SPECIAL INITIATIVE ACTIONS

Usually a character acts as soon as he or she can in combat, but sometimes a character wants to act later, at a better time, or in response to the actions of someone else.

Delay

By choosing to delay, the character takes no action and then acts normally at whatever point in the initiative count the character decides to act. When a character delays, he or she voluntarily reduces his or her own initiative result for the rest of the combat, or until an opponent provokes and attack of opportunity. When the character’s new, lower initiative count comes up later in the same round, the character can act normally. The character can specify this new initiative result or just wait until some time later in the round and act then, thus fixing the character’s new initiative count at that point.

A character cannot interrupt anyone’s action with a delayed action (as a character can with a readied action; see below).

Delaying Limits

The longest a character can delay before taking an action is until after everyone else has acted in the round. At that point, the delaying character must act or else forfeit any action in that round.

If multiple characters are delaying, the one with the highest initiative modifier (or highest Dexterity, in case of a tie) has the advantage. If two or more delaying characters both want to act on the same initiative count, the one with the highest initiative modifier gets to go first. If two or more delaying characters are trying to go after one another, the one with the highest initiative modifier gets to go last; the others must go first or lose their action for the round.

If a character loses an action due to delaying, he or she may act on any count on the next turn. Again, the character cannot interrupt an action.

Ready

The ready action lets a character prepare to take an action later, to interrupt another character. Essentially, the character splits his or her action, taking the move action on the character’s initiative count and the attack action at a later point. On the character’s turn, he or she prepares to take an action later, if a specific trigger is met. Then, later in the round, if the readied action is triggered, the character takes it, acting before the triggering action.

Readying does not provoke an attack of opportunity. (The character’s move action, and the attack action he or she readies, may both provoke attacks of opportunity normally.)

Readying an Action

A character can ready an attack action or a move action. To do so, the character specifies the action he or she will take and the conditions under which the character will take it. Then, any time before the character’s next action, the character may take the readied attack action in response to those conditions. The readied action occurs just before the event that triggers it. If the trigger is part of another character’s actions, the readied action interrupts the other character. The other character continues his or her actions once the readied action is completed.

The character’s initiative count changes. For the rest of the encounter, it is the count on which the character took the readied action, and the character acts immediately ahead of the character whose action triggered the readied action.

A character can take a 5-foot step as part of his or her readied action, but only if the character didn’t otherwise move any distance during the round.

If the character comes to his or her next action and has not yet performed the readied action, the character doesn’t get to take the readied action (though the character can ready the same action again). If the character takes his or her readied action in the next round, before his or her regular turn comes up, the character’s initiative count rises to that new point in the order of battle, and he or she does not get your regular action that round.

The Combat Round

Table: Actions in Combat
Attack Actions	Attack of Opportunity1
Attack (melee)	No
Attack (ranged)	Yes
Attack (unarmed)	Yes
Attack (aid another)	No
Bull rush (attack)	No
Escape a grapple	No
Feint (see the Bluff skill)	No
Ready (triggers an attack action)	No
Make a dying character stable	Yes
Attack a weapon	Yes
Attack an object	Maybe2
Total defense	No
Use a skill that takes an attack action	Usually
Start/complete full-round action	Varies
Move Actions	Attack of Opportunity1
Move your speed	Yes
Use a piece of equipment	No
Climb (one-quarter speed)	No
Climb, accelerated (one-half speed)	No
Crawl	No
Draw a weapon3	No
Holster a weapon	Yes
Move a heavy object	Yes
Open a door	No
Pick up an object	Yes
Reload a firearm with a box magazine or speed loader	Yes
Retrieve a stored object	Yes
Stand up from prone, sitting, or kneeling	Yes
Swim	No
Use a skill that takes a move action	Usually
Full-Round Actions	Attack of Opportunity1
Bull rush (charge)	No
Charge	No
Coup de grace	Yes
Full attack	No
Overrun (charge)	No
Run	Yes
Withdraw	No
Extinguish flames	No
Use a skill that takes a full round	Usually
Reload a firearm with an internal magazine	Yes
Free Actions	Attack of Opportunity1
Drop an object	No
Drop to prone, sitting, or kneeling	No
Speak	No
Action Type Varies	Attack of Opportunity1
Disarm4	Yes
Grapple4	Yes
Load a weapon	Yes
Trip an opponent4	No (Yes if unarmed)
Use a feat5	Varies
No Action	Attack of Opportunity1
Delay	No
5-foot step	No
1 Regardless of the action, if a character moves out of a threatened square, the character usually provokes an attack of opportunity. This column indicates whether the action itself, not moving, provokes an attack of opportunity.
2 If the object is being held, carried, or worn by a creature, yes. If not, no.
3 If the character has a base attack bonus of +1 or higher, he or she can combine this action with a regular move. If the character has the Two-Weapon Fighting feat, he or she can draw two light or one-handed weapons in the time it would normally take to draw one.
4 These attack forms substitute for a melee attack, not an action. As melee attacks, they can be used once in an attack or charge action, one or more times in a full attack action, or even as an attack of opportunity.
5 The description of a feat defines its effect.

Each round represents about 6 seconds in the game 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, a character can do in 1 round.
Each round’s activity begins with the character with the highest initiative result and then proceeds, in order, from there. Each round of a combat uses the same initiative order. When a character’s turn comes up in the initiative sequence, that character performs his or her 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. 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 a certain round to the same initiative number in the next round. Effects that last a certain number of rounds end just before the same initiative count that they began on.

ATTACKS OF OPPORTUNITY

The standard combat rules assume combatants actively avoid attacks. You don’t have to declare anything special for your character to be on the defensive. Sometimes, however, a combatant lets his guard down, and doesn’t maintain a defensive posture as usual. In this case, combatants near him can take advantage of this lapse in defense to attack for free. These attacks are called attacks of opportunity.

Attacks of opportunity add an element of complexity to combat not appropriate for all RPd20 campaigns. Therefore the Gamemaster can decide whether or not attacks of opportunity are allowed in the game. They add a realistic edge to combat but also tend to slow things down and make combatants more cautious. Attacks of opportunity are most appropriate for gritty or realistic campaign settings.

WEAPON TYPE

You can use a melee weapon to make attacks of opportunity whenever the conditions for such an attack are met (see Provoking an Attack of Opportunity). In addition, you can make attacks of opportunity with unarmed attacks if your unarmed attacks count as armed.

THREATENED AREAS

You threaten the squares into which you can make a melee attack, even when it is not your action. Generally, that’s all squares adjacent to your position, but some characters may have an extended reach for melee attacks due to powers or feats. An enemy taking certain actions in a threatened square provokes an attack of opportunity from you. You can only make attacks of opportunity with melee attacks, never with ranged attacks.

PROVOKING AN ATTACK OF OPPORTUNITY

Two actions provoke attacks of opportunity: moving out of a threatened square, and performing an action in a threatened square that lets your guard down.

MOVING OUT OF A THREATENED SQUARE

When you move out of a threatened square, you generally provoke an attack of opportunity. There are two important exceptions, however.

You don’t provoke an attack of opportunity if only moving a 5-foot step, or if you withdraw, moving directly away from all opponents threatening the area you are in.

If you don’t start in a threatened square, but move into one, you have to stop there, or else you provoke an attack of opportunity as you leave that square.

PERFORMING A DISTRACTING ACTION

Performing some actions in a threatened square provoke attacks of opportunity, because they divert your attention from the fight. The following actions provoke attacks of opportunity:

• Unarmed attacks: Making an unarmed attack against an armed opponent provokes an attack of opportunity. If you have the Improved Unarmed Strike feat, your unarmed attacks are considered armed.

• Striking a weapon: If you have the Improved Sunder feat, striking an opponent’s weapon does not provoke an attack of opportunity.

• Using a skill or effect requiring a full action: This includes various powers requiring a full-round action, such as Healing or a long-range Teleport.

• Manipulating objects: Picking up, putting away, or retrieving an object provokes an attack of opportunity as does drawing, putting away, or reloading a weapon.

• All Out Move: Moving all out draws an attack of opportunity if you move out of a threatened area (see previous).

• Disarm: Attempting to disarm an opponent provokes an attack of opportunity.

• Grapple: Grappling with an opponent—physically or mentally— provokes an attack of opportunity from any other opponent threatening the area you are in. If you have the Improved Grab feat, starting a grapple does not provoke an attack of opportunity.

• Aim: Aiming an attack provokes an attack of opportunity. You can “fine tune” the use of attacks of opportunity in your campaign by varying the list of actions that provoke them. So, if you want to make certain effects less useful in combat, have them provoke attacks of opportunity when used. Then characters will be less inclined to use them. For example, if all powers requiring a standard action or more provoke an attack of opportunity, things become very different, with Concentration a much more vital combat skill.

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.

ACTING ON THE DEFENSIVE

As an option, you can allow characters to make a Concentration check to “act on the defensive” and avoid the normal distraction caused by performing a distracting action, thereby avoiding any attacks of opportunity that action would normally provoke. The DC of the Concentration check is normally at least 15, more for particularly distracting actions, in the GM’s opinion. Using a power that provokes an attack of opportunity on the defensive usually requires a check with a DC of 10 + the power’s rank. Characters can lower a power’s effective rank to make it easier to concentrate.

The drawback to acting on the defensive is, if the Concentration check fails, the character does not accomplish the intended action, the time it would have normally required is simply wasted and nothing happens. The character does not provoke an attack of opportunity, however. So an attempt to aim on the defensive, for example, requires a Concentration check. If it succeeds, the character has successfully aimed without provoking an attack of opportunity. If the check fails, the character has failed to aim, but has wasted the fullround action normally required to do so.

OPTIONAL FEATS

Some of the optional feats apply to making or avoiding attacks of opportunity. See the individual feat descriptions for details.