In Step 2: Act, it says that "Once you have spent all 3 of your actions, your turn ends (as described in Step 3) and the next creature’s turn begins. You can, however, use only some of your actions and end your turn early. As soon as your turn ends, you lose all your remaining actions, but not your reaction or your ability to use free actions." So if I use my third and final action on a turn, does my turn end immediately, or am I allowed to use a triggerless free action before actually ending my turn?
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I don't see any good reason to prevent using a free action between when you use your last action and when you do your end of turn wrapup things like persistent damage - even if you don't have any such things to do during that time.
Once you start doing your end of turn wrapup and especially once the next character starts their beginning of turn stuff and/or takes their first action it is too late to use a free action unless it has a trigger like a reaction.
So no using a free action after taking persistent damage at the end of your turn.
But I don't see any reason why you shouldn't be able to use a free action after you use Strike or Raise Shield as your third action of the turn.
Do you have any examples of what kind of free actions would be relevant at the end of your turn?
A bit of a contrived example: Expeditious Inspection
If your third action hits and deals damage and the target drops, you might want to use Expeditious Inspection to check if they are actually at 0 HP and dying or if they are faking it somehow.
Alternatively, similar scenario where your third action attack drops an enemy, you might use Expeditious Inspection to try and seek for a second invisible enemy that you know is in the area but have lost track of the location of. This one is a bit weaker since you could instead use Expeditious Inspection before your 3rd action.
But that is also kind of the point. Most of the time a free action could be used before your third action just as effectively, so there is no need to penalize the player for not mentioning using it before they announce and resolve their third action of the round.
But that is also kind of the point. Most of the time a free action could be used before your third action just as effectively, so there is no need to penalize the player for not mentioning using it before they announce and resolve their third action of the round.
Wholly agreed, I was just trying to think what scenarios are there where you couldn't declare your free action before your 3rd action of the round and how would it matter.
And I think the answer is "only when your 3rd action makes a significant change in the battlefield and you have an ability that could react to that".
Which I think is probably a small set of circumstances, but I wouldn't stop it either. Just because my 3 actions have resolved doesn't mean my turn has actually ended, and the rules in step 2 are making more general statements because at the time it was written there probably weren't (and still aren't) many abilities that are free actions that couldn't be done prior to your 3rd action resolving.
Many talismans are free actions whose trigger you might have only met with your third action.
Free actions with triggers behave differently. They can be used at any time that their trigger happens whether it is your turn or not.
Example: Stride, Administer First Aid -> critical failure. Crying Angel pendant can be used because its trigger happened. Even though it is after your third action of the round - regardless of how someone rules on the matter of your turn ending immediately after your third action.
Another example: Shield Block. Ensnaring Disk can be used because its trigger happened. Even though it isn't your turn.
I haven't checked all of the talismans, so there may very well be one that is just a free action with no trigger that depends on a particular action or circumstance happening previously and you could only get that circumstance to happen with your third action.