Based on another thread, I've now become confused as to what the definition of a round is. For simplicity, we have been treating a round as starting on your turn, and ending at the beginning of your next turn. Another clear interpretation is that a round runs from max initiative to minimum initiative. Unfortunately, that would allow some things to reset prior to a duration of a round.
some examples:
Attacks of opportunity:
If I get 4 attacks of opportunity (due to combat reflexes and dex), and the orcs act on initiative 2, I can take 4 AoO's on them, then if their wolves act on initiative 21 (the next combat round), I can take 4 more, even if I haven't acted.
Fighting defensively:
Fighting Defensively as a Standard Action: You can choose to fight defensively when attacking. If you do so, you take a –4 penalty on all attacks in a round to gain a +2 dodge bonus to AC until the start of your next turn.
This means that if I fight defensively on initiative 2, I can take AoO's with no penalty (but have an AC bonus) starting at the top initiative of the next round?
Dragon style:
Prerequisites: Str 15, Improved Unarmed Strike, Acrobatics 3 ranks.
Benefit: While using this style, you gain a +2 bonus on saving throws against sleep effects, paralysis effects, and stunning effects. You ignore difficult terrain when you charge, run, or withdraw. You can also charge through squares that contain allies. Further, you can add 1-1/2 times your Strength bonus on the damage roll for your first unarmed strike on a given round.
I always assumed this meant your first attack, if your round began with your action, but others do not necessarily assume this.
Both statements are correct.
Each round represents 6 seconds in the game world; there are 10 rounds in a minute of combat. A round normally allows each character involved in a combat situation to act.Each round's activity begins with the character with the highest initiative result and then proceeds in order. When a character's turn comes up in the initiative sequence, that character performs his entire round's worth of actions. (For exceptions, see Attacks of Opportunity and Special Initiative Actions.)
When the rules refer to a “full round”, they usually mean a span of time from a particular initiative count in one round to the same initiative count in the next round. Effects that last a certain number of rounds end just before the same initiative count that they began on.
Round: Combat is measured in rounds. During an individual round, all creatures have a chance to take a turn to act, in order of initiative. A round represents 6 seconds in the game world.
So basically a round lasts from the hightest to the lowest initiative count but effects are measured in 'full rounds'.
Dont read to much posts on the boards. Some of them are really confusing :)
Some version of the rules somewhere used to say treat it like a week. A week is from Sunday through Saturday, as a round is from the first initiative to the last initiative.
A week can also be from Wednesday to Tuesday, as in from the start of your turn to the end of the character that goes just before you.
They said it more eloquently, but hopefully that helps.
There is only one round, and all PCs/NPCs operate within it - in initiative order. Like the characters in a cartoon film. One may be animated from the first frame, whereas the bad guy may not be active until 4 frames later. They are all in the same film/movie.
A round for your character only starts at your characters initiative, and ends when your next initiative starts (the next round). Everybody is acting/moving within the 6 second period. They don't each have a 6 second turn.
At least that how I see it. YMMV.
A round is as long as it takes for every combatant to take its turn.
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Rounds, for your character, always go from your current turn until the start of your next turn. There is no "standard cutoff" where one round ends and the next starts.
In other words, there is no "fence" marking a round between the last initiative of the current initiative round and the first one of the "next" round.
The simplest way to do combat is to have index cards for each character or group of monsters.
When you roll initiative, you stack the cards from highest to lowest.
When a player or monster's card is on the top, it is their turn.
When they finish their turn, put their card on the bottom.
When their card recycles back to the top, it is their turn again.Doing it this way, there is no clean "fence" between "combat rounds".
To answer your specific examples, you can only take 4 AoOs between your turns. You cannot take an extra 4 after you have crossed the "fence" between rounds, because there is no "fence".
The Defensive Fighting combat penalty applies until your next turn starts.
For Dragon Style, the "given round" means "your turn", and therefore means the first unarmed attack you take each turn. If you do not take a unarmed strike during your turn, it would apply to your first unarmed AoO.
This is a very clear way of explaining it. Once you are actively taking turns, the actual initiative count doesn't matter, only the order. You do not have to track the 'beginning' of a round. Things are counted from the character that started them, and it cycles through.
You get one AoO (without combat reflexes or another modifier) during a round. At the start of your next turn, it resets and you can take another.
Fighting defensively gives you a penalty (normally -4) on all of your attacks for a round. This includes all of your attacks of opportunity, until fighting defensively resets at the beginning of your next turn.
Dragon Style gives you a bonus to the -first- unarmed attack in a -round-. If that first attack goes on your turn, simple. If it doesn't, it might be on an attack of opportunity, or some immediate action that isn't on your turn. But, it can only happen once in a round. If you use it, you can't use it again before it resets at the start of your next turn.
edit: spelling