Characters Trading Items During Combat

[GM Jeff]

I don't thing there is an official rule listed in the book on this, perhaps this is more of an advice question.

During combat (tracking initiative), one character wants to hand something off to another character. How would you handle this? Should both character be required to spend an action, or just one character?

Things on my mind that might relate to this:
- Readied actions
- Provoking attacks of opportunity
- Characters abusing any ruling (Ex: There's a weapon the BBEG is weak against, players try to pass the weapon around each turn and attack with it).

[Lamontius]

Well, manipulating an item is a move action, as is retrieving a stored item. Item manipulations incur attacks of opportunity. Readying an action requires utilizing a standard action to do so, though you can ready a standard action.

Do you have any specific examples in mind?

For the weapon-passing one, well, I guess a player could use a standard action to attack, then an AoO-incurring move action to hand the weapon off. The next player could use an AoO-incurring move action to grab the weapon, then use it for a standard action. I guess they would all have to be within a five-foot-step of each other as well.

[Oladon]

We usually go with dropping the item in an adjacent square (free action), then having the other person pick it up (move action that provokes).