ACTIONS IN COMBAT

Actions In Combat

The fundamental actions of moving, attacking, and casting spells cover most of what you want to do in a battle. They’re all described here. Other, more specialized options are touched on in Table: Miscellaneous Actions, and covered later in Special Initiative Actions, and Special Attacks and Damage.

The Combat Round

Each round represents about 6 seconds in the game world. In the real world, a round is an opportunity for each character involved in a combat to take an action. Anything a person could reasonably do in 6 seconds, your character can do in 1 round. The most common combat actions that can be performed in 1 round—attacking, casting a spell, moving, charging, and others—are described in detail on the following pages.

Each round begins with the character with the highest initiative result and then proceeds, in order, from there. Each round uses the same initiative order. When a character’s turn comes up in the initiative sequence, that character performs his entire round’s worth of actions. (For exceptions, see Attacks of Opportunity, and Special Initiative Actions.)

For almost all purposes, there is no relevance to the end of a round or the beginning of a round. The term “round” works like the word “month.” A month can mean either a calendar month or a span of time from a day in one month to the same day the next month. In the same way, a round can be a segment of game time starting with the first character to act and ending with the last, but it usually means a span of time from one round to the same initiative number (initiative count) in the next round. Effects that last a certain number of rounds end just before the same initiative count that they began on. For instance, a monk acts at initiative count 15. The monk’s stunning attack stuns a creature for 1 round. The stun lasts through initiative count 16 in the next round, not until the end of the current round. On initiative count 15 in the next round, the stun effect ends.

Action Types

What type an action is essentially tells you how long the action takes to perform (within the framework of the 6-second combat round) and how movement is treated.

Table: Fundamental Actions in Combat

Action	Move	Attack of Opportunity*
Attack Actions
Attack (melee)	Yes	No
Attack (ranged)	Yes	Yes
Atack (unarmed)	Yes	Maybe
Charge	x2 (special)†	No
Full attack	5-ft. step	No

Magic Actions
Cast a spell
1-action spell	Yes	Yes
Full-round spell	5-ft. step	Yes
Concentrate to maintain	Yes	No
Activate magic item	Yes	Maybe
Use special ability
Use spell-like ability	Usually**	Yes
Use supernatural ability	Usually**	No
Use extraordinary ability††	Usually**	No

Movement-Only Actions
Double move	x2	Maybe
Run	x4	Yes

Miscellaneous Actions	Maybe	Maybe

x2: You can move twice your normal speed.
x4: You can move quadruple your normal speed.
*Regardless of the action, if you move within or out of a threatened area, you usually provoke an attack of opportunity. This column indicates whether the action itself, not moving, provokes an attack of opportunity.
**You can move unless the action is defined as a full-round action, in which case you normally get a 5-foot step.
†You can move up to twice your normal speed, but only before the attack, not after. You must move at least 10 feet, and the entire move must be in a straight line.
††Most extraordinary abilities aren’t actions. This applies to those that are.

Standard Action: A standard action allows you to do something and move your speed during a combat round. You can move before or after performing the activity of the action. Doing this action takes the same time as casting a 1-action spell in terms of what else you can do in the round. For instance, you can move and dismiss a spell or move and use the Heal skill to help a dying friend. You can also perform as many free actions (see below) as your DM allows.

Full-Round Action: A full-round action consumes all your effort during a round. The only movement you can take during a full-round action is a 5-foot step before, during, or after the action. You can also perform free actions (see below) as your DM allows.

Some full-round actions do not allow you to take a 5-foot step.

Move-Equivalent Action: Move-equivalent actions take the place of movement in a standard action or take the place of an entire partial action. Taking such an action counts as moving your speed. For instance, Tordek can use the attack action to move 15 feet and attack once, or to stand up from prone (a move-equivalent action) and attack once. He could also use the double move action to stand up from prone and move 15 feet. He could even use a double move action to stand up from prone and retrieve a stored item (both move-equivalent actions).

If you move no actual distance in a round (commonly because you have swapped your move for one or more moveequivalent actions), you can take one 5-foot step either before, during, or after the action. For example, if Tordek is on the ground, he can stand up (a move-equivalent action), move 5 feet (his 5-foot step), and attack.

Free Action: Free actions consume a very small amount of time and effort, and over the span of the round, their impact is so minor that they are considered free. You can perform one or more free actions while taking another action normally. However, the DM puts reasonable limits on what you can really do for free. For instance, calling out to your friends for help is free. Reciting your clan’s war history, however, takes several minutes.

Not an Action: Some activities are not even considered free actions. They literally don’t take any time at all to do and are considered an inherent part of doing something else. For instance, using the Use Magic Device skill to emulate different class features while trying to activate a device is not an action, it is part of the activate magic item action.

Attacks Of Opportunity

The melee rules assume that combatants are actively avoiding attacks. A player doesn’t have to declare anything special for her character to be on the defensive. Even if a character’s figure is just standing there on the tabletop like a piece of lead, you can be sure that if some orc with a battleaxe attacks the character, she is weaving, dodging, and even threatening the orc with a weapon to keep the orc a little worried for his own hide.

Sometimes, however, a combatant in a melee lets her guard down, and she is not on the defensive as usual. In this case, combatants near her can take advantage of her lapse in defense to attack her for free. These attacks are called attacks of opportunity.

Threatened Area: You threaten the area into which you can make a melee attack, even when it is not your action. Generally, that’s everything within 5 feet of you in any direction. An enemy that takes certain actions while in a threatened area provokes an attack of opportunity from you.

Provoking an Attack of Opportunity: If you move within or out of a threatened area, you usually provoke an attack of opportunity. If all you do is move (not run) during your turn, the space that you start out in is not considered threatened, and therefore enemies do not get attacks of opportunity against you when you move from that space. If you move into another threatened space, enemies do get attacks of opportunity for your leaving the first threatened space. In addition, if your entire move for the round is 5 feet (a 5-foot step), enemies do not get attacks of opportunity for your moving.

Some actions themselves provoke attacks of opportunity, including casting a spell and attacking with a ranged weapon. Table: Fundamental Actions in Combat; Table: Miscellaneous Actions note many of the actions that provoke attacks of opportunity.

Making an Attack of Opportunity: An attack of opportunity is a single melee attack, and you can only make one per round. You do not have to make an attack of opportunity if you don’t want to.

An experienced character gets additional regular melee attacks (by using the full attack action), but at a lower attack bonus. You make your attack of opportunity, however, at your normal attack bonus—even if you’ve already attacked this round.

Combat Reflexes and Additional Attacks of Opportunity: If you have the Combat Reflexes feat, you can add your Dexterity modifier to the number of attacks of opportunity you can make between actions. (This feat does not, however, let you make more than one attack for a given opportunity.) All these attacks are at your normal attack bonus. You do not suffer reductions to your attack bonus for making multiple attacks of opportunity.

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