Timing Coup de Gras

[Greenfield]

This came up in a game this weekend: A PC was down, and a pair of enemies were going to team up and Coup de Gras him.

Since it's a full round action, that gave our healer time to slip in and get him back conscious and able to defend himself before they were able to finish.

So what happens? Do they do normal attacks? Auto-hit/auto-crit damage? Do they get to do any damage at all?

In short, at what point during the "full round action" does the damage get done, and how much?

 

[kitcik]

Full-Round Action:

A full-round action is an activity that effectively consumes all of your time during your turn. Consequently, you cannot use either a standard or a move action (see below) during a turn when you use a full-round action. You can, however, use a 5-foot step during a turn when you use a full-round action (see the nonaction entry). You also can use free actions during a turn when you use a full-round action.

A full round action simply takes up the person's entire initiative.

If the bad guys get to their initiative, they coup-de-grace successfully.

If the healer gets his initiative first, then the bad guys can choose to do whatever they want on their turn.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Unless they had to move more than 5 ft to deliver it first, though it sounds like that's not the case.


Yeah, coup de grace is brutal. When I saw the thread title I thought this was going to be something about a wizard player purposely waiting till an enemy was in melee with the party fighter and delaying till just before the fighter's turn to hit him with Hold Person or the like.
I love doing stuff like that!

 

[billd91]

This came up in a game this weekend: A PC was down, and a pair of enemies were going to team up and Coup de Gras him.

The enemies were going to hit him with fat?

Actually, people often pronounce it like they'll hit someone with fat. So it's no surprise you spelled it phonetically like a lot of people say it.

 

[Greenfield]

Um, are you reading that as "grease"?

I've seen it spelled "Coup de Grace", "Coup de Grass", and "Coup de Gras". The first is probably the correct spelling, but I'm more of a Bard than a Wizard. Spells aren't my strong suit.

 

[frankthedm]

In short, at what point during the "full round action" does the damage get done, and how much?

The character suffers the CDG as soon as the attacker declares the action and suffers any applicable AoOs. A Full Round Action is NOT the same as an action that take "1 round" to perform. Full round actions happen in the normal initiative cycle, they just use up your full turn

Actions that take 1 round to perform as the OP decribed are usually spells, such as Enlarge Person, Summon monster and mount.

A spell that takes 1 round to cast is a full-round action. It comes into effect just before the beginning of your turn in the round after you began casting the spell. You then act normally after the spell is completed.

A spell that takes 1 minute to cast comes into effect just before your turn 1 minute later (and for each of those 10 rounds, you are casting a spell as a full-round action, just as noted above for 1-round casting times). These actions must be consecutive and uninterrupted, or the spell automatically fails.

When you begin a spell that takes 1 round or longer to cast, you must continue the concentration from the current round to just before your turn in the next round (at least). If you lose concentration before the casting is complete, you lose the spell.

Provided the DM intentionally house ruled CDG to have a "casting time" of 1 round, then if the CDG target stops being helpless, the CDG would just fail and be a wasted action. I use that houserule for my own games, so this situation would have a chance of happening.

If the DM just did not know CGD happens then and there, just apply the two CDGs to the soon to be dead PC and then carry on.

 

[billd91]

Um, are you reading that as "grease"?

I've seen it spelled "Coup de Grace", "Coup de Grass", and "Coup de Gras". The first is probably the correct spelling, but I'm more of a Bard than a Wizard. Spells aren't my strong suit.

No, I'm not reading it as grease. Gras is French for fat, like Mardi Gras is "Fat Tuesday". Coup de Grace can be translated as "blow of mercy". But Coup de Grase would be "blow of fat".

Perhaps you'd be hitting them with bacon fat for cooking later?

 

[Jackinthegreen]

Coup de Grace is covered on page 153 for the PHB. Yes, it is "Coup de Grace," which translates into Merciful Blow.

 

[frankthedm]

Coup de grâce - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The French pronunciation of the phrase is /ku də ɡʁɑs/, but many English speakers pronounce it /ˌkuː deɪ ˈɡɹɑː/, which sounds in French like "coup de gras" and would mean something like "blow of fat." Omitting the final 's' phoneme is an example of a hyperforeignism.