4th EDITION D&D SRD (PREVIEW) - ACTIONS & MOVEMENT

ACTIONS

Each time it’s your turn, you get one standard, one move, and one minor action. You can also exchange a standard action for a move action or minor action, or a move action for a minor action. Thus, you can:

You can take your actions in any order, and you can skip any of them.

STANDARD ACTION: The most basic type of action. Common standard actions including making a melee or ranged attack, casting a spell, and using an implement. In a typical round, a character can take a standard action and a move action, but he can't take a second standard action in place of his move action. Most attack powers require the use of a standard action.

MOVE ACTION: An action that is the equivalent of the character moving his speed. A creature moves a number of squares up to its speed. If it doesn't take a standard action it can move up to twice it Speed. Diagonal squares count as 1 square. Move actions include standing up from prone, or laying down, crawling, running, and shifting (moving 1 square).

Generally, a creature may make a move action to:

MINOR ACTION: Minor actions are little things, like drawing a weapon, opening a door or chest.

FREE ACTION: Free actions take almost no time or effort, such as dropping a held item or talking. You can take free actions during your turn or anyone else’s turn, and as many as you like, and as allowed by the DM.

TRIGGERED ACTION: These include opportunity actions (like opportunity attacks) and immediate actions (like a readied action).

There are two additional action types that require triggers before you can use them - an action, event, or condition that takes place on another combatant's turn.

OPPORTUNITY ACTION: When an enemy lets its guard down, you can take an opportunity action. You can only take one opportunity action on each combatant's turn (if available). An opportunity action interrupts the action that triggered it.
The most common opportunity action is an opportunity attack. When an enemy leaves a square adjacent to you, or when an adjacent enemy makes a ranged or an area attack, you can make an opportunity attack against that enemy.

IMMEDIATE ACTION: Interrupts and reactions are immediate actions. Specific powers define the trigger for these actions. You can take only one immediate action per round, and you can't take an immediate action on your turn.
An interrupt lets you act before the triggering action is resolved. If the interrupt invalidates the triggering action, that action is lost.
A reaction lets you act immediately in response to a triggering action. The triggering action is completely resolved before you take your reaction.

Extra Action: You can take an extra standard action by spending an action point (see 'Action Points'below).

Other Combatants' Actions: Other combatants can take free actions on your turn, and you might take actions that trigger immediate actions or opportunity actions from other combatants.

Action Points

A character begins each adventure with 1 action point, and gains another one for every 2 encounters that are completed (called a milestone). A player can spend 1 action point per encounter to take one extra action on their turn. It can be a standard, move, or minor action. Action points are regained after taking an extended rest, and reset back to 1 (See Healing & Rest). A player should spend action points at least once every other encounter (as often as you earn them), since they can only spent one per encounter.

The End of Your Turn

After you act, use the end of your turn to keep track of any effects.

MOVEMENT

You can use a move action to walk your speed in a turn. If you use two move actions (substituting a move for a standard action), you can walk your speed twice on your turn.

Move Actions

These activities require the use of a move action.

SPEED: Each character has a speed listed in squares. One 1-inch square equals one five-foot square in the game world. When you take a move action, you can move up to the indicated number of squares. Moving from one square to another, even diagonally, costs 1 square of speed. Sometimes terrain will slow you down, costing you more than 1 square of speed – this is called difficult terrain.

Moving away from an enemy adjacent from you usually provokes an opportunity attack. However, you can also use a move action to shift; this lets you move one square without suffering an opportunity attack from adjacent enemies.

OTHER CREATURES: A creature can move through a square occupied by an ally (another creature in its party), but it can't move through a square occupied by an enemy (a creature controlled by the DM). A creature may not end its move in an occupied square.

SHIFTING: A creature can use a move action to shift, and some powers and effects may also force a creature to shift. A creature that shifts moves into a clear adjacent square. Shifting does not provoke opportunity attacks.

RUNNING: If you need to get somewhere fast, you can run as a move action. This gives you +2 speed for your move, but you grant any attackers combat advantage until the beginning of your next turn.

[NOTE: Some confusion here as to whether you can make two 'run' move actions in a round thus moving a total of Speed x 2 + 4; a human would thus be able to run 16 squares in a round.]

Forced Movement

Certain powers and effects allow you to pull, push, or slide a target.

Pull: When you pull a creature, each square you move it must bring it nearer to you.

Push: When you push a creature, each square you move it must place it farther away from you.

Slide: When you slide a creature, there's no restriction on the direction you can move it.

The following rules govern all forced movement.

Difficult Terrain

Rubble, undergrowth, shallow bogs, steep stairs, and other types of difficult terrain hamper movement. It costs 1 additional square of movement to enter a square of difficult terrain. If you don't have enough movement remaining, you can't enter a square of difficult terrain. You can't shift into a square of difficult terrain unless you have a power that allows you to do so.

Obstacles

You can't enter a square with an obstacle that fills the square, such as a wall or a pillar. When an obstacle fills a square, you can't move diagonally across the corner of that square.

Sources: D&D Miniatures Game Battle Rules, What You Need to Know About D&D - Quick Rules Primer, d20 System SRD, D&D Glossary

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