Pause for breath?

[trideau]

After a 'Pause of Breath' action is taken does the character now know how many actions they will have left without worrying about not having enough?

Example:

Speed 6

Character states actions as 1) Move 2) Pause of Breath

Character does Action Roll resulting in 5 actions available

So character 'Moves' and then does a 'Pause of Breath'

Does the character now have 3 (5-2) actions that can be performed without worrying about trying an action that he would not have actions to perform?

[Kaled]

Yes, but at the cost of having used up one of his actions - so if he only rolled two actions he would only move and pause.

Also note that the version of Lightning Reflexes in the rulebook has been replaced because it is open to abuse whereby players declare their free pause for breath as their first action and thus always know how many actions they have before they declare them.

The replacement versions are in a PDF which can be found in the stickied thread (this file here), or there's another suggested version in the briefing pack for the Inquisitor Grand Tournament.

Oh and
Welcome to the Conclave

EDIT: Also, and maybe you knew this already but it's a common mistake also made by players who really should know better so I thought I'd point it out, 'move' is not a valid declaration of an action.  Firstly, it should always be walk, run, sprint etc - if I'm GMing I try to remember to get players to clarify when they say move, but I tend to assume walk unless they say otherwise.  Secondly, you should declare where you want to move to and not declare a number of actions of movement.

So when declaring actions for a Speed 5 character you might say, 'My Inquisitor is going to run to stand behind those barrels and then fire* for four actions at the enemy daemonhost'.  Then you roll for actions, and lets say he gets just three - only at that point do you measure the distance to the barrels.  If it turns out to be 7 yards to the barrels, then your character uses two actions running and only has one left to use for shooting.


* Remembering of course to say what weapon he's going to fire, and whether it's single, semi etc and all those other things that go with firing a weapon.

[trideau]

Thanks for the answer and the other information you provided is very beneficial.   

The reason I was having difficulty was the following paragraph from the rule book:

"A character can pause for breath as many times as they like, in effect using a pause for breath action to declare a subsequent action as a pause for breath. A character could therefore perform an action, pause for breath, perform another action, pause for breath again and then execute another action, and so on."

Is the above something anyone would ever do? 

Would the scenario below make use of the above rulebook text?

Scenario: The player declares actions as Walk, P-f-B.  Then rolls 5 actions currently using 2.  Then declare Shoot, P-f-B using 2 more actions thus waiting to see what happens during the shooting action.  This would allow him to shoot again if needed, move again if the shooting was successful or cancel his last action. 

I have probably answered my own question but I just want to be sure I am on the right page since I have not played the game yet.   

Thanks,

Terrence

[RobSkib]

I have found that the situation you have described has never come up in any of my games I have played or GM'd in my many years of being in the hobby - nobody uses pause for breath more than once per turn.

For example, one of the most common uses would be "Inquisitor Butthurt is going to run to the corner and pause for breath, poking his head round while he does so." He rolls his actions, and has enough for an additional two actions, so he aims and shoots at a heretic he has spied shambling about. Very rarely do characters have enough time to pause for breath more than once per action, as PFB tends to be a deciding action in a turn - the character uses PFB to choose whether to engage or not this turn.

The only use I can think of using PFB twice in a turn is like you said - PFB, shoot, then PFB to see if the target is dead or not. However, in the heat of battle, this is rarely the most practical thing to do, as live targets are notoriously bad at staying put when you start shooting at them - taking a few seconds out to catch your breath between salvos of hot lead isn't the most practical thing an Inquisitor can do.

Not to mention the fact that pausing for breath isn't the only thing that allows you to change your actions mid-turn. If something changes during a character's turn that would affect their actions (their target dies/falls off a cliff/dives behind cover etc), it seems silly to continue to blast at open air without a chance for the character to change his actions. With a successful Initiative test, a character can change his actions if the circumstances have changed sufficiently. If not, he wastes the action firing at the character as he goes over the cliff/dives for cover/whatever, and any further actions are free to be allocated as the player sees fit.

TL;DR - you will never use PFB more than once a turn

[MarcoSkoll]

Is the above something anyone would ever do?

I have paused for breath twice in the same turn, but it's rare - and I think the only time I've ever seen it done three times is when a character just uses it to throw away extra actions they couldn't think of what to do with.

As it does give you a "chance to look around", so you might theoretically spot something with them, so "better" than not declaring them at all. (Although "better" might slow down the game a little if you have to make several awareness tests with each one.)

Would the scenario below make use of the above rulebook text?

Yes.

[precinctomega]

I've been jolly quiet about INQ2 lately for reasons I shall explain in due course. However, the new rules therein concerning Awareness give stacking bonuses for longer periods spent pausing for breath.

R.