Running + Dex bonus

[eamon]

The Full-round Run action described in the Combat section says you lose your Dex modifier to AC. Unlike many such statements, this one doesn't explicitly state for how low you lose the Dex modifier. From a rules perspective, it makes sense that you only lose it in your turn. On the other hand, common sense dictates that there's no such difference, and the rules do try to avoid such distinctions explicitly both in general, and specifically (on pg 147) for running.

Playing devil's advocate here, but why does the notion that the full-round action is completed within your turn trump the notion that running takes the entire round?

 

[Hypersmurf]

Playing devil's advocate here, but why does the notion that the full-round action is completed within your turn trump the notion that running takes the entire round?

In the same way that the rules use "until your next action" in places in a sense that means not "until the next move, standard, or free action you take" but rather "until your next turn in the initiative order", it seems apparent that the phrasing "full round actions take an entire round to complete" means "full round actions consume all of your effort for a turn in a given round". Not that the action extends across the turn boundaries, but rather that you are left with no other actions (apart from free actions) once the action is complete.

Given that "an entire round" has been used in one place to mean "all of one character's turn", it doesn't seem a stretch to assume that the same applies to the single note - not even found within the description of the Run action, but rather in a paragraph describing several forms of movement briefly. It also avoids all the headaches of determining how far the character has travelled at each point in the round outside his turn... does he move nowhere in his turn, then shift the full distance just before his next turn (like completing a one round spell)? Does he travel the full distance on his turn, then jog-on-the-spot for the rest of the round? Does he move incrementally as the round progresses?

It fits with all the other full round actions, and with other uses of the phrase 'an entire round', to assume the action is completed in the character's turn. Other actions that extend beyond the turn boundary use explicit phrasing like 'until just before the character's next turn'.

-Hyp.

 

[silentspace]

I like this thread. eom.