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Pathfinder Unchained / Revised Action Economy

Revised Action Economy Overview

Source Pathfinder Unchained pg. 102
To illustrate this system, we start at the initiative check and go though the turns and rounds of an encounter.

Initiative

At the start of combat, each participant rolls an initiative check as normal. Characters are flat-footed before they act in either the surprise round or the first round of combat.

Surprise Round

When combat starts, if some but not all of the participants are aware of their opponents, a surprise round occurs before the first round of combat. Those who are aware can commit up to 2 acts during the surprise round, and gain a reaction when that round is over. If all combatants are aware of their opponents, skip the surprise round.

Your Turn

When your turn comes up in the initiative order, you can commit up to 3 acts. Sometimes, acts are committed discretely as simple actions, while other times 2 or more acts can be committed together as an advanced action. You can take these simple and advanced actions in any order you choose, except when the rules for individual actions state otherwise. You can also take a number of free actions your GM deems appropriate. Your turn ends once you have committed all 3 acts and any free actions you wish to take. Once your turn is over, you gain the ability to take one reaction before the start of your next turn. (Some abilities grant additional reactions; see Final Considerations.)

When your turn comes up in the initiative order, you can choose to delay instead. When you do, you can’t commit acts. You keep any reactions you haven’t used since your previous turn, but don’t gain any more. At any point after another combatant has taken its turn, you can choose to end your delay and reenter the initiative order. When you do so, your initiative changes to the point in the initiative order directly after the last acting creature’s turn.

Others’ Turns

Reactions are like actions, but can be taken only when they are triggered, and only during other characters’ turns. Usually, reactions are triggered by actions taken by other combatants. For instance, the most common reaction you’ll likely take is the attack of opportunity: an attack you can make when a foe in your threatened area drops his guard (typically by moving, making a ranged attack, or attempting a complicated attack for which he lacks the proper training). Some reactions may provoke attacks of opportunity—the reaction’s subtype, if any, determines whether it provokes attacks of opportunity.

Other times, something that happens to you might grant you the ability to take a reaction. Spells and abilities that are used as immediate actions in the default action economy are reactions in this system. For example, the spell feather fall is cast an immediate action in the default action economy—in this system, it’s a reaction.