House Rules for Half Actions in Combat
I've been thinking about ways to improve on the encounter rules to make it seem more like everyone in the party and the enemy are all acting simultaneously in a given combat round instead of in some sequential order as what actually happens according to the game mechanics.
Now, were the DM to be capable of tedious micromanagement or had the the aid of technology, it would be indeed possible to play out a single round's worth of actions, with all characters moving and attacking simultaneously on a battle grid, with each character or creature portioning out its movement and attacks across the timeline of a 6-second combat round, perhaps breaking down the granularity of a round into half-seconds or tenth-seconds so as to be able to accommodate creatures being able to accomplish a whole heck of a lot of things in a given round. Of course, this configuration, though ideal, is unworkable for the vast majority of groups. Some abstraction in the context of conventional tabletop gaming is needed.
The main concept is to separate a character's actions in a combat round into two "half actions" similar to what Spycraft does (which would not be stated as such, but described as such in this context for ease of understanding).
It is not intended that these house rules should have the effect of merely redesigning the combat encounter to play out in intervals of 3-second rounds of twice the number of 6-second rounds required. Where this can be avoided, if it can be avoided, is also my intent.
GENERAL INFORMATION
Each character would have two (half) actions in a given combat round. A character's first action would occur at their actual initiative number, and their second half-action would occur 10 steps behind it. For instance, instead of taking a standard action and a move all at once, a character might take the standard action as their first action, then the move action as their second action, or vice versa.
In short, splitting a character's actions allows the higher-initiative characters more flexibility in reacting to intra-round changes in field conditions or ally/enemy dispositions. Having characters carry out their half-actions on different initiative numbers enables a certain amount of simultaneity, although this wouldn’t always be the case. Two opponents carrying out two full-round actions against each other will still play out as their taking turns hacking each other to bits.
A multi-round effect which requires round-by-round upkeep (updating its status or the environmental conditions), which has its duration end at the beginning of a character's turn is revisited just prior the instigator's first half-action; a multi-round effect that is to be revisited at the end of its instigator's turn is addressed at the end of the actor's second half-action.
Now let’s reinterpret the action types in terms of executing two half-actions per round.
STANDARD ACTIONS AND MOVE ACTIONS
A character may take one standard action (such as casting a spell or making a single attack with a weapon) and one move action per combat round, one per half-action. The standard action may come either before or after the move action.
FULL-ROUND ACTIONS AND MULTI-ROUND ACTIONS
Pathfinder identifies two sub-categories of full-round actions, and they follow different mechanics. For purposes of these house rules I will categorize the second sort as a seventh type of action, "multi-round action," to differentiate them.
Full-round actions end in the same round and occupy most of a character's attention. A full-round action's component effects (the multiple attacks of a full attack, the movement and attack component of a Shot On The Run, etc.) all "go off" at once. Full-round actions occur 5 steps behind the actor's encounter initiative (to represent the complexity or intensity of the behaviors), but this 5-step delay does not by itself adjust the character's initiative for the encounter. Full-Round Actions consume both the actor's first and second actions in the current round.
Multi-round actions begin in one round and end in a subsequent round (such as a spell that takes multiple rounds to cast), essentially carrying over across two or more rounds. In the standard rules these actions are activated as a standard action and completed by a second one. Under these house rules, the actor's first and second actions in the initial round would be consumed by the multi-round action as well as every subsequent round's worth of actions through to the last round the effect is active--whose second action serves as the standard action that completes the multi-round action. The actions in the round following are not used up.
SWIFT ACTIONS & FREE ACTIONS
A character's single swift action would be allowed on their first or second action, and free actions would be allowed in conjunction with either.
RESTRICTED ACTIVITY
Staggered characters (and other characters under restricted activity) would forfeit their second actions for each combat round.
DELAYING ACTIONS & READYING ACTIONS
Delaying and readying represent the voluntary forfeiture of time and opportunity; therefore they requires the forfeiture of the actor's first action in a round, but allows them to take their second action at any time in the same combat round after the first action would ordinarily be taken, whether it be on a predetermined initiative number or as a response to some predetermined conditions or event. Consequently, Delaying and Readying are not allowed choices for a second action.
If a delaying character chooses to take their second action at all, their initiative number shifts to the number they took their delayed action on, beginning on the next combat round. Their next turn will come after everything else that may occur on the same initiative number. In cases where multiple characters take delayed actions on the same initiative number, their next turns will occur in sequence of their previous initiative numbers.
Readied actions occur immediately before the trigger condition/event. If a character takes a readied action, their initiative number changes to that of the trigger. Beginning on the next combat round, the readying actor’s next turn will come ahead of everything else that may occur on the same initiative number. In cases where multiple characters take readied actions on the same initiative number, their next turns will occur in sequence of their previous initiative numbers.
NOTE
I’ve never had this playtested but I believe I’ve found most of the major rules mechanics that would need to be adjusted in view of the fundamental house rules.
CONCLUSION
Is this revision playable? practical? Can it be improved or simplified? Does it satisfactorily avoid the mere creation of “3-second rounds”?
OTHER STUFF
I had also wanted to write the possibility of negative initiative numbers out of the rules, where a negative initiative number for a character or creature (though rare) would simply default to 1 or zero. The zero initiative count, once reached, would constitute the very end of the current round, and anything dropping to a negative would need to rollover to the following round. I can’t work out how to cleanly limit all initiatives to positive values, though.
I've been thinking about ways to improve on the encounter rules to make it seem more like everyone in the party and the enemy are all acting simultaneously in a given combat round instead of in some sequential order as what actually happens according to the game mechanics.
Now, were the DM to be capable of tedious micromanagement or had the the aid of technology, it would be indeed possible to play out a single round's worth of actions, with all characters moving and attacking simultaneously on a battle grid, with each character or creature portioning out its movement and attacks across the timeline of a 6-second combat round, perhaps breaking down the granularity of a round into half-seconds or tenth-seconds so as to be able to accommodate creatures being able to accomplish a whole heck of a lot of things in a given round. Of course, this configuration, though ideal, is unworkable for the vast majority of groups. Some abstraction in the context of conventional tabletop gaming is needed.
The main concept is to separate a character's actions in a combat round into two "half actions" similar to what Spycraft does (which would not be stated as such, but described as such in this context for ease of understanding).
It is not intended that these house rules should have the effect of merely redesigning the combat encounter to play out in intervals of 3-second rounds of twice the number of 6-second rounds required. Where this can be avoided, if it can be avoided, is also my intent.
GENERAL INFORMATION
Each character would have two (half) actions in a given combat round. A character's first action would occur at their actual initiative number, and their second half-action would occur 10 steps behind it. For instance, instead of taking a standard action and a move all at once, a character might take the standard action as their first action, then the move action as their second action, or vice versa.
In short, splitting a character's actions allows the higher-initiative characters more flexibility in reacting to intra-round changes in field conditions or ally/enemy dispositions. Having characters carry out their half-actions on different initiative numbers enables a certain amount of simultaneity, although this wouldn’t always be the case. Two opponents carrying out two full-round actions against each other will still play out as their taking turns hacking each other to bits.
A multi-round effect which requires round-by-round upkeep (updating its status or the environmental conditions), which has its duration end at the beginning of a character's turn is revisited just prior the instigator's first half-action; a multi-round effect that is to be revisited at the end of its instigator's turn is addressed at the end of the actor's second half-action.
Now let’s reinterpret the action types in terms of executing two half-actions per round.
STANDARD ACTIONS AND MOVE ACTIONS
A character may take one standard action (such as casting a spell or making a single attack with a weapon) and one move action per combat round, one per half-action. The standard action may come either before or after the move action.
FULL-ROUND ACTIONS AND MULTI-ROUND ACTIONS
Pathfinder identifies two sub-categories of full-round actions, and they follow different mechanics. For purposes of these house rules I will categorize the second sort as a seventh type of action, "multi-round action," to differentiate them.
Full-round actions end in the same round and occupy most of a character's attention. A full-round action's component effects (the multiple attacks of a full attack, the movement and attack component of a Shot On The Run, etc.) all "go off" at once. Full-round actions occur 5 steps behind the actor's encounter initiative (to represent the complexity or intensity of the behaviors), but this 5-step delay does not by itself adjust the character's initiative for the encounter. Full-Round Actions consume both the actor's first and second actions in the current round.
Multi-round actions begin in one round and end in a subsequent round (such as a spell that takes multiple rounds to cast), essentially carrying over across two or more rounds. In the standard rules these actions are activated as a standard action and completed by a second one. Under these house rules, the actor's first and second actions in the initial round would be consumed by the multi-round action as well as every subsequent round's worth of actions through to the last round the effect is active--whose second action serves as the standard action that completes the multi-round action. The actions in the round following are not used up.
SWIFT ACTIONS & FREE ACTIONS
A character's single swift action would be allowed on their first or second action, and free actions would be allowed in conjunction with either.
RESTRICTED ACTIVITY
Staggered characters (and other characters under restricted activity) would forfeit their second actions for each combat round.
DELAYING ACTIONS & READYING ACTIONS
Delaying and readying represent the voluntary forfeiture of time and opportunity; therefore they requires the forfeiture of the actor's first action in a round, but allows them to take their second action at any time in the same combat round after the first action would ordinarily be taken, whether it be on a predetermined initiative number or as a response to some predetermined conditions or event. Consequently, Delaying and Readying are not allowed choices for a second action.
If a delaying character chooses to take their second action at all, their initiative number shifts to the number they took their delayed action on, beginning on the next combat round. Their next turn will come after everything else that may occur on the same initiative number. In cases where multiple characters take delayed actions on the same initiative number, their next turns will occur in sequence of their previous initiative numbers.
Readied actions occur immediately before the trigger condition/event. If a character takes a readied action, their initiative number changes to that of the trigger. Beginning on the next combat round, the readying actor’s next turn will come ahead of everything else that may occur on the same initiative number. In cases where multiple characters take readied actions on the same initiative number, their next turns will occur in sequence of their previous initiative numbers.
NOTE
I’ve never had this playtested but I believe I’ve found most of the major rules mechanics that would need to be adjusted in view of the fundamental house rules.
CONCLUSION
Is this revision playable? practical? Can it be improved or simplified? Does it satisfactorily avoid the mere creation of “3-second rounds”?
OTHER STUFF
I had also wanted to write the possibility of negative initiative numbers out of the rules, where a negative initiative number for a character or creature (though rare) would simply default to 1 or zero. The zero initiative count, once reached, would constitute the very end of the current round, and anything dropping to a negative would need to rollover to the following round. I can’t work out how to cleanly limit all initiatives to positive values, though.
