Immediate actions and Swift actions

[Hiro Quester]

My DM, it seems has an unusual interpretation of the consequences of taking an immediate action.

The Rules Compendium (p. 7) says this:


An immediate action consumes a tiny amount of time. However, unlike a swift action, an immediate action can be performed at any time during a round, even when it isn’t your turn. Using an immediate action on your turn counts as your swift action for that turn. If you use an immediate action when it isn’t your turn, you can’t use another immediate action or a swift action until after your next turn. You can’t use an immediate action when you’re flat-footed.


The bolded part is where the difficulty is. This might be a local/dialect thing. To many people, it seems, "this Saturday" is different from "next Saturday". "This Saturday" is the coming Saturday (less than seven days from now). "Next Saturday" is the Saturday after this saturday (between 7 and 14 days from now).

So DM interprets "until after your next turn" to be the turn after the coming one. So performing an immediate action to interrupt means you don't get a swift action for the coming turn ("this turn") or the one after that (your "next turn").

Does anyone else interpret the rule this way?

Does anyone know of a clarification about this?

[phlidwsn]

An immediate burns your next swift action, not two swift actions.

Think of it as using your next turn's swift action early.

[Callin]

Round 1, use a swift and an Immediate
Round 2, cant use a swift. Turn ends you gain Immediate use back
Round 3 use a swift (if did not use immediate) and or immediate

[Necroticplague]

My DM, it seems has an unusual interpretation of the consequences of taking an immediate action.

The Rules Compendium (p. 7) says this:




The bolded part is where the difficulty is. This might be a local/dialect thing. To many people, it seems, "this Saturday" is different from "next Saturday". "This Saturday" is the coming Saturday (less than seven days from now). "Next Saturday" is the Saturday after this saturday (between 7 and 14 days from now).

So DM interprets "until after your next turn" to be the turn after the coming one. So performing an immediate action to interrupt means you don't get a swift action for the coming turn ("this turn") or the one after that (your "next turn").

Does anyone else interpret the rule this way?

Does anyone know of a clarification about this?1.No. All the people I've ever seen interpret it in the more sensible way such that 'next' actually means 'next'.

2.Yes; the definition of 'next'
coming immediately after the present one in order, rank, or space. so 'the turn after the one about to come up' is not immediately after the present turn.

[Khedrac]

Actually, slightly old-fashioned common usage does support your DM's interpretation though I don't think it is what is intended.

The comparison with "this turn" is a mistake - it actually supports your DM's ruling.

Consider - when I post this it is Thursday so if I want to refer to the coming weekend I will either call it "this weekend" or "the weekend".
Traditionally "next weekend" could easily mean the 27th and 28th not the 20th and 21st - that's "this [coming] weekend", and we already said it's the one after "this one"...

All that said, I do think more common usage is that (when you are between turns) your "next turn" is the next one you have - i.e. how everyone else plays it.

[Renen]

When you use an immediate action "your next turn" is referring to a turn after this one (the turn that's not yours that you use the immediate action in) that "belongs" to you.
People take turns one after another, so if there are 5 people in the initiative table and you act 5th, that means if a turn ends in a 5 or 0 it's "your" turn.
So you keep going "next turn, next turn, next turn, AHA! mine!". The one where you say mine! Is "your next turn". In that one turn you lose your swift action, but not the next turn after that.

[TheIronGolem]

One point you might try making to your DM is that the reference to your "next" turn is happening in a context where you're using an action when it's not currently your turn, and therefore your "next" turn must be your immediately upcoming turn, not the one that follows it.

However, I half-suspect that your DM knows this, and is making excuses to impose an extra cost on immediate actions for reasons they're not sharing with you.

Regardless, the rules on the matter are pretty clear. An immediate action is an advance, not a loan with a 100% interest rate. Anything else is a house rule, and should be recognized as such.

[Hiro Quester]

Thanks all. I'll explain this. It's a hangover from our previous game (with a different DM), in which a couple of players (including my bard, but also the wizard played by the guy who is now our DM) really squeezed the action economy for everything it had.

It might have been a houserule in the previous game, but I think it might need to be recognized as such, and reevaluated in that light.



Regardless, the rules on the matter are pretty clear. An immediate action is an advance, not a loan with a 100% interest rate. Anything else is a house rule, and should be recognized as such.

That's a good way to put it. Thanks.