Thread Necromancy: A Simpler Way
I took a stab at revamping this system, and think I came up with a simpler version that should move fairly quickly, without quite as much complexity. [sblock]SEGMENT-BASED INITIATIVE
During the first round, initiative is rolled normally, except as follows:
1) Roll a d12 instead of a d20. A lower roll is better than a higher one.
2) Instead of adding modifiers (Dexterity score, Improved Initiative, etc.) from the resulting roll, subtract them. (Thus, negative modifiers are added.)
3) Any result less than 1 becomes 1; any result greater than 12 becomes 12.
Then combat begins. In the first round, each character’s first action takes place on a numbered segment, with the segment number they act on being the one equal to their starting initiative score (ranging from 1-12). So, the first characters act on Segment 1, the next characters act on Segment 2, etc. The last characters act on Segment 12.
All combatants acting the same segment act in order of total initiative modifier (highest first); if there is a tie, the tied characters should roll to determine which one of them goes before the other.
Each time a character takes an action on a given segment, that action incurs a segment delay, equal to an amount based on the action. That delay is added to the current segment number to determine on which segment the character takes their next action.
Action Type Segment Delay
Full Action 11 + Weapon or Spell Delay (if any)*
Standard Action 6 + Weapon or Spell Delay (if any)*
Move Action 5
**Partial Action 3
Free Action 0
Swift Action 1
Immediate Action 0
Delay Action As chosen by character (see below)
* = See Weapon and Spell Delays, below, for a description of these modifiers.
** = A Partial Action is a special action. Partial Actions are described below.
A round is considered to be 12 Segments. Each Segment is considered to be .5 seconds. A minute is 120 Segments.
Because combat is cyclical, each cycle of segments goes from 1 to 12, and then starts over. So, any segment delay that would push a character’s next action farther than Segment 12 of the current cycle, pushes that action into the next cycle by however many segments it exceeds segment 12. So, if character acting on Segment 11 takes a move action (a segment delay of 5), they next act on segment 4 of the next cycle.
Under this rule, instead of waiting an entire round, a character can act as soon as the Segment Delay for their most recent action has passed. Segment Delays are as follows.
Free actions can be taken on any Segment in which the character performs a Full, Standard, Move, or Partial action. The number of free action that can be taken on a Segment is not normally limited. However, if the GM deems a specific number of free actions to be excessive, the GM may limit free actions on a given segment.
Immediate actions can be taken during any Segment, even during a Segment Delay, whether the character is taking another action that Segment or not.
Swift actions work just like Free actions, except that only one Swift action can be taken per Segment, and a Swift action can only be taken during any Segment in which the character performs a Full, Standard, or Move action.
Otherwise, combat works as normal. Characters who have not yet acted are flat-footed, characters may ready an action for later, etc.
A character that chooses to Delay takes no action, but chooses which Segment on which they next wish to act. Essentially, they do nothing, but choose the amount of their segment delay. This works like a normal segment delay.
Partial Actions
This system adds two new actions to the normal combat rules, both of which are partial actions. Except as stated otherwise, partial actions are identical to move actions.
Aim: A character may take a moment to aim at a target. This adds +1 to his next attack roll. The character may Aim for a maximum of 4 segments in a row. If he does so, the bonus accumulates, adding an additional +1 to his next attack roll for each additional round spent aiming. However, if a character is damaged while aiming, he must roll Will (DC 10 + the damage suffered) or lose the benefits of aiming. Also, if the character moves, all benefits of aiming are lost.
Half-Move: A character may move half his normal movement rate as a partial action.
Weapon and Spell Delays
A Weapon Delay is a modifier to the Segment Delay of any action that involved attacking with a weapon. The Weapon Delay is added to the Segment Delay of that action, as follows:
Weapon Weapon Delay
Two-handed Weapon +2
One-handed Weapon +1
Unarmed +0
If multiple weapons are used to attack in a single Segment, only the highest weapon delay of all the weapons used is added. No matter how many different actions may be taken in a single Segment, Weapon Delay is only added once for any Segment, and is always the highest Weapon Delay of all weapons used to attack.
A Spell Delay is a modifier to the Segment Delay of any action that was used to cast a spell. The Spell Delay is equal to one-third of the spell level, rounded down, as follows:
Spell Level Spell Delay
9th level spells +3
6th, 7th or 8th level spells +2
3rd, 4th or 5th level spells +1
0, 1st, or 2nd level spells +0
If somehow multiple spells are cast in one Segment, add the highest Spell Delay of all spells cast. If somehow a character casts a spell and attacks with a weapon in the same Segment, add the higher of either the Spell Delay or the Weapon Delay, but not both.
Optional Rule: Multiple Attacks
If a character takes a full-round action to make multiple attacks, the GM can allow the player to spread these attacks out over a number of smaller segment delays instead of taking the full segment delay of 11, as follows:
Number of Attacks Segment Delay
2 5+ Weapon or Spell Delay
3 4+ Weapon or Spell Delay
4 3+ Weapon or Spell Delay
5 2+ Weapon or Spell Delay[/sblock]
Please respond with your thoughts.
