D&D 3E/3.5 How many free actions do you get per round (3.5)?

[Genesist]

I'm trying to find a hard ruling on this. All I seem to get is:

"Free actions don’t take any time at all, though there may be limits to the number of free actions you can perform in a turn."

"Free actions consume a very small amount of time and effort. You can perform one or more free actions while taking another action normally. However, there are reasonable limits on what you can really do for free."

Neither of these rulings give a hard number.

 

[xigbar]

I'm trying to find a hard ruling on this. All I seem to get is:

"Free actions don’t take any time at all, though there may be limits to the number of free actions you can perform in a turn."

"Free actions consume a very small amount of time and effort. You can perform one or more free actions while taking another action normally. However, there are reasonable limits on what you can really do for free."

Neither of these rulings give a hard number.

I look at speaking as a good guage of time. It's a free action, but you can only say so much in 6 seconds. However much someone can say coherently in a 6 round is the action. Any longer is multiple actions.

 

[Sekhmet]

As many as your DM allows. I think of a free action as being about one second, so I generally allow for (around) six per round under the best conditions.
More frequently, three to four.

 

[Genesist]

I am looking at this from the POV of the Invisible blade 5th level ability. They can feint as a free action. I'm trying to figure out how many times a round this can be used.

 

[xigbar]

I am looking at this from the POV of the Invisible blade 5th level ability. They can feint as a free action. I'm trying to figure out how many times a round this can be used.

You could try basing it on BAB.

 

[Genesist]

This DM probably won't go for a solution unless it is based on a book or official ruling.

 

[Nebten]

I see you tagged this with "Invisible Blade" and "Bluff" so I'm going to assume you are concerned about "Uncanny Feint."

This was errated for clarity:

Page 46: Invisible Blade’s Uncanny Feint
(class feature)​

The invisible blade can use his uncanny feint ability once per round.​

 

[Genesist]

I see you tagged this with "Invisible Blade" and "Bluff" so I'm going to assume you are concerned about "Uncanny Feint."

This was errated for clarity:

Page 46: Invisible Blade’s Uncanny Feint
(class feature)​

The invisible blade can use his uncanny feint ability once per round.​

Well that's unfortunate, though it'd be OP if you could basically get sneak/sudden strike damage to every attack in almost all circumstances in which the enemy is not immune.

 

[garagos]

My DM usually gives us free actions equal to our Dex Mod. I understand this could get out of hand at higher levels but we don't abuse it so we rarely ever need to do more than 3.

 

[Li Shenron]

I am looking at this from the POV of the Invisible blade 5th level ability. They can feint as a free action. I'm trying to figure out how many times a round this can be used.

Make a hard ruling on the specific ability, not on the general rule about free actions, or you'll shoot yourself in the foot.

I see that you already have an official answer (1/round) on the Invisible Blade. It's probably the most reasonable rule, otherwise the only other option I see would be to allow you to feint as many times you want (i.e. once per attack). Anything in between would be unnecessarily complicated for the minimal difference it would make in practice!

Now try to think what mess you'll do if you put a hard limit on free actions in general... Free actions are meant for things that are either irrelevant, or self-limited such as dropping to the ground (which you can do only once until you stand up again) or dropping objects (which normally you have up to two, one in each hand). The PHB wisely says that, should there be some more complicated scenario (e.g. you have an ability that lets you also stand up as a free action), the DM will say stop when the thing starts looking stupid (your PC wanting to drop & stand up like a rubber ball). Any hard ruling made to avoid a stupid case by the RAW can open up new stupid cases as well. And will still be mostly unnecessary.