How Long Does It Take For Your Character To Go From 0-60?

There is a trend I've seen more and more over the years that I tend to call white rooming. In short, it is a tendency for players to create an ideal character build in a blank room, using optimal conditions, and assuming that the way it works in their head is the way it's going to work when they bring that character into game.

And as a spoiler alert, just because something works great under laboratory conditions that doesn't mean it's going to hold up when you put it out for a field test.

I don't understand... it worked PERFECTLY in simulations!

One of the most consistently overlooked aspects of character design is how long is takes them to go from 0-60. Because if you have half a dozen minutes to layer on protective spells, activate magic items, and strap on all your bells and whistles, then obviously you're going to be piloting a wrecking ball when it comes time to sneak through a fortress, break the back of the enemy, or whatever else your character was designed to do.

But what happens when you don't get that prep time? If you're caught with your pants down, so to speak, can you still get the job done?

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Action Economy And You

Action economy, for those who didn't read Understanding Action Economy (And Why You Need It), is basically making sure that you take the most efficient actions to get you to your end results quickly. And when it comes to revving up your character, it's often something we forget about, until we find ourselves in the middle of a life-or-death fight and we no longer have 5 rounds to get our game faces on.

He's coming right at you!

One of the best examples of going 0-60, in my opinion, is barbarian rage in Pathfinder. You can only do it for a certain number of rounds per day, but when it's your turn you can flip it on like a switch as a free action and just go. You now gain all the bonuses of this condition (which get bigger as you gain levels in the class), you can use all your Rage Powers, and it took no time at all to turn on. You just declared it, and moved on with your turn.

For all the complaints about barbarians, they are a class that can go from 0-60 quite rapidly.

However, say you had other things you wanted to add onto your character. Maybe you wanted to two-fist potions of bull's strength and bear's endurance to give yourself a little boost for the fight. Or perhaps you wanted to chug down a potion of barkskin. Drinking a potion takes a standard action, and you only get one of those per turn, which is going to slow your progress way down. Especially when you consider that potions need to be drawn, which is typically a move action.

So how do you deal with this? Do you just reserve your potion chugging for situations where you are going to ambush an enemy, or the bad guy is lost in a monologue, allowing you to fully hulk out? Well, that's one option. You could also take the Drunken Brute barbarian archetype, which allows you to drink potions (or alcohol) as a move action while you're raging. You could also keep a potion in a spring-loaded wrist sheathe, thus allowing you to draw it as a swift action. This would allow you to activate your Rage for free, pop the sheathe as a swift, drink the potion as your move action, and then leave a standard action to do something else. Drink another potion? Smash a bottle over somebody's head? There are all sorts of possibilities!

Another strategy is to focus on buffs and abilities that are either constantly active, or which last a particularly long time. Mage armor, for example, lasts hours per caster level, so if it's part of your monk's strategy for ensuring they have a huge AC, they can just reapply it from a wand once per hour (or have it cast on them by the party wizard at the start of the dungeon), and it will be ready to go if something happens. Many feats grant permanent abilities, and class features like a ranger's favored enemy are considered always on, which can make them more reliable since you don't need to spend your first few turns powering up. The drawback, of course, is these abilities are often situational. So if you're in the proper situation they're quite powerful, but otherwise they grant you no benefit at all.

Your Greatest Weapon is Your Allies

I said this back in Vulgar Displays of Power: Tips For Getting The Most Out of Your Magic in Pathfinder, but I feel it bears repeating. Your allies are going to be one of the best ways for you to rev yourself up quickly, because teamwork is a serious force multiplier.

Never underestimate the power of a helping hand.

Take this scenario. There's a big, angry giant coming the party's way and the barbarian needs to protect their companions. Instead of trying to balance self-buffing and engaging, though, their fellow party members take up some of the slack. The bard whips out a wand, and hits them with a bear's endurance. The transmuter casts enlarge person. Then on their turn, the barbarian activates their rage and charges.

The selfless actions of the other party members allowed them to act as corner men for their warrior, getting him ready to jump into the ring swinging hard. It also means that what would have taken the barbarian at least 2 turns to accomplish on their own was done before their initiative even came up on the first turn.

Teamwork is often key to making sure a character can go from 0-60 as quickly as possible. It's often not a glorious feeling, and it can be something that a lot of players resist because they'd rather be the one dunking the ball than providing the assist. But if you're all focused on overcoming the current challenge you're facing, it's important to make sure everyone shares in the credit, and recognizes how much they helped.

Because a party is so much more than the sum of its parts.

Looking For More?

I specifically mentioned that feats often give you odd abilities and strange wooge that can either be activated quickly, or which is always on. I've worked on a lot of these feats myself, which is why I'd recommend checking out some of the following if you want to help rev up your character's engine.

- Letters From The Flaming Crab: Inspired By Heraldry: A big collection of totemic feats that grant you (often permanent) abilities, I had entirely too much fun with this one.

- Feats of Legend: 20 Story Feats: Story feats are one of my favorite mechanics, and this is one of my best-reviewed installments in the entire Feats of Legend series. Highly recommend giving it a look if you just want more of these.

- Feats of Legend: 20 Orc Feats: While a little specific with the heritage of characters who can take and use them, I figured that folks who love playing orcs and half-orcs could use a bit of a treat.

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How To Get The Most Out Of The Surprise Round (In Pathfinder)

Nine times out of ten, the surprise round is something you want to avoid as a player. Commonly thought of as an ambush, page 178 of the Core Rulebook describes the surprise round as something that happens when some, but not all, of the combatants are aware of one another. Those who are aware get to act, taking either a move or a standard action, and those who are not aware get to stand there, staring gormlessly at nothing. If you're not acting, you're also flat-footed, which is why the surprise round is a field day for enemies with sneak attack.

Easier to hit AND 6d6 bonus damage? Oooh... that's gotta hurt!

Now, it's possible to negate some of the pain of the surprise round by making Perception checks, moving stealthily so your ambushers don't know you're coming, and by getting Uncanny Dodge so you can't be caught flat-footed... but that still puts you on the receiving end of the surprise round when it does happen, which is not where you want to be.

But what if you could take control of it? Even when you weren't the one leading the ambush?

Step #1: Act in The Surprise Round

The first step in this process is to choose a class that gives you the ability to always act in the surprise round, even if you normally wouldn't be able to. This is not a common ability, but there are several, notable archetypes that grant it. The diviner wizard is the most common, and you gain it as your 1st-level school power. However, there's also the sohei monk (which gains this power at 1st-level), the fearsome defender barbarian (which gains it at 5th-level, though they always act last in a surprise round), the grand marshal (which gains it at 2nd-level),  and the thronewarden (who can act in the surprise round as long as they have at least 1 grit point starting at level 2), just to name a few.

This is only the first part of the combination, though.

Whichever option you select, it's important to remember this is a multiclass concept. Because acting in the surprise round is fine and dandy, but you need to be able to do more than just take a standard or a move action to really get the most bang for your buck. That's where step two comes into play.

Step #2: Add Four Levels of Rogue

The next thing you need to do is mix-in some rogue. Not just any rogue, though. The bandit archetype gives you the 4th-level ability Ambush. This states that when you can act in the surprise round you can take a standard, move, and swift action, rather than just the normal standard or move action normal characters get.

So, in other words, you turn the surprise round into a full turn.

That's when the mayhem starts.

Ask yourself how many times you just needed one extra action to stop an ambush before it started. How many times did you have just the right spell to block line of effect for those archers, or just the right scroll in your pack, but you couldn't react quickly enough to get them. Alternatively, how many times have you looked at the rogue talent Surprise Attack and thought it was useless? After all, what's the good in enemies being flat-footed to you during the surprise round if you can never act in it?

Now you know.

Step Three: Putting It All Together

Multiclassing always leaves you with some mechanical weaknesses, but it's important to ask how you plan on using these abilities. For instance, are you going to play an arcane trickster whose uncanny reflexes always seem to let them evade danger? Especially if it means adding 2d6 sneak attack onto any spell with an attack roll in the surprise round? Or would you prefer a sohei bodyguard, who makes sure to engage the enemy before they can get close to his charges? Or a reformed bandit that's now a grand marshal, whose guns always seem to be firing before bushwackers can so much as clear their holsters?

There are all sorts of options you have available, but the goal should always be to make the most of the surprise round. If you do it right, your DM might even re-think using ambushes as a tactic.

That's all for this week's Crunch installment. Short and sweet, but it's a simple trick that doesn't take a huge text block to share. If you want to stay up-to-date on all my releases, simply follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter. And if you'd like to help me keep my head above water, and keep doing what I'm doing, head over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a patron today. All it takes is $1 a month to buy my everlasting gratitude, and to get yourself some sweet gaming swag.

Time is of The Essence When it Comes to Challenge in RPGs

The gnoll guards hadn't been sleeping at their posts, and they put up a fight. Brevalder nearly lost a hand to one of their axes, and Firan spent several of the spells he'd carefully prepared ensuring the hyena men were kept silent. When the bloodletting was done, and the heroes had healed their wounds, they did the only thing that made sense after they'd kicked in the door of the slaver's stronghold...

They trekked right back into the desert to camp, sleep, and rest so they could come back with full resources tomorrow.

Uh... guys? Are you going to finish this dungeon some time in the next week?

How many times have you seen this scenario happen? The party gets loaded for bear, goes in full-force, and then as soon as an encounter is complete they go recharge all their powers. Sure, out-of-game that's a matter of a few minutes, essentially hitting the reset button on your dungeon delve. In-game, though, it means there's a lot of time between that fight you had yesterday, and the party wading back into the same area looking for trouble.

It's important to remember that time is just one more resource players have to balance, and if they squander it then there should be consequences.

Time Changes Everything

Take one of the most common scenarios in all of fantasy gaming; the party has to go to a certain place, and perform a certain action. Maybe they're heading to the ruins of Rakesh, hoping to locate a legendary sword that vanished beneath the sands. Perhaps they're traveling to Black Pond to sort out the local warlord who's been razing towns and farmland. Or they're just moving along the coast road to the capital of whatever nation they happen to be in right then.

Most of the time, the challenges from travel can be circumvented with relative ease. A few Survival checks, buying enough food, and managing to sidestep bad weather can make journeys little more than 5-minute exposition. Even if you're using random encounters, they can become trivial after a while. But what if your party doesn't have the luxury of walking for a short time, then resting to recuperate?

Brew a pot, boys, we're pulling an all-nighter!

For example, what happens when the ruins only appear once every 25 years, and they're only accessible for three days? What if the warlord is only going to be in Black Pond for a short time, and once he moves off he'll rejoin the rest of his army where he'll be significantly less vulnerable? What if the party has bandits on their tail, and they need to hustle on their way to the capital to stay one step ahead of the deadly outlaws? Well, they might have to force march themselves, making saves and taking penalties for a lack of sleep. Spells, ki points, Rage rounds, bardic music... they all need to last longer. That makes them a more precious resource, not to be used lightly.

This same logic applies to the meat and potatoes of an adventure, as well. Because even if the party can approach a location at their leisure, traveling at a relaxed pace, once they get where they're going they can't really pull back without breaking the suspension of disbelief. Sure, if you're investigating ruins that have been abandoned for a thousand years, and you're dealing with traps along with constructs and undead, you might be able to pull back and regroup since the guardians aren't programmed to leave their posts. But what about in other situations? When you're raiding a goblin cave, fighting through an orc stronghold, or assaulting a frost giant fortress, you can't hack your way through a few encounters, run away, and then expect everything to be just the same a day later.

The creatures you killed will still be dead, sure, but they've been replaced by new guards. Not only that, but those guards are now on high alert, and looking for revenge on the people who killed their friends. The traps have been reset, and it's possible a few more have been added. There might even be mobile units ready to respond to any threats, now that you've given away your presence.That is, of course, assuming the enemies don't send out scout patrols to harass you where you're camping, with orders to kill or capture you.

Time Between Fights Is Just As Important

There's another aspect about time in RPGs you should be paying attention to as a DM: specifically the amount of time it takes the party to buff itself, and how long those buffs last.

Unstoppable, baby!

We've all seen the character builds where, with 5-6 rounds of prep time, a character can become godly in their power and capabilities. It's one reason we often have clerics and wizards who have buffed themselves for several minutes as our big bad guys. However, while players should have the chance to get their buffs in, unless they're setting up an ambush, or they're scouting ahead either physically or magically, they shouldn't be able to predict when they need to be operating at maximum capacity. At that point it's about action economy, a subject I've already talked about in Understanding Action Economy (And Why You Need It).

The other thing you should pay close attention to as a DM is how long those buffs last.

As I mentioned in The 4 Major Flaws of Character Building, it's one thing to have a big gun. But just because you have it, that doesn't mean you have enough bullets in it to shoot your way to the end. Put another way, sure, you can boost your AC into the 40s, your Strength into the 30s, and give yourself a dozen natural attacks... but for how long? Which buffs last rounds per level? Which ones last minutes per level? For the others, do you have a daily cap?

This is important because, as I've said repeatedly, it's easy to hulk out for one fight and wipe the floor with the bad guys. You can probably do it for two fights, also. But can you pull the same trick for a third fight? Or a fourth? How many buffs did you bring? Because even casters with deep spell pouches only have so much they can bring to the table, and it only lasts for so long. Keep track of those rounds, and make sure your players aren't pausing the count downs because it, "doesn't count if you're not in combat."

Plan For The Long Haul

Time is just like any other factor in RPGs; it can be as forgiving, or as punishing, as you want it to be. Just like you can have your fights in broad daylight, and in wide open fields with plenty of lines of fire, you can give your party all the time in the world to achieve their goals. But just like how you can make them fight uphill, in the dark, and in the rain, you can also force them to step up their pace. Often this means they have to get where they're going, and get the job done, with no refreshes, and only their skill, smarts, and luck.

If you feel you've been going too easy on them, add a ticking clock. I guarantee it will make your players sweat.

That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday update! Hopefully it helps some folks out there, particularly DMs, who feel it's hard to challenge a party without arbitrarily boosting their monsters' CRs. If you want to stay on top of all my updates, then follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter. Lastly, if you'd like to help support me, then head over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a patron today! As little as $1 a month buys you my everlasting gratitude, as well as some sweet gaming swag!

Understanding Action Economy (And Why You Need It)

"Why Gilbert, you seem nearly apoplectic," Silke said, idly stacking his coins. "Surely a worldly man like you knows that gods and dice never cheat?"

"There's only one thing around here that's cheating," Gilbert snarled, leaping to his feet.

Before Gilbert could so much as reach for his blade, though, Silke had let fly. The dagger sank deep into Gilbert's chest. Its mate joined it with a sound like an ax thunking into a tree stump. Gilbert's fingers went slack, and his eyes rolled into his head. He crashed to the floor, death rattling in his throat.

"Worldly men also know dice may betray you," Silke said, tossing a gold piece onto the body before retrieving his blades. "But steel will ever be by your side."

A lot of the time the victor in an RPG is decided by who has the biggest stats, or who went first in a given encounter. Sometimes it's all about who got which spell off, or who made what saves. But a major factor in any game is something called action economy, which is a fancy way of talking about how much stuff your character can do in a given round. It isn't something we always think about, but it is something players need to understand if they want to exercise all of their options.

Understanding Action Economy

Every game has it's own version, but since I'm most familiar with Pathfinder, that's the basis I'll use for explanation.

Now, in Pathfinder, you have a certain number and type of actions you can take in a given round. You have a standard action, a move action, and a single swift or immediate action (swifts take place on your turn, immediate actions tend to happen when it isn't your turn, acting as a kind of interrupt). You also have the option of taking a single, full-round action (such as a full attack) instead of the usual standard and move combination. Lastly, as long as you don't move from the square you're standing in, you can take a single, 5-foot step at any point during your turn. Even if it's in the middle of your action, or when taking a readied action.

All right... I'm following so far.

Generally speaking, most rounds are pretty samey. You will either reposition yourself using your move action, and then use a standard action to make an attack, cast a spell, etc., or you'll take a full attack action on whatever big nasty is getting in your face. Sometimes you'll take a full round action to cast a spell whose effects will start on your next turn. However, action economy allows you to do more, thus getting more bang for your buck.

For example, let's look at drawing a weapon. Most of the time you're in a dangerous situation, you're going to have your weapon in your hand, but let's say you're walking the city streets, or just riding through the forest. Are you seriously walking around with bared steel? Of course not. However, that means that when you are attacked, you need to take a move action to draw your weapon.

This is a huge pain in the ass, especially if you're a mid-level character, because if you need to spend a move action to pull your sword it means you can only attack with it once. Alternatively, if you'd had it in your hand, you could take two, or even three, attacks with a full-round action. Maybe more, if you're a two-weapon fighter. It also means you can't charge, which is also considered a full round action.

However, there are ways around this. For example, if you have the Quick Draw feat, you can draw an unconcealed weapon as a free action, which means you can pull steel, and then take all the attacks you could get with a full round action. Alternatively, if you have a base attack bonus of at least +1, you can draw a weapon as part of a move action (or as part of a charge). So if you have to walk up to your target, you can pull out your weapon at no cost. Or if you have a spring-loaded wrist sheathe, you can draw a small weapon as a swift action, which is ideal for knife fighters and backstabbers.

It's All About Getting Your Costs Down

Action economy exists as a way to make certain actions more difficult. You can only cast one spell in a round, you only get one attack of opportunity, you can only take either a move or a standard action during the surprise round, etc., etc. The key is to look at the sort of action you're going to be taking most often, and then get the most bang for your buck out of it.

Put another way, how fast can you rack that slide?

Let's look at conjurers, for example. While there are a lot of spells under conjuration, most of the time these spellcasters are associated with summoning creatures to help them, and the party. After all, everyone loves having reinforcements. The problem is that summoning spells are full-round actions, so they take a while to get off, and there's always going to be a delay.

Unless you can find a way to cut it down.

For example, if you have an aura class feature (typically associated with clerics), then you could take Sacred Summons. This allows you to summon monsters whose alignment matches yours as a standard action, rather than a full-round one. Acadamae Graduate is a feat that is open to prepared arcane casters at level one, and it allows them to reduce the time of a summoning conjuration spell by one round, to a minimum of a standard action. Doing so is taxing, and the caster must make a Fortitude save to resist becoming fatigued. And, of course, there's the ever-popular Quicken Spell metamagic feat, which allows you to cast any spell up to a full-round action as a swift action. This is a popular way for high-level casters to cast multiple spells in a single turn.

These kinds of challenges to economy are quite common. An alchemist who specializes in bombs can only throw one per turn, unless they take the Fast Bombs discovery, which can turn them into a death blossom by letting them throw bombs at their regular rate of attack as part of a full-attack action. A character who specializes with a crossbow needs to be able to reload just as fast as they can shoot, taking feats like Crossbow Mastery to reload any crossbow as a free action, or using a repeating crossbow so there's a whole clip of ammunition to go through. The key is to find what you need, and to cut down on how long it takes you to do it.

A Few More Action Economy Tips

I've peppered this post with several tips to boost your economy, but I've got a few more that I'm a particular fan of. A lot of them are very class/build specific though, so keep that in mind before you embrace them too hard.

Economy is up, enemy victory down.

One of my personal favorite combinations uses the bandit rogue archetype. At 4th level it replaces Uncanny Dodge, and instead it states that you get a full round of actions when you can act during the surprise round. If you combine that with a class that gives you the power to always act in the surprise round, like the sohei monk archetype, or a diviner, then you have just netted yourself a free, full turn to do with what you will. And if you have a particularly high initiative score, you might even go before the bad guys do.

For those who love alchemical weapons, the fact that you can't quick draw them is a big drawback once you have more than one attack in a full-attack action. However, if you invest in the underground chemist rogue archetype you can quick draw them. Even better, you can get your sneak attack with splash weapons (under particular circumstances) which might make this an even more appealing route. Even if you're just dipping for something like an alchemist/rogue.

Additionally, never underestimate the usefulness of your attacks of opportunity. While very few players will take Combat Reflexes, unless they're using a reach weapon, it can make certain abilities significantly more powerful. A swashbuckler, for example, uses attacks of opportunity to make parries. That ability becomes significantly more powerful when he can try to parry 4 or 5 attacks in a round, instead of just one. The barbarian rage power Come and Get Me means your enemies get a bonus to attack you, but for every attack that comes your way, you get an attack of opportunity. And, lest you forget, attacks of opportunity are resolved first. So if you cold-cock your opponent, or use your AOO to trip them, then you've put them at a significant disadvantage.

I covered several other unique strategies in How To Make Your Attacks of Opportunity More Effective (In Pathfinder), if you're interested in other tricks.

At the end of the day, though, the key to action economy is to accomplish your tasks with the fewest number of actions possible. Sometimes it's easy... but sometimes you need to get clever.

Also, if you're looking for more tips on action economy, stop in at Risky Business and see what Razor Jack has to say on the subject.

That's all for this week's Crunch topic. Hopefully you all enjoyed, and I've given you some material to chew over. If you want to help support Improved Initiative, check out The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page. All it takes is $1 a month to earn some sweet swag, and my everlasting gratitude. Lastly, if you haven't followed me on Facebook, Tumblr, or Twitter yet, what's stopping you?