Sensing Intent?

[Ogrork the Mighty]

In our game we use a combat system where everyone declares their intent for the upcoming round of battle at the start of the round and then all results are calculated simultaneously. As DM, I know all the PCs' intents but they don't know the monsters' (and I make sure not to use the PCs' intent to influence what the monsters are going to do). We still use initiative and there is some give and take for when someone's action is affected by someone else's action who went before them (e.g. Ace kills Bob before Charles gets to act so Charles instead attacks someone else). We find it really speeds up combat.

I want to introduce a house rule that allows a character to "read" other characters and determine what their intent for the round is. I'm thinking of using Sense Motive with an increasing DC based on the number of creatures being "read" (probably something like DC 20 for one, +5 for each additional creature).

The part I need help on is how to reasonably limit the use of this ability. At first I was thinking it would cost a move action, but that might be limiting it to the point that few people will use it. I find a free/swift action to be too cheap and it will be used all the time. So I need something in between or some other limiting mechanism.

Any suggestions?

 

[azabaro]

One possibility is to allow a character to focus on a single other character in combat (typically, this would be one they are dealing with most directly; for example, if they had the Dodge feat it would probably be the one against which the Dodge bonus to AC is applied). Trying to sense the intent of this character is a swift action, but the character can't attempt to sense anybody else's intent with this swift action. If the character wants to read the flow of the battle in general (sense the intent of more than one character) it's a move action. Still a potentially useful action for low-level casters who are low on spells.

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

That's not a bad idea.