Action Points
Action Points (AP) describes the time necessary to perform an action each round, usually applied during combat. Though rounds are nominally 12 seconds in length, the time for an action point to be expended depends upon both the relative speed of the actor and the difficulty of the action to be accomplished. Action points manage this time-keeping disparity with an eye to playability by assigning an AP cost to each action. Players and NPCs must decide what to do with the points they have, introducing a strong tactical element to combat.
Action points not spent in the course of each round cannot be saved up and used later. Some actions require multiple rounds to perform, such as spellcasting, loading weapons or searching. These examples presume the actor's efforts are being spent in a single continuous procedure that happens to occur over several rounds due to its nature.
Humanoids, from as small as kobalds to as large as giants, are naturally possessed of 5 action points. There are exceptions, such as the monk. This movement is adjusted by encumbrance, which measures the total weight in gear and other carried objects. The amount of weight a character carries is variable; but it is possible to add so much weight to the character that AP is reduced to zero. At this point, the character must drop something in order to move.
| Stride | Hexes/AP |
|---|---|
| Wary | 1 |
| Normal | 2.5 |
| Running | 3.5 |
| Sprinting | 5 |
Movement
Movement describes the AP cost to cross the distance from hex to hex, each being 5 feet in diameter. There are four manners of movement, or "strides." These strides are wary, normal, running and sprinting; the AP cost for each is shown on the right-hand table. In all cases, fractions are ignored, so that a character moving with a normal stride and expending 1 AP would travel 2 hexes; if they expended 2 AP, they would travel 5 hexes.
Both large and fast creatures, with longer strides or due to their biology, have AP costs per hex that allow them to move faster than ordinary humanoids. Horses have various gaits at which they can walk or run, while gazelles and cheetahs can manage 20 hexes or more per AP. A hill giant walking with a normal stride would travel 3.5 hexes per AP.
Point Costs
| Actions | AP Cost |
|---|---|
| activate object | 1 |
| adjust a free object for use | 1 |
| adjust lantern shutter | 1 |
| adjust lantern turn-key | 1 |
| apply a healing salve | 3 |
Activate object
Includes any object, many of which will be magical in nature, that must somehow be turned on, commanded to act or otherwise activated. Includes uncorking a previously uncorked bottle or drawing out a wand, staff, rod, ring or like item. The action is sufficient to make the object "ready" — employing the object requires an additional AP.
Adjust a free object for use
Includes
