'interupt' actions? How would you do it?

[Kahuna Burger]

So the "blocking the ray" idea got me back to my favorite nit to pick on the rules : how does one fairly introduce an "interupt" action into D20? That is, an action to stop something from happening that resolves as a readied action, even though you weren't readying.

I can think of general rules that would penalize it heavily, feats, reflex saves and a slew of other possible mechanics, but I think for a cinematic or heroicly flavored game it should be possible.

One possible feat :

Interupt [general]

You react to prevent something from happening.

prereqs : reflex save? dex? wisdom? cha? combat reflexes?

(some number of times per day/combat?) you can react to an attempted action as if you had readied an action for it. You must neither have acted that round, nor be flat footed, and you must be aware of the action you are responding to. Make a reflex save (DC = 10 + opponent's BAB) to take any partial action related to the action you are trying to prevent. (This may include acting on the target of an attack rather than the attack, for instance). You are flatfooted until your following intitative (the same as you acted on if you were delaying, or your normal one if you acted 'early') even if you are not normally considered flat footed.

Normal : you can only take a readied action after your intiative in response to a specificly predicted event.

Optionally, the reflex save could be to be non flatfooted after the action, or a failure could leave you prone until your next action (even if you have quickstand).

Thoughts? Comments? flames?

Kahuna Burger

 

[Maximillian]

Star Wars allows one particular "Reaction" ability. This is the ability of a lightsaber to defend against and reflect back blaster bolts. This essentially means that if you react to danger, you've used up an attack action in your next turn, generally leaving you with only a move action. In DnD we might require that you receive only a partial action in your next turn.

As for making this a feat... Wow. Tough stuff. I created a set of quick and dirty modern gun fighting rules three years ago, very soon after the d20 liscence was announced. Never got around to doing it... long story short, we had an idea for a feat, inspired by several western movies.

Under the Gun

No one has reflexes like you.

Prerequisites: Dexterity 13, BAB +3, Improved Initiative

Benefit: If another character has taken a ready action, you may attempt to act before they have the chance to do so. For this to occur you must first be aware of the fact that this individual is readied (a sense motive vs. bluff roll may be necessary if the threat is not overt), and second, you must not be flat-footed. If both of these conditions are met, you make an opposed initiative roll against the readied individual and only the readied individual. If you win the roll, you are entitled to an immediate partial action, just as if you had readied an action yourself. If you lose, you may take a full round action, as normal, but this occurs after the readied individual takes his. This feat does not allow you to act out of turn. You may only use this feat on your own turn.

Do you like this? We even went so far as to make it a partial action so that, like in a western, if you don't have quickdraw, you draw your weapon, then get shot. The fastest gun in the west has both improved initiative and quickdraw, of course.

The problem I have with your feat is that it lets you act out of turn. This can have serious consequences, allowing easy counterspells and plenty of weird situations. If you ramped up the prereqs to the right level, it'd be fine, but I can't imagine what they'd be.

 

[Kahuna Burger]

The problem I have with your feat is that it lets you act out of turn. This can have serious consequences, allowing easy counterspells and plenty of weird situations. If you ramped up the prereqs to the right level, it'd be fine, but I can't imagine what they'd be.

I'm looking for the right balance of prereqs, limitations and consequences to make it not totally overpowered, but I think any dm would have to consider the flavour of the game in allowing it at all. Those 'weird situations' are a staple of a certain style of fantasy storytelling, after all. (and by fantasy, I'd include a sub genre of action movies). If possible, I'd like to discuss the idea in the context of games where it's appropriate (high fantasy, heroic, cinematic, whatever you want to call it) rather than try to balance it to a game style where it Just Doesn't Fit.

its also possible that it could be restricted to a certain type of character that it suits. (a swashbuckler prestige class, characters with lower BAB than level and minimum spellcasting, etc.)

The out of turn thing could be softened by saying you couldn't do it in the first round of combat and/or must take the final intitative in all rounds you don't use the ability. (so in essence, every round you are leaving your options open and only acting when you know you don't need to interupt.) Would that help at all?

Kahuna Burger

 

[Maximillian]

So you're in a constant state of delay until it becomes necessary? Better, but really, what's the difference between one round and another when they just cycle over and over, anyway?

Maybe a good place to start would be a feat that allows you to just "Ready." No conditions, you just take an action to be ready to take any action, whenever you want. You ready, and then you take your action against any target, as an interruption.

Also, do you think that feat I put above works? If not for this, do you like it as is?

 

[Kahuna Burger]

Also, do you think that feat I put above works? If not for this, do you like it as is?

I like the mechanic, but with all the rolling you have to do to bring it into play, I'm not sure its worth a feat. Maybe combine it with some other abilities to make a "gunfighter" feat, or have it be a class ablity of a sharpshooter prc? A side effect of the quickdraw feat, but can't be combined with it? I just don't know about having a feat that you may have to roll twice to even try to use...

Kahuna Burger

 

[hong]

The Reactive Counterspell feat in Magic of Faerun lets you counterspell without using a readied action. The price is that you can only take a move-equivalent action when it's your turn. You could extend this idea to other types of actions.