Time Stop and Immediate Actions [3.5]

[gomipile]

I posted this as Q100 in the Q&A, but part of it got a bit thorny, so I'm asking the difficult bit here.

Say I Celerity->Time Stop. I get dazed for the first round in Time Stop and take my actions during my turns inside the Time Stop to do whatever. If I use no immediate or swift actions during my last turn in Time Stop, may I Celerity->Time Stop (or another immediate action) again immediately after Time Stop ends?

[Cruiser1]

Say I Celerity->Time Stop. I get dazed for the first round in Time Stop and take my actions during my turns inside the Time Stop to do whatever. If I use no immediate or swift actions during my last turn in Time Stop, may I Celerity->Time Stop (or another immediate action) again immediately after Time Stop ends?

No, you can't. You can only perform one swift or immediate action per turn. Time Stop gives you several free rounds of actions, but it doesn't give you free turns or change when turns begin or end.

One thing you can do is cast (quickened or not) Time Stop on your turn, and use your free rounds of actions. Once your turn is over, the turn of the next person or monster in the initiative order begins. Then you immediately cast Celerity and Time Stop to interrupt the beginning of their turn, which effectively gives you two Time Stops in a row. The immediate action you used to cast Celerity counts as the swift action for your next turn (hence you won't be able to take any more immediate actions until after your next turn ends).

[dextercorvia]

Are you claiming that you can't use more than one swift action during a 5 round Time Stop?

During a normal round, you can perform a standard action and a move action, or you can perform a full-round action. You can also perform an immediate action or a swift action, and as many free actions as your DM allows.

[gomipile]

See, that's the thing. I can use swift and immediate actions each round inside Time Stop, so it would seem that it it *my* rounds that the immediate and swift action rules respect, not some arbitrary(relativistically speaking) external set of rounds.

[kladams707]

If I use no immediate or swift actions during my last turn in Time Stop, may I Celerity->Time Stop (or another immediate action) again immediately after Time Stop ends?

No, b/c you already used your immediate/swift action in "actual time". When time stop ends, you're back in "actual time."

[gomipile]

No, b/c you already used your immediate/swift action in "actual time". When time stop ends, you're back in "actual time."

Is that language from the rules on immediate actions? Do those rules distinguish between rounds inside and outside Time Stop?

[Tyger]

And thus, why this spell and its terrible wording, cause so many problems.

End of the day, this argument has been had a thousand times (several dozen of them on this very forum) and there is no perfect RAW answer. So it comes down to what your DM and group come up with as a workable answer.

Short answer, if you really want two Time Stops, why not just cast another Time Stop as your last action in the first one?

[kladams707]

The language mostly comes from me. Though the spell description uses "apparent time" for the time you spend within that spell. However, the rules on swift and immediate actions state you cannot take another until after your next turn. So it seems logical that once the time stop ends you wouldn't be able to do another immediate/swift action.

But, as tyger said, why not just cast another TS before it ends?

[dextercorvia]

Actually, I think they are using turn to mean the part of the round where you take your actions. When you are in Time Stop you get several turns -- one for each round of apparent time. It's just that no one else gets turns during those rounds.

Specifically they say in the RC that you generally take one per round, and then they say that you take a swift on your turn, and immediate when it isn't your turn.