Rules (4E)

4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons

Combat Rules

Ready Action

Readying an action and triggering a readied action has no effect on initiative – you still act on last rounds initiative.

Exchanging Actions

By spending an Action Point, you can recover a spend power at the cost of another power of the same type and of a higher level.

Flanking

Group Flanking

When an creature is flanked, all enemies striking that target get the flanking bonus, not just the those causing the creature to be flanked.

Flanking Oversize Opponents

When you are occupying the same square as an enemy, you get some bonuses to flanking. As long as the creature is in the strike zone of any other creature, the enemy is flanked.

Out of Turn Total Defense

As a free action any time when you attacked, you can give up your next standard action to gain the bonus for full defense (+2 to all defense values) until the end of your next turn.

This rule gives a character the option of defending himself, providing an additional element to combat tactics. It also provides adventurers with additional tactical options, such as a "wolf pack" tactic: When a group attacks a single target, whoever the target retaliates against uses the out-of-turn dodge to aid his AC, while each of the others attacks the opponent on his or her turn.

Overrun

A larger creature can freely enter the space of smaller creatures. This triggers an attack of opportunity as normal, but does not cost any extra movement. If you are in an illegal position at the end of the larger creature's movement, you have the option to either fall prone or to move to the closest legitimate space. If several spaces are equidistant, you select which one to move to. You cannot move further than your base speed this way; if there is no legitimate space within this distance, you instead fall prone. This movement does not trigger any opportunity attacks, but is affected by terrain.

First Combat Round

If both sides are aware of each other at the start of a combat, neither side is flat-footed. The mutual flatfootedness that is the default only applies when two sides encounter each other without being prepared, such as after opening a dungeon door.

You can take a full rounds worth of action in a surprise round. This is not so much a rule as a retraction of a rule.

Other Rules

Aid Other Action

The difficult of the Aid Other action increases to 15 at the paragon tier and 20 at the epic tier. If the aiding character gets a higher skill roll than the creature being aided and is otherwise capable of performing the action (which might involve knowing a ritual, being trained in a skill, or other factors) the helper and the main character switch roles; the helper becomes the main character and the former main character’s roll is now used for the Aid Other action.

See Also

• Terms and Definitions