Rulebook: Actions and Reactions

Actions

On his turn, each combatant may take three actions: a Standard action, a Move action, and a Minor action.

Standard Action: Broadly speaking, your standard action is your main action of the turn - you use this to make an attack, cast a spell, use most powers, and so on.

Move Action: Broadly speaking, if it involves movement then it is a move action - you can use a move action to move freely within one zone, to move from one zone to another, to stand from prone, and so on.

The various different forms of movement (climb, jump, run, swim) are not themselves move actions; these are the means by which your character completes his move - they are the 'how', rather than the 'what'.

The rules always assume that you are moving as quickly as you can; therefore, you cannot take two identical move actions in a single turn. So, you can stand from prone and then move to a new zone, but you cannot move to a new zone and then move to a new zone.

Minor Action: Broadly speaking, a minor action is as the name implies - something minor that the character does in the round that is worth mentioning, but isn't of great import. Drawing a weapon, closing a door, or similar would be minor actions.

There are very few powers that make use of minor actions, and relatively few ways to use these actions. Therefore, it is strongly recommended that players only take their minor action if they have something specific in mind; it is not worth delaying the game while agonising over what minor action to take.

Free Actions: In addition, some actions are so trivial that they are literally free. Shouting a battle-cry or drawing an arrow to fire are free actions. A character can take any number of free actions on his turn, or even out of his turn, subject only to the DM's generosity.

Trading Actions

A player may choose to downgrade any action to the next smaller type - a Standard action can be traded for a second (different) Move action or for a Minor action; a Move action may be traded for a Minor action.

Reactions

In addition to his actions, each character can make a single reaction per round. This can occur at any time in the round, with one exception - at the start of combat, the character cannot react until after he has first acted; that is, until after his first turn.

Each reaction is a specific, trained ability - unless you have learned a specific reaction, you cannot react in that manner. Additionally, each reaction has a specific trigger, that must be met before the reaction can be used. For example, the "parting shot" reaction can only be used when an enemy moves out of melee range; if no enemy does so in the turn, this reaction cannot be used.

You choose which reaction to make at the point when you make it. You are not obliged to make a reaction when the trigger first occurs, but unless you do so immediately the opportunity is lost.

Reactions fall into two categories: interrupts and responses. Each character can only perform one of these each round.

Interrupts: Interrupts occur before the event that triggered them. For example, the "parting shot" reaction occurs before your opponent moves out of range.

Response: Reponses occur after the event that triggered them. For example, the "riposte" reaction occurs after your enemy has failed to hit you.

Reacting to Reactions

A reaction cannot itself trigger reactions. This is to prevent a single event causing a cascade of events as it triggers reactions, which themselves trigger further reactions, which themselves trigger yet more reactions.

Trading Reactions

Under certain circumstances, you may want to use a power or spell that would normally be a reaction on your turn. For example, you might want to cast feather fall before stepping off a wall.

In general, this is possible, provided that doing so makes sense in context. As indicated, you could sensibly cast feather fall on your turn, but it doesn't make sense to "riposte" against an attack that hasn't come!

When taking a reaction on your turn, treat it as your Minor action for the turn.