House Rule: Battle Queue instead of rounds

Here's a house rule I have for dealing with time in combat. Its more realistic, but moves fast and gives a lot more options to players. What does everyone think? Should armor modify Action Time? Any other questions or suggestions?

A Battle Queue Instead of Fixed Rounds and Multiple Attacks Per Round


Action Time
Instead of each character getting one action per round, in an order determined by initiative, each character will get an action after a fixed period of time which will be called the character’s Action Time. Action Time is the time each character takes to complete an action in battle before deciding on a new course of action. Any rolls relating to actions such as attack rolls will be rolled at the end of the character’s Action Time, not the beginning.

Battles in Increments of Seconds
Battles are measured in whole seconds, and each character has an Action Time measured in seconds. Characters will use their Action Time for attacking, casting spells, using items (that require one round to use), and most other actions relating to battle. The duration of unusual actions will be determined by the DM. A character must always declare actions that require at least the character’s Action Time. Extra time before the Action Time is spent is considered to be time spent assessing the situation.

Tracking Time
The DM will track how many seconds have passed since the start of the battle. Each character or group of characters will track when their current action is ending and their next choice to be made. These times can be tracked with a pair of 10-sided dice.

Calculating Action Time
Each character’s action time is determined by Base Attack Bonus (BAB). Refer to the following chart.

BAB............................Action Time
Less than 6..................6 seconds
6 to 10........................5 seconds
11 to 15......................4 seconds
16 to 20......................3 seconds
Over 20.......................2 seconds

As an optional rule, the Armor penalty can modify the value that each character uses on the chart to determine their action time.

No Bonus Attacks
Characters will not get multiple attacks for having higher attack bonuses. Instead, all attacks will be made at the full attack bonus. This is because characters with higher attack bonuses will have actions more frequently, thus negating the need for bonus attacks.

Double and Triple Attacks
Some characters have two weapons, two-sided weapons, or have Flurry of Blows like the Monk. In this case, the characters are able to make multiple attacks when the attack action is chosen. If the character chooses two attacks, the first attack occurs 1 second sooner than the character’s Action Time would normally allow, and the second attack occurs at the end of the action. If the character has three attacks, one attack is made 1 second early, and the other two are made simultaneously at the end of the action.
Note that the number of attacks that a character using Flurry of Blows makes is determined by the number of attacks made at the highest attack bonus.

Reaction Time Instead of Initiative
When combat begins, each character makes a Reflex save. The result is applied to the following chart to determine Reaction Time. At the end of each character’s reaction time, the character chooses an action that will be completed at the end of an Action Time. From that point forward, new actions are chosen at the conclusion of each previous action.
Note that Reaction Time is also used for interrupting actions and completing readied actions.
Reflex Save..........Reaction Time
Less than 1..........3 seconds
1 to 12................2 seconds
13 to 25..............1 second
More than 25........0 seconds

Surprise
If any parties are surprised at the start of battle, they are flat footed for an amount of time equal to half their Action Time (round up to the nearest second). After that time elapses, they will apply a reaction time like normal.

Canceling Actions
Reaction Time is also used to cancel actions in battle. If a character wishes to stop an action that is in progress and declare a new action, a the character may roll a Reaction Time to see if they can react quickly enough to change actions. Regardless of the outcome of the roll, the character will choose a new action when the Reaction Time expires. However, only if the Reaction Time is less than the time left until the current action is completed will that action be successfully be aborted.

Example: Grunt attacks an opponent and has an Action Time of 4. Two seconds later Grunt discovers his target is an ally, so attempts to stay his hand. If he rolls a Reaction Time of 1 second, the attack is aborted 1 second later and Grunt chooses a new action at that time. If he rolls a Reaction Time of 2 seconds, the action is aborted in the nick of time. If he rolls a Reaction Time of 3 seconds, the action is not aborted and he chooses a new action 3 seconds later (instead of in two seconds when the attack is completed).

Readying Actions
Characters may ready most actions by getting equipment and thoughts prepared, but not completing the action until the right time. This allows characters to react more quickly to anticipated events. The initial readying portion of the action takes one second less than the character’s normal Action Time. When the character desires, the character reacts with a Reaction Time roll. After the Reaction Time, the readied action is completed after 1 additional second. If an action is readied before combat begins, the readied action is completed at the end of the initial Reaction Time plus one second.

Movement in Battle
Each character will designate the destination of movement at the time the movement is declared. The character must continue to move toward this destination, using the best available route, until the character’s Action Time has elapsed (unless the action is interruped with a Reaction Time roll). Because characters must always declare an action that takes their entire Action Time, if a character wishes to move a distance than is less than what the character could move during their Action Time, the character can declare what action will commence when the destination is reached at the same time that the movement is declared. In this instance, the action that begins when the destination is reached still takes an entire Action Time. If no action is declared, the character will be assumed to be assessing the situation until the character’s Action Time has expired.

Movement rates and distances will be in terms of meters. Each space is 2 meters across. As time progresses, all characters who are moving will be moved as soon as they have moved a hole space (2 meters) or more. Refer to the following chart to see how many spaces characters of different speeds can move in one second.

Cat of Speed.....................Speed (m / 6 sec).............Spaces (2m) per second
Encumbered small character.......3..............................0.25
Small character........................6..............................0.5
Small level 6 monk....................9..............................0.75
Medium character....................12.............................1
Medium level 6 monk.................15............................1.25
Medium level 12 monk...............18............................1.5
Medium level 18 monk...............21............................1.75
Jogging medium character..........24............................2
Jogging medium level 6 monk......30............................2.5
Jogging medium level 12 monk....36.............................3
Jogging medium level 18 monk....42............................3.5
Running medium character.........48.............................4
Running medium level 6 monk......60.............................5
Running medium level 12 monk....72.............................6
Running medium level 18 monk.....84............................7

Jog
A character jogging moves at 2 times the character’s base speed. However, that character must move at least 4 meters (2 squares) and cannot begin any other actions until the character’s Action Time has expired. The Exception to this is a Charge (see below).

Charge
A character may charge in order to move at 2 times the character’s base speed and make an attack. The character makes the attack at +2, but suffers a –2 penalty to active AC during the attack. The charge attack provokes an attack of opportunity from the target.

Run
A character running suffers a –5 to active AC but moves at 4 times the character’s base speed. As with jog, the character must move at least 4 meters (2 squares) and cannot begin any other actions until the character’s Action Time has expired.

Encumbrance
If a character is moderately encumbered or has medium armor on, the character can only jog(not run) but is considered to be running and receives a –5 to AC. If a character is highly encumbered or has heavy armor on, the character’s base speed is cut in half and suffers the same penalties as the moderately encumbered.

Attacks of Opportunity
If a character chooses to execute an attack of opportunity, the action that the attacker of opportunity was previously engaged in is canceled and the attack of opportunity is immediately rolled and gains a bonus +5 to hit and +5 to damage. The character making the attack of opportunity chooses what new action to begin after the attack result.

Movement from a Melee
If a character is engaged in melee combat and wishes to leave melee and move away, the character may either attempt to disengage or may make a gradual withdrawl.

Disengage Attempts
If the character decides to declare a disengage attempt, the character must roll an attack. In this case, the disengaging character’s attack roll must exceed an opposed attack roll instead of AC. If the roll fails, the character may opt to remain in place or may move and face an attack of opportunity (with +10 to attack). If the attempt fails by 15 or more, the disengaging character is considered to have made a critical fumble. If the attempt succeeds, the character may move without provoking an attack of opportunity. If the attempt succeeds by 15 or more, the disengaging character may make a free attack in addition to disengaging without provoking an attack of opportunity.

Gradual Withdrawl
If the character opts to make a gradual withdrawl, the character moves at half speed until no longer engaged in melee combat (no longer directly adjoining the other character). The withdrawing character is still subject to an attack of opportunity, but does not face a penalty to active defense. As with ordinary movement, characters withdrawing must declare a full Action Time worth of activity before beginning to withdraw.

Example: Grunt wants to engage and attack an enemy 6 meters away. Being a medium sized creature, it takes 3 seconds to cover that distance. Grunt’s Action Time is 4 seconds, so he must decide what to do upon arriving. Grunt commits to attacking. The process will take a total of 7 seconds (3 to move plus 4 to attack). Grunt will be allowed no additional decisions during that time without a Reacion Time roll to interrupt. Note that if the enemy moves closer and it only takes Grunt 2 seconds to reach the target, the process is reduced to a total of 6 seconds. If the enemy moves away, Grunt can make another decision after 4 seconds of moving toward the enemy (because 4 seconds is Grunt’s Action Time).

What I seem to gather from this is that a cleric can casts more spells than a fighter can attack.

How do you handle free actions, 5ft-steps, and effects that last a certain number of rounds?

Looks pretty interesting, but I'll wait for someone who enjoys doing math to figure out whether or not it's broken with regards to TWF, flurry, and Rapid Shot.

Infiniti2000 said:

What I seem to gather from this is that a cleric can casts more spells than a fighter can attack.

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I assume that comment is based on Wisdom Modifier being used to modify the Base Attack Bonus when calculating Action Time. Firstly, I think it would be a rare occasion when a Cleric of the same level as a Fighter has a faster Action Time. The higher base attack bonus would eventually outstrip the difference in Wisdom Modifiers.

That being said... its a good criticism. I'm not at all certain that using Wisdom is a good idea here. I did it for two reasons: to try to incorporate some way to have a character's innate common sense into getting something done in battle, and to increase the importance of Wisdom (one of the least utilized abilities). Should I nix it, and just worry about Base Attack Bonus?

Infiniti2000 said:

How do you handle free actions, 5ft-steps, and effects that last a certain number of rounds?

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The cool thing about this system is that, at the DM's discretion, free actions can either still be free or can take a second or two. A 5ft-step (or 2m-step) would still be free as part of another action that takes all of the character's Action Time.

Effects that last a certain number of rounds last that number of rounds times 6 seconds. So if I cast a spell during second #10 that lasts 5 rounds, it will expire at the end of second #40 (10 + 5 X 6 = 40).

That being said... its a good criticism. I'm not at all certain that using Wisdom is a good idea here. I did it for two reasons: to try to incorporate some way to have a character's innate common sense into getting something done in battle, and to increase the importance of Wisdom (one of the least utilized abilities). Should I nix it, and just worry about Base Attack Bonus?

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I would stick to base attack bonus... that opens for some good stuff... but the level 20 cleric casting three spells per round while the fighter attacks four times is far too disturbing to me,
Please tell me I got things wrong and that isn't the current scenario.

On reaction times: don't you want to give a bonus to the Fighter? I think it'd be in place

How does this system affect the rules for attacks of opportunity?

thanks for great feedback!

Land Outcast said:

I would stick to base attack bonus... that opens for some good stuff... but the level 20 cleric casting three spells per round while the fighter attacks four times is far too disturbing to me...

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OK, upon reflection, I've removed the Wisdom Mod. But in my defense, there were decent reasons for this rule, but I think its safer not to mess with the game balance, so its out of there.

Land Outcast said:

On reaction times: don't you want to give a bonus to the Fighter? I think it'd be in place

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That's an interesting point. Reflex savings throws were the only thing I could think of that are already built into the game and represent each character's ability to react physically to something. They also increase with level, unlike just Dexterity checks. What other options might there be?

genshou said:

How does this system affect the rules for attacks of opportunity?

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Another good question. The first option is to let characters have one attack of opportunity that comes their way during each Action Time for the attacker of opportunity. This would be easy on one hand, but it requires one to keep track of what has transpired between a character's last decision and the current second. Its also less realistic.

Another option is that when characters make an attack of opportunity, it automatically cancels whatever action they were in the middle of and allows them a new decision at the conclusion of that attack. While more realistic, it is of questionable appeal to the attacker.
My current policy is to use this rule, but to give the attacker of opportunity a +10 bonus to attack. I like having a strong deterrent to characters just blasting through the front ranks and taking out the protected characters, with the front row folks sorta like "wait... no... come back..."

Any thoughts on this?

This system is very similar to one printed in a splatbook for Rolemaster. It was also adapted for Rifts by myself since I disliked the standard Rifts combat.

You've got the nuts and bolts of it all ... however what was also used in the original version is an initiative roll that represented the character's ability to react to an encounter set up.

So you would start at a randomly generated intiative (adjusted by BAB etc as you've stated) then from then on your actions dictated the next time you could act.

One thing we did add, however, was that multiple attacking characters were limited to the number of times they could act (to keep the balance for number of attacks). This was because there was a certain wizard player who was very analytical and worked out what was needed to get the lowest initiative starting point and then would unload more spells than an expert warrior could unload attacks. It was completely out of whack.

What this change meant was that really fast warriors would have their actions over by about mid-round but would have decimated most of their opponents before they got to act.

Delaying simply pushed your initiative a certain number of "ticks" down the line and all your actions were re-calculated from that new "tick".

As for attacks of opporuntity - there was a reaction system in the Rifts system we were using - what a reaction did was to add a number of "ticks" onto your next action (usually half of what the action you used normally would add). This did slow you down but didn't completely lock someone into a "blocking" loop. Otherwise the enemy would start attacking the most powerful character to "lock" them so they couldn't attack.

Of course one "out" was to ignore the attack, take the damamge, then unload your normal attacks back and perhaps "lock" them.

All of that said, we put a limit of 100 "ticks" onto the round. We worked out not many people would generate more than 100 "ticks" and if they did so, they were way too slow. However that was from a system that requried initiative every round. In the d20 case, you would have no limit and just go with it.

I think refocusing would be an issue.

an example

Err, dvvega, I'm not sure I follow all that. Or that you follow what I said... or something. I will demonstrate how the Battle Queue works by use of an example:

King Arthur vs. The Black Knight

BLACK KNIGHT: I move for no man.
ARTHUR: So be it!

* Neither character is suprised, so each rolls a Reflex Saving throw to determine reaction time.
* Arthur rolls a 15, meaning his reaction time is 1 second.
* Black Knight rolls a 10, so his reaction time is 2 seconds.
* Nothing happens in second #0, as nobody had superhuman reaction time.
* In second #1, Arthur chooses to attack the Black Knight with his sword. The two are now engaged in melee combat, but Arthur will not roll to see if the attack succeeds until his Action Time has elapsed. Arthur's Action Time is 4 seconds, so a note (or dice) is used to indicate that Arthur's action is completed in second #5.
* In second #2, Black Knight chooses to attack as well. With an Action Time of 5, his attack will be completd in second #7.
* In second #5, Arthur rolls for attack. It hits, and does a critial damage, severing the Black Knight's arm. He then chooses to kneel and thank God for his victory (I'm know taking license with the original Monty Python).
* The Black Knight is now presented with an opportunity to make an attack of opportunity at +10. His next attack would not have been completed until second #7, and if the attack of opportunity is taken the normal attack will be aborted. The Black Knight chooses to make the attack of opportunity, and rolls immediately. He connects, kicking Arthur over and taunting him. He then chooses his next action, which is to begin a new attack. As this is still second #5, this new attack will be rolled in second #10 (due to the Black Knight's 5 second Action Time).


And so things continue. There are no rounds, and the only "initiative" is the initial Reaction Time roll. Keep in mind that this makes characters with high base attack bonuses considerably more versatile in combat; all of their action are fast now, not just attacks. They are not constrained by the rediculous and arbitrary "full round attack" business that is the only way to make a real impact. Hope this helps.

And so things continue. There are no rounds, and the only "initiative" is the initial Reaction Time roll. Keep in mind that this makes characters with high base attack bonuses considerably more versatile in combat; all of their action are fast now, not just attacks. They are not constrained by the rediculous and arbitrary "full round attack" business that is the only way to make a real impact. Hope this helps.

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I did state at the end of my post that I understood there was only a single initiative in d20 and that the system I used in the other two roleplaying games was round based.

In your single initiative case there is no real difference except that I feel that high BAB characters would take advantage of the system, and spell users could be devestating.

The suggestions were to put a limit somewhere whereby the high BAB people do not over abuse. For example ... once you have maxed out your attacks you need to spend a "rest" period counted in ticks before you can start again. This can represent circling around the battle field, getting a new bearing, etc.

I also suggested that your AOO would just delay your next "tick" ... so if you normally would attack 5 "ticks" from now you would attack 7 or 8 from now instead of giving spurious bonuses.