Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Gold Katana 01-14-05, 10:34 AM	My group's been playing since 1E. We like 3.5 but miss the old days where blows were traded in combat and movement was much more fluid. To be honest we don't at all like the "I'll stand still while you beat me up, then (if I survive) I'll beat up you" style. In an attempt to remedy this, we are going to try the following rule changes. I will mean a bit more dice rolling - but we love that anyway. Feedback would be appreciated. Thanks. NEW RULES Determining Initiative At the beginning of every round, each combatant rolls one initiative die per expected action. All normal modifiers apply. The round will be divided into “counts”, determined by the highest initiative + 5. Example: highest modified initiative is 18, there are 23 (18+5) counts in that round. Movement A combatant may move on any count after his own highest initiative + 5. A combatant may move one step on any count he is allowed to move. Steps are 5’ for a speed of 30; 10’ for a speed of 60; etc. If more than 5’ is allowed per step, the combatant may choose to move only 5’. A combatant may change movement categories during the round, as long as he does not exceed allotted movement. Example – a character may move at standard speed and then convert to charge (double move), if he still has enough movement left and has not yet attacked. Movement may be taken on counts before, after, or concurrent with entering into combat attacks. Movement may not be taken on the same count after making an attack (exception: see Spring Attack, others such as Flyby Attack and Ride-by Attack may also apply). Actions A combatant may perform an action on his initiative count (attack, drink potion, cast standard spell, etc). He may choose to hold the action until later in the round, but loses the opportunity to act on it if he does not do so prior to his next action or the end of the round, whichever comes first. There is no need to decide ahead of time when the action will occur. Combat attacks are taken in their normal order (highest BAB first, etc). Before making any movement or attacks, full-round attack actions may be traded for movement or movement & attack actions, but only the lowest initiative is retained, all others are discarded. Alternately, unused full-round attacks may be traded off to make single movement steps on those counts in place of an attack, it is possible in this manner to attack, move, and attack. Full round spells are begun on your initiative in one round and completed on your initiative in the next round. Both counts may be held, as described above. Special Situations Charge – a charging combatant must make a double-move in at least the same count he delivers his attack. All other Charge parameters apply. Spring Attack – a spring attacking combatant is allowed to step into combat, perform one melee attack, and make one step away in the same count. Withdraw – Withdraw is now a standard action and no longer a full-round action. The initial withdrawing step must be made on your initiative (i.e. it is your “action” for the round).
HailSpork 01-18-05, 01:42 AM	So, if you roll less than 6, are you unable to move a full 30'? This sounds similar to a system I came up with for a home-spun RPG... We used an AP system. You have so many AP per round, and each action uses up a certain amount of AP. Each round is divided into passes, based on intiative. You could do 1 action per pass. Each time you did an action, your AP is reduced and you go the the next person's pass. When everbody is out of AP, the round starts over and AP is refreshed. We made it so you have to spend 1 AP per pass, otherwise you'd have somebody pass until everybody else was out of AP and then wail on everybody. It also makes sense; if you stall in combat, you're using up time. Because this caused each round to last a bit longer than DnD, we upped each round to 12 seconds.
JTalbain 01-19-05, 01:03 AM	I think this is potentially unbalancing because it allows for a high-Dex Finesse Fighter with Improved Initiative to abuse the initiative count, gaining more actions than anyone else. Other classes or feats that give bonuses to initiative would be even more horrifying, and allow the character to dominate almost any melee they were in.
HailSpork 01-19-05, 03:56 AM	I think this is potentially unbalancing because it allows for a high-Dex Finesse Fighter with Improved Initiative to abuse the initiative count, gaining more actions than anyone else. Other classes or feats that give bonuses to initiative would be even more horrifying, and allow the character to dominate almost any melee they were in. Well, Gold Katana's proposal sounded to me like segmenting the amount you could do in a turn to steps, without giving more actions than you'd otherwise get, just changing the spacing. (if I read it right) My earlier post was merely a comment about a system that is not DnD. Although it could be adapted, it would take much more than a small post to do so; and feats like improved init. would be taken into consideration for balance purposes.
Gold Katana 01-19-05, 10:29 AM	Thanks for the feedback! My system does not grant anyone the ability to do anymore than they already can. It simply spaces out those actions. Yes, high-dex still rule the combat initiative - they already do but this does allow for the chance of things changing once in awhile. Primarily, we came up with this to get back to exchanging blows, rather than taking full-actions in one fell swoop. Oh, and if you roll less than 6, you can still move your full rate, because you can move on the count of your roll + 5 (that modification is in there just for this purpose. Thus, a roll of 1 still allows you to move beginning on 6.