Gaining Extra Swift Actions

[RNightstalker]

So aside from Ruby Knight Vindicator, how can one gain additional swift actions in a round? If one wants to use swift actions to power feats and maneuvers, magic items and whatnot, a limit of only one can stink. Plenty of things add attacks and move actions, but those swift actions can give a player more bang for their buck, along with getting books, dice, or whatever else is handy thrown at them by the DM. So, how else can one gain more swift actions? The Belt of Battle gives up to a full round action for 12,000gp 1/day, surely an item that grants a swift action would come in under that total? So, what say you playground?

[Inevitability]

Not a lot of ways to do that. Arguably synads can get a free swift action, but I've also seen this interpreted as 'you can, as a swift action, perform a purely mental action that would normally take longer'.


Multitask (Su): A synad's threefold mind can temporarily separate, allowing him to take more than a single mental action during his turn. Once per day, a synad can spend 1 power point to gain a swift action that he can use to take any purely mental action. Examples include manifesting a psionic power or making a Knowledge, Psicraft, or other check requiring only mental cogitation. However, a synad can use his extra mental action to manifest a power only if the normal actions allowed to him during the round do not also involve manifesting a power.


Aside from that, you can go for the big guns like 'Shapechange into a Chronotyryn to get its two turns per turn'.


Dual Actions (Su): A chronotyryn has two distinct brains and two separate voice boxes. It can take 2 rounds’ worth of actions in any given round, as if it were two creatures.

[ViperMagnum357]

Not precisely what you want, but if you go Epic then the Multispell feat will allow you to cast as many additional Quickened spells as you can afford to invest in Epic feats. Casting in that fashion will at least free up your basic 1 swift action per turn to do other stuff.

Heavy investment, but you can put 4 levels into Thrall of Demogorgon to get the Dual Actions (Su) class feature. Twice per day, you get 2 full rounds worth of actions. Obviously more limited than stealing the ability from a Chronotyryn, but you could theoretically stack them.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

The Linked Power metapsionic feat (CPsi) can give you an additional swift action manifested power next round for each time you use it, assuming you Link to a swift action power, but that's limited on the number of psionic foci you can hold each round. One for most characters, two for someone with the Psicrystal Containment feat or the psychic weapon master PrC, or three with all three of those things. If you're a 10th level ardent with the Dominant Ideal ACF, you can ignore needing focus altogether for your chosen mantle, which allows you to use Linked Power as much and as often as you want (pp reserves permitting). If you have the Psionic Meditation feat to gain focus as a move action, you can use Linked Power on your swift action power (Linked to another swift action power), regain focus with your move action, and then use Linked Power on your standard action power, as well. This is probably the most easily available way to break the action economy.

Having minions expands the number of swift actions that can be performed on your behalf, including psicrystals and familiars.

The fission psionic power gives you two bodies, each of which has its own actions each round.

Being a dvati (Dragon Compendium) gives you two bodies much like fission, except you have to use both bodies' actions to cast spells, including (I believe) swift action ones. Non-spell swift actions are fine, however.

Both time stop (lvl 9 wiz/sorc spell) and temporal acceleration (lvl 6 psion power) give extra rounds' worth of actions to play with.

[Biggus]

Both time stop (lvl 9 wiz/sorc spell) and temporal acceleration (lvl 6 psion power) give extra rounds' worth of actions to play with.

There's also Boots of Temporal Acceleration in the MIC which give you two rounds of Time Stop once per day.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

There's also Boots of Temporal Acceleration in the MIC which give you two rounds of Time Stop once per day.Or just use the original, instead. (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/items/universalItems.htm#bootsofTemporalAcceleration)

[Inevitability]

You can't directly give up a standard action to gain a swift action, but you can use the Ready action to effectively do so anyway.


Ready and Waiting (Ex): Beginning at 2nd level, a bloodhound is ready for trickery at all times. He can ready an action against his mark, even outside of the initiative sequence. If the mark triggers the bloodhound's readied action at any point within the next 10 minutes, the bloodhound can carry out his readied action as if the two were engaged in combat (as long as the bloodhound is capable of carrying out that action). If the bloodhound is incapable of carrying out the action—for instance, if he is too far away to strike the mark with a readied melee attack—the readied action is lost.

A Bloodhound further improves this by spending the standard action multiple minutes in advance, but note that the action must be 'against' your mark, who must also be the one to trigger it.

[Daisy]

We have a house-rule at my table: given that a Standard action can be used for attacking or moving but a Move action cannot be used for attacking, it implies (logically, not necessarily RAW) that:


There is a hierarchy of how long different actions take in a round. Longest to shortest: Standard, Move, Swift, Immediate, Free (feel free to disagree: this is house-rule territory here :) ).
You can exchange an action for a shorter one (usually).

Given all that, I allow my players to give up their Standard or Move action in a round to gain a Swift action. Depending on your DM this might fly at your table too.

[ciopo]

most 3.5 tables I've been to has a similar houserule of Daisy table. I'll add that most pf1e tables I've been too did not allow to substitute move/standard for swift, mostly because in pf1e swift action weren't a thing tacked on later, and so most stuff that have a pf1e swift action they are generally designed with "can only do 1 of these per round, period", and so are generally markedly more powerful than 3.5 swift actions

[Biggus]

Or just use the original, instead. (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/items/universalItems.htm#bootsofTemporalAcceleration)

Depends whether you're using the Rules Compendium change which allows items which duplicate spells to be activated in the same time as the spell; if not, the original takes a standard action to activate, whereas the MIC one explicitly takes a swift action.

[Rebel7284]

You can't directly give up a standard action to gain a swift action, but you can use the Ready action to effectively do so anyway.

This. You can RAW ready a swift action (rules compendium), so you can thus expand your search into ways to get extra standard actions, which is a slightly easier ask.

[RNightstalker]

This. You can RAW ready a swift action (rules compendium), so you can thus expand your search into ways to get extra standard actions, which is a slightly easier ask.

How do you do that in combat without screwing things up?


There's also Boots of Temporal Acceleration in the MIC which give you two rounds of Time Stop once per day.

With most of those swift activation abilities only lasting for the current/one round, the search must continue.

[Beni-Kujaku]

How do you do that in combat without screwing things up?

"I prepare my swift action to go off when I breathe. Oh look at that it happened immediately‚ so my initiative order doesn't change and I can continue with the rest of my turn."

[remetagross]

There's one way that grants you extra swift actions in a very specific context. Stance of Alacrity, the 8th-level stance of Diamond Mind, allows you to blow one immediate action per round (only if you use it for a counter) without it counting towards your one immediate/swift action for the round.

[Ruethgar]

Lots of hoops and shaky ground but Arcane Swordsages could ‘technically’ pick up Twin Repeat Synchronicity as a 1st level maneuver through spellhoarding shenanigans and you can ready swift actions. Of course to keep readying it would be a full round action each turn making it a bit moot for getting more swifts as you’d get 3 readied actions for round 3+ instead of a standard, move, and swift.

Any psionic replenishment would work as well with the original psionic power, but that would be just trading one standard for one swift without the ability to Twin Repeat it unless you somehow get consistent psionic foci with transparency.

[RNightstalker]

There's one way that grants you extra swift actions in a very specific context. Stance of Alacrity, the 8th-level stance of Diamond Mind, allows you to blow one immediate action per round (only if you use it for a counter) without it counting towards your one immediate/swift action for the round.

Would that work with a martial script?


"I prepare my swift action to go off when I breathe. Oh look at that it happened immediately‚ so my initiative order doesn't change and I can continue with the rest of my turn."

Very good pull. I'll have to make sure the DM doesn't consider it cheese. Then there are tons of ways to get extra standard actions. What are your favorite ways?

[Rebel7284]

When my turn ends seems like a better trigger condition since breathing can take a few seconds to trigger. Unless that's too technical? When any creature present would take any action?

As far as favorite ways of taking standard actions, that depends.
- My favorite gestalt built has 8 or 11 levels of Factotum and 9 levels of swiftblade and thus can take PLENTY of actions.
- Sharn is a playable race and get up to three standard actions (and may be able to get more actions with Multiple Head Casting) see: https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?656195-Sharn-Optimization
- If you pick up immunity to Daze, Twinned Celerity (optionally Twinned and Repeated) gets you extra actions. Metamagic cost mitigation recommended.
- Psionics have like 8 ways of getting extra actions, from Schism to Linked Power to Temporal Acceleration to Twin Power to Fission to the aforementioned Synchronicity.
- Factotum alone is perfectly viable, if less broken than a full manifester or a metamagic reduction caster.

Really, what items/spells exactly are you trying to activate and why? Is this just a theoretical conversion that is meant to spark ideas for a built?

[remetagross]

What's a martial script? Like, these sorta-scrolls for maneuvers? Are they usable for stances?

[RNightstalker]

What's a martial script? Like, these sorta-scrolls for maneuvers? Are they usable for stances?

It's a scroll for ToB maneuvers, and yes they can work with stances. What's cool is you can read the script and have up to an hour to use it.