of any kind in a round, or if this needs the same restriction as for bonus action spells.

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I hope that the stigma over this would be lessened, since the free action would give other characters the chance to act twice as well. Maybe characters with a higher initiative score can react, attempting to disrupt the spell?

The Grassy Gnoll said:

How about lifting a rule from the glorious Dragon Warriors?
Shields: don’t add to your AC but if you’re hit, roll a d6. On a 6, no damage.
Maybe give different quality of shields different amounts of hits (number of) or HP (worth of damage).
Just a thought. Would it bust the game?

Click to expand...

Pretty harsh that a shield would work, however poorly, regardless of the attacker's skill. But I have to agree with you (DW?) that shields and armor should use separate rules. It would make sense for the shield bonus to apply only with a Defense action, though.

One consequence of the proposed system is that the most productive characters are the ones who have someone to attack, something to defend against, and somewhere to go. Otherwise, you're potentially missing out on actions you could be taking. Maybe not a flaw though - that's a pretty standard D&D feature too, isn't it? You don't move every turn, don't save every turn, sometimes don't even attack.

One feature I'm hoping to see is that combat becomes more fluid, since you can react at just about any time. If there's a timing issue, just compare your initiative to that of your opponent. If yours is higher, maybe you get to decide whose reaction happens first?