Converting Actions

[Draznar]

Is it possible to get x2 Swift actions a turn if you are willing to downgrade a Standard or a Move action into a Swift? I think his goal is to do Swift, Swift, Standard.

I don't think its possible, but a PC of mine is convinced its legal. I thought the only real conversions was downgrading a Standard -> Move.

Is this something Pathfinder changed from 3.5? I always thought you could only ever get one Swift action a turn as a hard rule.

[Varthanna]

No, AFAIK that was a mechanic introduced in Star Wars SAGA, and was not in 3.5 (and thus Pathfinder)

[Arazyr]

I see nothing in the PRD that allows you to trade in other actions for an extra Swift action. (I *THINK* that's a 4E rule, but am not sure.)

That said, I would allow it, especially since there is (sort-of) a precedent: you can trade your Standard action for an extra Move action.

[Ushoran]

You can convert make a move action instead of a standard action but you cannot downgrade a move or a standard action into a swift one. So, you cannot cast 2 quicken spells per round.

[Otm-Shank]

Sadly, it is not RAW.

That said it's definitely a house rule of mine, can't be used for extra quickened spells though...

[Jiggy]

Well that's interesting. As Arazyr says, it is in fact allowed in 4E, and I'm a little surprised it's not in Pathfinder. It seems weird that you're somehow prohibited from doing something quicker and easier than what you'd "normally" be doing. Everything else allows downgrades (the aforementioned standard-to-move, casting a lower-level spell from a higher spell slot, etc), so not having a rule for this seems really unintuitive. Maybe they forgot to add that when they invented the Swift action?

[donato]

Unfortunately, no. The reason is that:

A swift action consumes a very small amount of time, but represents a larger expenditure of effort than a free action. You can perform one swift action per turn without affecting your ability to perform other actions. In that regard, a swift action is like a free action. You can, however, perform only one single swift action per turn, regardless of what other actions you take.

Were it not for that, I would allow for downgrades to swift.

[james maissen]

Draznar wrote:

Is it possible to get x2 Swift actions a turn if you are willing to downgrade a Standard or a Move action into a Swift? I think his goal is to do Swift, Swift, Standard.

I don't think its possible, but a PC of mine is convinced its legal. I thought the only real conversions was downgrading a Standard -> Move.

Is this something Pathfinder changed from 3.5? I always thought you could only ever get one Swift action a turn as a hard rule.

You can, as a standard action, ready a swift action and then take it outside of your turn.

-James

[FarmerBob]

james maissen wrote:

You can, as a standard action, ready a swift action and then take it outside of your turn.

-James

Although, I think this still applies:

Swift Action: A swift action consumes a very small amount of time, but represents a larger expenditure of effort and energy than a free action. You can perform only a single swift action per turn.

I think you can only ready a swift action if you haven't used one yet.