PF MECHANIC: Take 5 and The Move

[Wildfire]

When 3rd ed came out I didn't appreciate the battle grid. I felt it was unnecessary since I had played for many years without one. Then I saw a combat scenario with it and was instantly converted (no torture required).

What I saw was that it offered a chance to get into the weeds of combat strategy and add a level of tangible and visible realism to what is largely a game of imagination (some may argue the merits of doing this and they are free to do so. Everyone I've talked to loves it). Sure, in the past it was the GM that dictated the field of combat for placement of enemies, AoE of spells and who was affected, how fast one could help another, etc and it worked fine...I daresay the outcome was probably about the same as if a battle grid was used. The difference is that the players have more control, the GM has less to think about, and hence, they all typically have more fun!

With greater detail comes more guidelines (I hesitate to use the word 'rules' because any RP game- the exception being MMORP...because those aren't really roleplaying games- at it's core is free form and malleable to what the players want to do). Pathfinder walks the delicate line of making the combat realistic but also tries to not bog it down with ponderous rules (sometimes they succeed and other times they are less successful). One of the areas that opens up in complexity is movement.

With a battle grid, movement is very often strategic. How you move can be as important as where you move. So let's talk a walk...

Take 5-Foot Step

You can move 5 feet in any round when you don't perform any other kind of movement. Taking this 5-foot step never provokes an attack of opportunity. You can't take more than one 5-foot step in a round, and you can't take a 5-foot step in the same round that you move any distance.

You can take a 5-foot step before, during, or after your other actions in the round.

You can only take a 5-foot-step if your movement isn't hampered by difficult terrain or darkness. Any creature with a speed of 5 feet or less can't take a 5-foot step, since moving even 5 feet requires a move action for such a slow creature.

You may not take a 5-foot step using a form of movement for which you do not have a listed speed.

Speed

Your speed tells you how far you can move in a round and still do something, such as attack or cast a spell. Your speed depends mostly on your size and your armor.

Dwarves, gnomes, and halflings have a speed of 20 feet (4 squares), or 15 feet (3 squares) when wearing medium or heavy armor (except for dwarves, who move 20 feet in any armor).

Humans, elves, half-elves, half-orcs, and most humanoid monsters have a speed of 30 feet (6 squares), or 20 feet (4 squares) in medium or heavy armor.

If you use two move actions in a round (sometimes called a "double move" action), you can move up to double your speed. If you spend the entire round running, you can move up to quadruple your speed (or triple if you are in heavy armor).

Move

The simplest move action is moving your speed. If you take this kind of move action during your turn, you can't also take a 5-foot step.

Many nonstandard modes of movement are covered under this category, including climbing (up to one-quarter of your speed) and swimming (up to one-quarter of your speed).

Climb: With a successful Climb check, you can advance up, down, or across a slope, wall, or other steep incline (or even across a ceiling, provided it has handholds) at one-quarter your normal speed.

Accelerated Climbing: You can climb at half your speed as a move action by accepting a –5 penalty on your Climb check.

Crawling: You can crawl 5 feet as a move action. Crawling incurs attacks of opportunity from any attackers who threaten you at any point of your crawl. A crawling character is considered prone and must take a move action to stand up, provoking an attack of opportunity.

Swim: Make a Swim check once per round while you are in the water. Success means you may swim at up to half your speed (as a full-round action) or at a quarter of your speed (as a move action).

Move 5 Feet through Difficult Terrain

In some situations, your movement may be so hampered that you don't have sufficient speed even to move 5 feet (a single square). In such a case, you may spend a full-round action to move 5 feet (1 square) in any direction, even diagonally. Even though this looks like a 5-foot step, it's not, and thus it provokes attacks of opportunity normally.

Run

You can run as a full-round action. If you do, you do not also get a 5-foot step. When you run, you can move up to four times your speed in a straight line (or three times your speed if you're in heavy armor). You lose any Dexterity bonus to AC unless you have the Run feat.

You can run for a number of rounds equal to your Constitution score, but after that you must make a DC 10 Constitution check to continue running. You must check again each round in which you continue to run, and the DC of this check increases by 1 for each check you have made. When you fail this check, you must stop running. A character who has run to his limit must rest for 1 minute (10 rounds) before running again. During a rest period, a character can move no faster than a normal move action.

You can't run across difficult terrain or if you can't see where you're going.

A run represents a speed of about 13 miles per hour for an unencumbered human.

[Johan]

Although the end result is the same, I feel like 4e has a better "explanation" of these mechanics.

In any round, you get a STANDARD action, a MOVE action, and a FREE action.

You can use a STANDARD action to affect a MOVE or FREE action, and you can use a MOVE action to affect a FREE action.

The 5-foot step (in combat) represents your MOVE action.

Good to know though, that Standing up provokes an AoO.

[Wildfire]

PF writes it similarly (which I didn't C+P into the thread):

In a normal round, you can perform a standard action and a move action, or you can perform a full-round action. You can also perform one swift action and one or more free actions. You can always take a move action in place of a standard action.