New Rule: Revised Action Economy

Pathfinder Unchained has been out for a while now and while the unchained classes get a lot of talk, the most facilitating part of the book for me was the Revised Action Economy. Pathfinder is not a perfect game, and the way that in combat actions work is often seen as the root of plenty of it's problems. It favors casters, its very complicated and it makes combat messier as you rise in levels. Despite the RAE claiming to clean up quite a bit I've seen it be very divisive as to whether or not its better to use. Even in my own groups its hard to get people to convert unless you force it at the beginning of the campaign and if it is explicitly an option even the players who would greatly benefit from it don't even try to use it so I have way less experience with it than I would actually like. Now there are several reasons for this. There are plenty of things that the RAE does not account for to make you be able to do everything that you could previously do. The change of Swift actions to be one action means that one turn swift action effects like arcane strike are basically dead in the water.

It is a drastic turn but I have a few defenses of it. The more I see it in action the more I think that it is easier to convert to than the normal action economy is to execute. So here are my reasons why I think you should use the Revised Action Economy.

1. Initiative Order Doesn't Change

This one is rather subtle but it makes a big impact when in play. In the normal action economy you can ready an action or delay which allows you to interrupt and act out of turn. This moves your initiative order to occur before the person that you are interrupting. And this is a huge pain in the butt for anyone keeping track of this. Sure you can take one of those magnetic initiative trackers or even an electronic one to keep things clean but when you get to the point where you peripherals just to keep track its still a pain in the butt even if it's a small one. You still have to make adjustments to shuffle that character around in the initiative order. With the RAE your readied action eats up your reaction instead of moving you around in the initiative order so doing so does not come with the added bonus of having to complicate combat more than it needs to. This sounds really minor but the difference is astounding. You don't need a shuffleboard of magnets to keep track of who's where in initiative and where they go when they do something like readying or holding or interrupting. You just go top to bottom and leave it alone.

2. You Can Move More

The RAE breaks up most instances of full attacks so something had to be done with options like two weapon fighting and flurry of blows. What winds up happening is that they add extra attacks to your first, second and then third attacks as you advance in that option. This is absolutely huge for any combatant that wants to move more while using these options. Lets take a look at the numbers here: If you are using TWF (Full BAB at lvl 20, two light weapons)with the normal action economy if you do nothing but attack you get seven attacks at +18/+18/+13/+13/+8/+8/+3. If you make a move action you get one attack at +20. With the Revised Action Economy under the same circumstances if you do nothing but attack you get six attacks at +18/+18/+13/+13/+8/+8, but if you make a move action you get four attacks at +18/+18/+13/+13. So with the normal action economy moving once makes you lose over 80% of your attacks while with the RAE you lose a little over 33%. This is true even for regular iterative attacks where you lose 75% of your attacks normally but with the RAE you only lose a little over 33%. And this is just for moving more than a 5ft step.

3. There Are Way Less Actions.

RAE is three actions and a reaction and that's it. The sheer amount that needed to be converted makes this seem a bit daunting but it all amounts to everything having a cost. Most things have similar costs with the normal action economy but not with the same currencies. You have full round actions that cost a move and and standard action, a 5ft step that will cost you your move action but not any part of a full round action, an attack of opportunity that does not encompass your immediate action, but your immediate action does take your swift action, that is a short action but only has a currency of one per round without move or standard actions being able to pay for them. And because of all these staggered currencies we can take advantage with classes that have a reason to benefit from a swift action, full round action, and 5ft step but if you miss out on the swift/immediate action and 5ft step you can't use those actions to pay for anything else. This is too many categories and too many false equivalencies and it just mucks up combat. With the RAE you do three points worth of stuff and you're done. The only reason why you need a dozen pages to define them in Pathfinder Unchained is because of the damage already done by the normal action economy which goes all over the place.

4. Fighter and Rogue Start Looking Good

This is a disputed point but its a popular opinion that spellcasters have a leg up on classes without spells with Rogues and Fighters being at the bottom of the barrel. And part of that is because of how the normal action economy works. With movement taking away attacks the Fighter suffers because that's the main thing that he does and Rogues because movement will kill sneak attack potential, meanwhile a caster can move and cast a powerful spell, basically losing nothing. But with the RAE Fighters can chase down casters and actually do something crippling and Rogues can move and get off more than one sneak attack. Add to that, both classes have relatively fewer opportunities to use all the actions from my third point. A typical fighter doesn't have too many ways to use a swift action but in the hands of other classes a swift action can be insanely powerful.

5. Converting is easier than it looks.

Pathfinder Unchained divides the RAE actions into Simple and Complex actions, then to what number of acts it takes with a couple of subtypes and most of the things in the game redefined. This doesn't encompass third party material or really weird splat book options but the logic is clear. 3 acts are full round actions. 2 acts are standard actions, and 1 act are move or swift actions. Reactions are immediate actions and attacks of opportunity, and the only awkward position is the new status of full attack which is still easy to understand or capable of just re-entering the new action economy as 3 acts. I think the only thing that gets awkward to convert is that the conversion guide states that Standard action attack actions would be 1 act. This makes martial characters go from better to insane really fast as that can include the likes of Vital Strike. Imagine doing that three times in a row. It also kind of flies in the face of the logic behind how combat maneuvers work where if they can sub an attack in a full attack then it's 1 act and if not it's 2 acts, which is drastically more sane and more in line with what the game normally does. But that all boils down to whether or not the attack action equates to 1 or 2 acts because both action economies don't equate attacks and the attack actions, something that is confusing and insane about the normal action economy that is often the source of confusion.

And there you have it. Those are my main arguments in favor of Pathfinder Unchained's revised action economy. Its not perfect, not by a long shot, but I do think that it is way better than the complex monstrocity that the normal action economy is.