Rapid shot and deciding to full round attack

[tesuji2]

Hello everyone. I recently came across this thread https://paizo.com/threads/rzs2kx8s?Full-attack-multiple-targets and posts by "midknight" and "Name Violation" that make a couple of interesting claims. midknight says that you don't have to decide to full attack or not until after you see the result of your first strike. Name Violation says that you can even wait to twf or not as long as you have applied the appropriate penalty to the first attack as if you were going to twf.

I was wondering if both of these are accurate and if the twf logic would apply to rapid shot.

Thanks for your help.

[MrCharisma]

I think by RAW (Rules As Written) they're incorrect. There are some actions that can only be done as part of a full-round action.

However if you've already applied the penalty to attack you're not really getting a beneifit, you're just taking an unnecessary penalty to your attack roll. If you decide to stop attacking and take a move action instead I don't see a problem with it.

I'd allow it.

[Belafon]

They’re correct in result but they have the explanation backwards.

CRB page 187 wrote:

Deciding between an Attack or a Full Attack: After your first attack, you can decide to take a move action instead of making your remaining attacks, depending on how the first attack turns out and assuming you have not already taken a move action this round.

You do decide to make a full attack (applying any modifiers depending on the type of attack), but can then change your mind after making the first attack. It’s just a matter of semantics.

This would work with Rapid Shot, but not with Manyshot or similar abilities. There’s even a specific FAQ about Manyshot.

[MrCharisma]

Ah right, you might have it there. I was remembering an example somewhere about Shield of Swings being a potential full-round-action with only 1 attack, and you had to declare the full-round action before using it no matter what. But I think you're right.

As I said, even if it's technically incorrect I'd allow it.

[Name Violation]

Belafon wrote:

They’re correct in result but they have the explanation backwards.

CRB page 187 wrote:

Deciding between an Attack or a Full Attack: After your first attack, you can decide to take a move action instead of making your remaining attacks, depending on how the first attack turns out and assuming you have not already taken a move action this round.

You do decide to make a full attack (applying any modifiers depending on the type of attack), but can then change your mind after making the first attack. It’s just a matter of semantics.

This would work with Rapid Shot, but not with Manyshot or similar abilities. There’s even a specific FAQ about Manyshot.

this is exactly what i came to say

Deciding between an Attack or a Full Attack
link
After your first attack, you can decide to take a move action instead of making your remaining attacks, depending on how the first attack turns out and assuming you have not already taken a move action this round. If you’ve already taken a 5-foot step, you can’t use your move action to move any distance, but you could still use a different kind of move action.

[Claxon]

Yeah, with how the above quoted rule is worded you do have to make the first attack with all the relevant penalties for the full attack routine your intended to use....but it you roll a 19 and it doesn't hit you can decide to GTFO instead of swinging uselessly against this enemy.