Actions and Reactions

[DanMcS]

I'm trying to revise the way free, swift, reactions, and immediate actions work to make them fit well in my head, basically. Free actions are from the core, swift and immediate actions are from the expanded psionic handbook, among others, and reactions are what MnM calls free actions that can be taken outside of your turn. I thought it a useful piece of terminology.


An action's type tells you how long the action takes to perform within the framework of the combat round. There are seven types of actions: standard actions, move actions, full-round actions, swift actions, free actions, reactions, and immediate actions.

As your turn in a normal round you can perform a swift action, a move action, and a standard action, plus a reasonable number of free actions. Outside your turn, you may perform immediate actions and reactions. No actions can be performed if you are flat-footed, stunned, or otherwise unable to act.

Standard, move, and full-round actions function normally.

Free Actions
Free actions consume a very small amount of time and effort. You can perform one or more free actions during your turn. However, there are reasonable limits on what you can really do for free, as judged by the DM.

Swift Actions
A swift action consumes a very small amount of time, but represents a larger expenditure of effort and energy than a free action. You can perform one swift action per turn without affecting your ability to perform other actions. In that regard, a swift action is like a free action. However, you can perform only a single swift action per turn, regardless of what other actions you take. You can take a swift action any time you would be able to normally be allowed to take a free action, ie, typically during your turn at some point.

A quickened spell is a swift action.

Reactions
A reaction consumes a very small amount of time and effort, and can be performed even outside your turn, typically in response to someone else's action or another event. Using a reaction on your turn is the same as using a free action.

Uncanny Reactions: (old Uncanny Dodge) You can perform a reaction even if you are flat-footed.

Immediate Actions
Much like a swift action, an immediate action consumes a very small amount of time, but represents a larger expenditure of effort and energy than a free action. However, unlike a swift action, an immediate action can be performed at any time—even if it’s not your turn. Typically this is in response to some event. You don't have to perform an immediate action if you don't want to, and you cannot if you are flat-footed or otherwise unable to act.

Using an immediate action on your turn is the same as using a swift action. Using an immediate action outside of your turn uses up your swift action for your upcoming turn, and you cannot take another immediate action or swift action until after that upcoming turn.

Combat Reflexes: You may take a number of additional immediate actions per round equal to your Dexterity bonus, without using up your upcoming swift action. These extra immediate actions can be taken even if you are flat-footed.

Now, if you're using a system that differentiates dodges and parries (Conan does so, as does the parry system from dragon magazine, as do these alternate rules), you say that dodging is a reaction, and parrying and AoOs are immediate actions. So someone can parry a couple of times, but if they are facing a lot of attacks, they'll have to try to duck some of them. I'm planning to use this with a dodge/parry and armor as DR system myself.

If you're not using such a thing, you probably don't have to worry about this, though it is somewhat useful for spellcasters with immediate spells and combat reflexes.

If you're using a system with feats that can be taken multiple times for increasing benefit, like (as I understand it), Iron Heroes, Spycraft 2.0, or MnM 2.0, then make combat reflexes a feat that can be taken a number of times up to your Dex bonus, each instance grants 1 spare immediate action.

 

[genshou]

Hmmmmmm... now this is interesting. It was a bit confusing on the first read-through, but deep down it's superficially simple

It meshes with the AoO/Parrying system I use in my Story Hour, too. That's the way to do it! ^_^

Quick question, though–are you intending for a character to be able to use immediate actions to cast quickened spells, and if so, can they use a swift action to cast a quickened spell, and then use an immediate action later in the same round to do so again? What about if they use the immediate action during the next round, before their turn? Can a character use an immediate action at the start of one round (thus losing their swift action for that round), but then use another immediate action in the same round, after their turn is over?

 

[DanMcS]

Hmmmmmm... now this is interesting. It was a bit confusing on the first read-through, but deep down it's superficially simple

You should see the part I took out that was too complex

Quick question, though–are you intending for a character to be able to use immediate actions to cast quickened spells, and if so, can they use a swift action to cast a quickened spell, and then use an immediate action later in the same round to do so again?

Quickened spells are swift actions, as already defined in the sources on swift actions; they are not immediate actions.

Can a character use an immediate action at the start of one round (thus losing their swift action for that round), but then use another immediate action in the same round, after their turn is over?

Yes, because their turn is over, and the second immediate action eats the swift action from their following turn. Rounds are cyclical, so you shouldn't think of it in terms of "he's getting multiple immediate actions in the same round"; after his turn ends, it's pretty much a new round for him.

Note that this is the way attacks of opportunity have always worked, I'm just unifying the terminology.

Example:
We are in round 2 of combat, so nobody is flatfooted. Bob goes on initiative count 15.

On initiative count 17, somebody provokes an Attack of Opportunity from Bob. He takes it, as an immediate action. He does not have combat reflexes, so this consumes his upcoming swift action.

Initiative count 16 comes and goes. 15 arrives, and it's Bob's turn.

He is not eligable to take a swift action right now, but he can take a standard and a move action, normally.

His actions "refresh" on his turn. (Query: do AoOs refresh at the beginning of your turn, or at the end? Technically, in this system, it's at the end, I think.)

Now, at initiative count 13, somebody else provokes an attack of opportunity from Bob. Bob can take it; he has not gained the Combat Reflexes feat since his last attack of opportunity, so this immediate action consumes his swift action from his upcoming turn, which will, barring any delay actions, occur at initiative count 15 on round 3.

This is (I'm pretty sure) exactly the same as the way the AoO rules work in D&D. I'm defining them as immediate actions to clean up a bit of terminology, and give a nice framework for parrying rules to hang on.