D&D 3E/3.5 [3.5] Partial actions aren't gone, they are renamed, and the resulting confusion

[ForceUser]

Argh! Talk about a brain twist! Here goes.

The 3.0 standard action that consisted of a move and an action or two moves no longer exists. That's right - it's gone. What was once called a partial action is now called a standard action.

You know how, in 3.0, when you got to act in the surprise round you could only take a partial action? Well, you're limited to the same thing in 3.5, except now it's called a standard action.

Yeah, my brain hurts too.

This caused some confusion last night, because when I surprised my players with my bad guys I had them all take 3.0 standard actions in the surprise round - or a move and an action each. Hey, that's what it said in the PHB. But in 3.5, when the text says you can only take a standard in the surprise round, your brain needs to translate that to "one action or one move, but not both."

So NOW, instead of being able to perform a standard (action + move, or move + move) or full round action in a normal 6-second round, you can perform a standard (3.0 partial action) + move, or a move + move, or a full round action. Just subtle enough of a change to completely screw me up. I had to read the combat section twice today to fully understand this.

Ugh! Take nothing for granted! Nothing!

 

[Petrosian]

just keep repeating "its just a revision." over and over again until the stress subsides.

 

[Skaros]

just keep repeating "its just a revision." over and over again until the stress subsides.

LOL that one's good Petrosian!

 

[drnuncheon]

Yeah. I can see why they changed it though - because the original way was even more confusing. Being a Champions player, I was mentally inclined to want to think of the round as being in two chunks - a move chunk and an attack chunk - because it was so much simpler that way.

It's another one of those revisions that is going to cause trouble for the experienced players, but will be a lot more friendly to the newbies.

J

 

[Planesdragon]

Well, you're limited to the same thing in 3.5, except now it's called a standard action.

Ok, and?

I always considered actions to be subsets of each other--you have free actions, which are a subset of move actions, which are a subset of standard actions, which are a subset of full-round actions.

3.0's attempt to have "standard actions" be "two actions in one" was just (IMO) a horibly silly example of bad naming.

IIRC, they fixed that little bug as early as Star Wars d20.

 

[ForceUser]

Re: Re: [3.5] Partial actions aren't gone, they are renamed, and the resulting confusion

Ok, and?

And it's confusing me. What, did you want to scrap or something?

 

[Hejdun]

Funtionally, this change did nothing.

Think of it this way: A standard action was really a partial action that allowed a move. So, in essense, a standard action was really a partial action + a move action. I was already confused in 3e, because it referred to the entire standard action as being the move and the action, so when something took a standard action, it wasn't really clear if they got a move also.

You know how, in 3.0, when you got to act in the surprise round you could only take a partial action? Well, you're limited to the same thing in 3.5, except now it's called a standard action.

Yeah, my brain hurts too.

My brain hurt when one standard action was really an action and a move equivelant action. Whereas you got two actions when it said "action", now it's more simplified.

So NOW, instead of being able to perform a standard (action + move, or move + move) or full round action in a normal 6-second round, you can perform a standard (3.0 partial action) + move, or a move + move, or a full round action.

You're confused because they changed the name? That's the only change...

Edit: Sorry if my posts sounds belligerent, it's not intended to be that way

 

[ForceUser]

You're confused because they changed the name? That's the only change...

Actually, no. They removed the 3.0 standard action completely, then they renamed the 3.0 partial action to standard action. So yes, I found that confusing enough to have to read through the relevant section of the 3.5 combat rules not once but twice before fully grasping the concept. Guess that doesn't make me a rocket scientist, but whatever. Like drnuncheon said, it's a good change but it's going to confuse some longtime players (like me).

 

[IanB]

So NOW, instead of being able to perform a standard (action + move, or move + move) or full round action in a normal 6-second round, you can perform a standard (3.0 partial action) + move, or a move + move, or a full round action. Just subtle enough of a change to completely screw me up. I had to read the combat section twice today to fully understand this.

This is exactly how my group treated it from Day 1 of 3.0. Frankly everything always made more sense to me when it was treated like this in the first place.

 

[Gizzard]

This is exactly how my group treated it from Day 1 of 3.0. Frankly everything always made more sense to me when it was treated like this in the first place.

So did we. But then on Day 2 we re-read the PHB and changed the way we were playing. ;-)

But in any case, if ForceUser is right and partial actions are now just called standard actions does that mean that certain special partial actions - such as partial charge - are gone now? Or can I move-partial charge as my action?

This question led to our Day 2 discovery that we were playing wrong on Day 1, back at the beginning of 3E.