Taking Action: Actions in Combat

The five types of actions in Mutants & Masterminds are standard, move, full, free, and reaction. In a normal round, you can perform a standard action and a move action (or two move actions; you can always take a move action in place of a standard action), or you can perform a full action. You can also perform as many free and reaction actions as your GM allows.

In some situations (such as in the surprise round) you may be limited to taking only a standard or move action, not both.

Standard Action

A standard action allows you to do something. You can make an attack, use a skill, feat, or power (unless it requires a full action to perform; see below), or perform other similar actions. During a combat round, you can take a standard action and a move action. You can take the move action before or after, but not during, the standard action.

Move Action

A move action allows you to move your speed or perform an action taking a similar amount of time, such as climb one-quarter of your speed, draw or stow a weapon or other object, stand up, pick up an object, or perform some equivalent action.

You can take a move action in place of a standard action. For example, rather than moving your speed and attacking you can stand up and move your speed (two move actions), draw a weapon and climb one-quarter your speed (two move actions), or pick up an object and stow it in a backpack (two move actions).

If you move no actual distance in a round (usually because you have traded a move action for an equivalent action like standing up), you can take a 5-foot "step" before, during, or after the action. For example, you can stand up (a move action), take a 5-foot step, and attack (a standard action).

Full Action

A full action requires all your attention during a round. The only movement you can take during a full action is a 5-foot step before, during, or after the action. Some full-round actions do not allow you to take a 5-foot step. You can also perform free actions as the GM allows.

Free Action

Free actions consume very little time and, over the span of the round, their impact is so minor they are considered to take no real time at all. You can perform one or more free actions while taking another action. However, the GM puts reasonable limits on what you can do for free. A good rule of thumb is your Dexterity or Intelligence bonus +1 in free actions per round, with a minimum of one. For instance, dropping an object, dropping to a prone position, speaking a sentence or two, and ceasing to maintain a power are all free actions.

Reaction

A reaction is something that happens in response to something else, like a reflex. Like free actions, reactions take so little time they're considered free. The difference between the two is a free action is a conscious choice made on the character's turn to act. A reaction is a reflex or automatic response that can occur even when it's not your turn to act. Characters can react even while unable to take normal actions, such as while stunned. A saving throw is an example of a reaction, something you instinctively do to avoid danger. Some powers and other traits are usable as reactions.

Sample Actions

Here are some examples of the sorts of actions Mutants & Masterminds characters can take in combat. There're by no means the only ones, and the combat chapter of the rulebook lists many others and guidelines for resolving them.

Block (Standard Action)

Instead of attacking, you can choose to actively defend yourself against incoming melee attacks for the round. To block an attack, make an attack roll against your opponent's attack roll. If your attack roll is higher, you block or deflect the attack. Each additional attack you block after the first in a round applies a cumulative –2 penalty on your attack roll.

Blocking Weapon Attacks Unarmed: The default assumption is characters can block any sort of melee attack, whether armed with a weapon or not. Gamemasters wanting a greater level of realism may restrict unarmed characters from blocking armed attacks (it's more difficult to block a sword blow with your bare hands than it is with a weapon or shield). Characters with a high enough Toughness save (say equal to the weapon's damage bonus) may be able to block weapon attacks unarmed, at the GM's discretion.

Blocking Ranged Attacks: Characters with the Deflect power can block certain types of ranged attacks; this includes the Deflect effect granted by shields. Otherwise, characters cannot block ranged attacks.

Combined Attack (Standard Action)

Multiple attackers can attempt to combine their attacks to overwhelm an opponent's defenses. The attackers must all delay to the same point in the initiative order (that of the slowest character). Each attacker makes a normal attack roll against the target. Take the largest save DC modifier of the attacks that hit, and for each other attack within 5 points of that attack's bonus that hits, add +2. The attacks must all require the same type of saving throw in order to combine, for example attacks doing damage (requiring a Toughness save) can combine, but not with a Mental Blast or a Stun effect, which do not call for Toughness saves.

Although a combined attack is similar to aiding someone it is not the same, and bonuses applying to aid do not apply to combined attacks.

Example: Captain Thunder, Lady Liberty, Daedalus, and Johnny Rocket are fighting Mastermind, whose defenses are too powerful for any one of the heroes to overcome. So they decide to combine their attacks against him. They delay until Daedalus' action (the slowest initiative total among them), then each hero makes an attack roll against Mastermind's Defense. They all hit, so the GM looks over their damage bonuses: +13 (Captain Thunder), +11 (Daedalus), +10 (Lady Liberty), and +2 (Johnny Rocket). Johnny's damage bonus is too low to combine with the others, so it is ignored. Daedalus' and Lady Liberty's bonuses are within 5 points of Captain Thunder's, so they each add +2 to his total. Mastermind makes a Toughness save against a combined damage bonus of +17 (13 + 2 + 2) and a second Toughness save against Johnny's +2 damage attack. He shrugs off Johnny Rocket's punch, but the combined force of the other heroes' attacks stuns him.

Move (Move Action)

The simplest move action is moving your speed. Many nonstandard modes of movement are also covered under this category, including climbing and swimming (up to one-quarter the character's speed), crawling (up to 5 feet), and entering or exiting a vehicle. Various powers grant additional movement abilities, with speed determined by the power's rank.

Switch Array (Free Action)

You can switch between Alternate Powers in an array, or reallocate points among dynamic Alternate Powers, as a free action once per round.

Next: We take a look at some of the various modifiers affecting fights in M&M.