Movement and Initiative

Compare these two actions: one character with a readied bow decides to fire at an orc chieftain 40 feet away, and a second character with a readied sword decides to run over to the orc and take a swing at him. Which action is resolved first? Obviously, the archer’s attack will arrive before the swordsman gets his swing. Moving takes time, especially in a 10–15 second combat round.

Characters don’t instantaneously blink across a battlefield just because it’s their turn to move. They begin their move at one point in time and then finish moving sometime later. A character who begins his move when fast actions are resolved may finish his move while average or slow actions are resolved.

Movement always begins in a character’s base initiative phase and is performed in half-move increments, one phase at a time. For a half-move action, the total amount of movement takes place in a single phase. For a full-move action, the character moves no more than half of his total movement in each of two consecutive phases, so a sprinting character is actually travelling 1.5 times his full normal movement in each of his two movement phases. After any movement is completed for the character, the rest of the combat action is resolved. Note that an action may be delayed by movement, but it will never occur sooner than normal because of movement. In other words, if a fast character with a two-handed sword (a slow weapon) chooses to make a half-move and attack, the half-move occurs in the fast phase, but the attack does not happen until the slow phase (unless the character was charging; see below).

Note that when several allies (characters or creatures that all won or lost initiative together) are acting in the same phase, characters performing actions do so before their companions begin to move.

For example, Boldo the swordsman intends to take a half-move and attack an orc, while his companion, Fletcher the bowman, prepares to fire an arrow at it. If Boldo’s half-move and Fletcher’s shot both occur in the same phase, the arrow actually streaks toward the orc before the swordsman lunges forward to close with it.

Also note that the 1-square adjustment of a no-move action is considered simultaneous with the action itself. Thus, the adjustment and the no-move action all occur before any normal movement is performed by allies who are eligible to do so during the same phase.

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