All right I've seen a few posts on this, but I just wanted to get a few more opinions on it. I've not found in general what action ability checks are, probably because most would be made out of combat, and it seems that it would vary considerably. What brought this up was this text here:
Breaking Items
When a character tries to break or burst something with sudden force rather than by dealing damage, use a Strength check (rather than an attack roll and damage roll, as with the sunder special attack) to determine whether he succeeds. Since hardness doesn't affect an object's Break DC, this value depends more on the construction of the item than on the material the item is made of. Consult Table: DCs to Break or Burst Items for a list of common Break DCs.'
I am inclined to think due to 'rather than an attack roll and damage roll, as with the sunder special attack' you could make multiple attempts to break an item this way with a full attack action, substituting sunder attacks for strength checks as you can substitute sunder attempts for attacks.
Unless, of course, there is an action type for strength/ability checks that I missed?
P.S. The reason I'm curious about this is because of the feat 'Shrapnel Strike'. It sounds like it would be really rather fun to go around bursting walls and pillars and doors to inflict damage on people, but it really wouldn't be worth it for a single burst as thats going to do 1d4+10 damage at best, cut in half if they passed the save which they likely will.
