partial actions for high initiative

[lilhowie624]

ok, a friend of mine came to my table with a weird build for a halfling. ive never ran into this till he showed up. he had an initiative modifier near the 20's and i think that its a worthless stat to try and boost.

so my thinking is this:
1. a full round action for each charecter on there initiative roll
2. a partial action for each 15 points you roll that keeps you above 1
ex. roll 27, full action at 27 partial at 12
3. only quickend spells can be cast on parital action rounds(sry mages)
4. sneak attacks only apply on full round actions
5. spells with durations have there counter tic's at full action rounds not partials

a partial action is either a move or standard attack

i would appreciate any ideas on if this is a good idea or a bad one



ex: for those wondering his feats were
imp. initiative
quick reconnoiter
yondolla's sense
blooded
thug
aggresive(trait)
shakey(flaw)
inattentive(flaw)

[unosarta]

What exactly defines a Partial action? Like, they can have a single Swift, Move, or Standard action? Or only swift? Or an attack action or a swift action? How does this interact with Immediate actions?

Other than those points, this seems like a fine houserule, but I would make it more like 20 away from 1, because a lot of people can roll 10 or higher, which would up the action economy by a lot.

[GunbladeKnight]

How about a partial action for every 10 you roll above 15? That way you get less mages as well since they tend to not boost their initiative (unless they do insightful divinations, but that's more or less of a feat or 2, requiring diviner or spell focus (divination) ). And a partial action could simply be a standard action, which would mean a single move or attack, or something similar.

[Seerow]

I'm gonna skip all the arguments and speculation and cut this short by saying anything that potentially allows you to manipulate the action economy is bad. Something completely uncapped like this is going to be terrible.

Please don't do it.

[ericgrau]

True but the least offender would be a single move action. Not standard, not a swift, not multiple move actions, not even the ability to combine it with your standard on the surprise round for a full round action. Just a move action. Hmm.. then people would use it and their high initiative to get full attacks on the first round (possibly with sneak attack). Unless you already allow pounce or similar anyway, that's still too strong. Other minor tricks include free quick draw anything, including scrolls or other random magic/alchemical objects as step 1 in some kind of combo.

If you do allow pounce or standard action full attacks or whatever of similar power, I'd do it as beating the highest initiative by 10.

[Seerow]

True but the least offender would be a single move action. Not standard, not a swift, not multiple move actions, not even the ability to combine it with your standard on the surprise round for a full round action. Just a move action. Hmm.. then people would use it and their high initiative to get full attacks on the first round (possibly with sneak attack). Unless you already allow pounce or similar anyway, that's still too strong. Other minor tricks include free quick draw anything, including scrolls or other random objects as step 1 in some kind of combo.

If you do allow pounce or standard action full attacks or whatever of similar power, I'd do it as beating the highest initiative by 10.

I'd maybe allow it as a specific ability for a specific class that isn't too strong even with it.

But as a general system change? No. At most a minor boost to movement speed rather than a full extra move action.

[lilhowie624]

@unosarta
a partial action is usually just a standard action or a move action. sry i didnt clearify this in the opening.

@GunbladeKnight
agreed ill edit it to say 15

@Seerow
thanks for the input didnt think of that a cap at say 3 actions is appropriate

@ericgrau
the actions wouldnt fall directly on a full line basis
meaning you would get partials after your full round
initiative would pass allowing others there actions
your partial
other partials
end of round

[ericgrau]

So a single extra move action at the end of the round? Interesting. I can't think of a way to break that.

3 move actions or a swift action (or 3 swift actions?!) still sounds like a bit too much though, with all the ways to optimize initiative. I'd cap it at 1 and no swift.

[Seerow]

So a single extra move action at the end of the round? Interesting. I can't think of a way to break that.

3 move actions or a swift action (or 3 swift actions?!) still sounds like a bit too much though, with all the ways to optimize initiative. I'd cap it at 1 and no swift.

He's saying a partial action is a standard or a move action, whichever you want. And you can get up to 3 of these. But spellcasters have a special restriction that won't let them cast spells with these actions unless they're quickened.


I'm still going with wildly broken, and there's no need to make initiative more important, nor is there any reason to need more actions per turn. If anything the game has too many actions per turn at the moment.