Do you take actions outside of combat/initiative?

[RigaMortus2]

The reason I ask is, there is a soulmeld from Magic of Incarnum called Phase Cloak. If you have it bound (which the earliest you can do is character level 9), then anytime you use a Move Action and move at least 5 feet, you become ethereal. After the move, you pop back to the material plane. So I was wondering, if you were just walking around normally, would you be ethereal as you are walking, or not? If you technically can only take Move Actions during combat/init, then I assume this is the only time this ability would kick in, correct?

 

[Kieperr]

I believe you are correct in the last part. Actions are a component of combat and are not used outside of that part of the game. From what you have described of the cloak riding a mount would also preclude its use. Your mount is taking move actions to move, you are not.

 

[RigaMortus2]

From what you have described of the cloak riding a mount would also preclude its use. Your mount is taking move actions to move, you are not.

Well, there is a way to get around this too... Take the Share Soulmeld feat, and as long as the mount is one that you can share spells with (familiar/animal companion/paladin mount) they can benefit from the soulmeld. Of course this would mean that as the mount takes it's Move Action and becomes Ethereal, you do not...

My main motivation for this feat was to basically build a "Ninja character", one that can walk through walls and such. If I took 9 levels of Rogue and a few Incarnum feats to get this cloak, I was wondering if (outside of combat) I could walk through walls and assassinate my target... Jump through a window w/o breaking it... Fun stuff...

 

[MarkB]

I don't recall anything about move actions being useable only in combat, so I can't see any problem with using this outside combat.

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

If you are not adverse to house rules, check out my thread on Justins Shadow Slip, a custom variant of the Eberron Mark of Passage...

Feel free to critique.. as you can see I did not get much feedback on it. Sending it as is to my DM to see what he thinks...

Regarding the OP.. while technically you only use Move Actions while in intiative/combat, I would rule that normal movement turns you etherial as well.. which could have some unintended consequences