In short, I'm pushing for more swift and immediate actions for the sake of backwards compatibility.
I've watched the 3.5 D&D game develop with interest, and the one thing I've seen skew in favor of the players is swift and immediate actions. Although these actions are in the SRD and in the core rules in some small ways (feather fall, quickened spells, etc.), they aren't a big part of core 3.5 D&D.
This means they haven't been a big part of Gamemastery or Pathfinder adventures. How many swift and immediate actions do foes in those adventures use? Darned few.
But with the increase of this action type in WotC products, I've seen my players delve into swift and immediate actions with glee. Every round, at least one PC uses a swift or immediate action--from inspirational boost to kick the bard song up a notch, to delay death to keep the monk alive, to using counterstrike bracers to land a retalitory strike. There are plenty of options for swift and immediate actions, but few of them in the core rules.
I've mentioned before that I think this really shortchanges the foes, because PCs have a whole extra action type they get to use every round, the the villains aren't built to take advantage of that without some not-insignificant modification.
In order to combat this inequity, I've pretty much banned swift/immediate actions from my RotRL campaign and my Ptolus campaign. I didn't want to--because this seems like a really clever rules expansion--but I felt like I needed to make things more fair (my initial proposal was to say, "hey, guys, since the authors of these mods only use the three core books, how 'bout you guys limit your characters to just the three core books?" It was an unpopular suggestion for them, and for me; why ban my dozens of WotC books?)
A better solution, I think, would be if the foes took their share of swift and immediate actions, too. Even low-level enemy spellcasters and fighters should have spells/feats/items that let them use their swift action for something--particularly when your average villain is only on the scene for 18 or 24 seconds. So I think we should make swift/immediate actions more central to the game, and the Pathfinder RPG is the place to do this.
The Paizo folks are revamping the rules with the Pathfinder RPG and, no doubt, building their Gamemastery and Pathfinder adventures on that. If reasonable and balanced swift and immediate actions make it into the Pathfinder RPG, then Jacobs/Pett/Logue/Greer/etc. will make use of them in their writing. And I can give back the inspirational boost, delay death, counterstrike bracers and other stuff to my PCs without feeling like they're going to overpower the villains with "extra" actions.
I may be preaching to the choir. The Alpha rules already incorporate swift actions to a pretty good degree, so it seems this sexy new action type is going to make it into the Pathfinder RPG whether or not anyone reads my request for more of it here.
On the whole, my existing 3.5/WotC stuff becomes *more* balanced if there are lots of swift and immediate actions in the Pathfinder RPG. Therefore, for the sake of making the Pathfinder RPG more backwards compatible, I'm all for increasing the presence of swift and immediate actions.
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Well, if you're looking for other opinions, I'll ask to sharply limit immediate actions, at the least - no strong opinions about the swift action. This is for strictly practical reasons.
I run a campaign on line, and we use voice chat to communicate. We don't have the normal visual cues when some one is going to talk, so we do everything possible to limit the times when people are trying to talk over each other. Immediate actions are one of those cases (we also ban delaying actions - readying is fine, but not delaying.)
Now, limited exceptions, like feather fall, are one thing. But the more immediate actions, the more need to talk over each other. Bad.
Drew Garrett
I'm of two minds. Making Quicken Spell and Feather Fall Swift/Immediate actions was a stroke of brilliance, but the Sudden spell metamagics from Complete Arcane can be all kinds of broken - with the proper spells (Sudden Quicken makes me all kind of sick).
I would like to see more uses for Swift and Immediate actions in the game, but only if they are carefully balanced against what characters can already do (For example, perhaps the extra attack from Haste should be counted as a Swift action, and some magic weapon ability activations could be shifted to Swift actions, such as Flaming) without giving them "extra actions" but enhanced actions.
I'm of two minds. Making Quicken Spell and Feather Fall Swift/Immediate actions was a stroke of brilliance, but the Sudden spell metamagics from Complete Arcane can be all kinds of broken - with the proper spells (Sudden Quicken makes me all kind of sick).
I would like to see more uses for Swift and Immediate actions in the game, but only if they are carefully balanced against what characters can already do (For example, perhaps the extra attack from Haste should be counted as a Swift action, and some magic weapon ability activations could be shifted to Swift actions, such as Flaming) without giving them "extra actions" but enhanced actions.
I very much agree. What the PHB, DMG and MM require is a careful look with the thought, "Now that we have swift and immediate actions in the game, which of the existing free actions should be swift or immediate instead?"
The Pathfinder RPG is the place to do that, and I would like to suggest that the designers do so.
Bear in mind that the stuff from Complete Arcane is not available for Pathfinder RPG
Are the rules for immediate and swift actions OGC? I think they were in the Expanded Psionics Handbook.
Considering that in the SRD, both kinds of actions slow down combat and only help players, I think we are better off without them.
Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 6
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In my own campaigns, I am migrating a lot of magic items to swift actions, and some others to move actions. I would like to see a fair number of unused items/spells go to faster action types.
Examples:
winged boots - swift action
scabbard of keen edges - swift action
cape of the montebank - two modes: 40 foot as a move, full range d-door as a standard
I'm also on this band wagon. I completely agree that using the idea of "backwards compatibility" to revamp the 3.5 ed should mean taking a very hard and creative look at the many ways swift/immediate actions enhance the game.
Since using XPH as a whole for my newest campaign, I have tried to incorporate these new actions into many different items, spells, and manuevers. I'm currently trying to convert many of the old free/move type of actions into swift/immediate actions.
I thought the idea of giving several of the psionic powers the option to augment into manifesting as a swift/immediate action for additional power points was brilliant. It added an entire new level to combat and helped make psionic combat a little (minorly so) different from spell or physical combat.
I'm strongly in favor of the PFRPG designers adding the use of these actions into the beta and final cut of the new game. Anything from the ideas mentioned in this thread are great to me. I know that if the new rules include these actions, streamlined with the new system, it will give the authors of the PF series the impetus to use them in their creations/encounters as well.