Rules for 5' Step

[Felix]

You know, just because he isn't making an attack roll doesn't mean he's stopped waving his sword at the enemy. Think of it this way...

This is the game mechanics version of the action:

PC's initiative comes up. He first takes a 5' step back. He uses a move-equivalent action to retrieve a potion from his belt. He uses a standard action to drink the potion. The enemy's initiative now...

And then think how that might exactly describe this fight:

After lunging forward slightly to put the enemy on his heels, Liane the Wayfarer immediately backed up. As he was doing so, his left hand reached down to his belt and pulled out a vial of dark blue liquid. While his opponent quickly recovered from the feint and lept forward to re-engage, Liane gulped the liquid down, feeling the rejuvenation of his sinews as his blade moved to meet that of his onrushing attacker.

Same thing, eh?

Don't let the dryness of the game mechanics get you down, bud!

 

[shilsen]

Nice explanation, Felix!

 

[Romnipotent]

After lunging forward slightly to put the enemy on his heels, Liane the Wayfarer immediately backed up. As he was doing so, his left hand reached down to his belt and pulled out a vial of dark blue liquid. While his opponent quickly recovered from the feint and lept forward to re-engage, Liane gulped the liquid down, feeling the rejuvenation of his sinews as his blade moved to meet that of his onrushing attacker.

See, this is exactly what the "5ft step" is, its the quick backing away to do something. Not a simple step back and wait for the guy to swing at you. Effectively you and I could swing 4-10 times in 6 seconds, how effective those swings are makes the difference. But thats not the idea in D&D, rather than have a complex mechanic for attacks you have X amounts of good attacks denoted by BAB.

This issue sounds more like a roleplaying/scene setting problem rather than mechanical, think of every combat like a movie scene, think about how people move. The system is so dry you have to add wine.