Free Actions - When can they be used?

Rules Discussion
1

Can someone take a free action when it is not their turn in combat?

The wording is not clear to me in the description; “If a feat, perk, boon, or other source grants a free action,
that action can be performed without counting against
the normal limits to your actions per turn.”

Some specify “as a free action on your turn”, which is pretty self explanatory.

However, some simply say “as a free action” , so can that be used on or off your turn?

I have actually had a couple debates about this at the table, but tonight an Enemy went to move out of melee with PC, PC took opportunity attack, exploded dice and killed NPC.

However PC then wanted to use Combat Follow through to keep attacking and since it didn’t specify the free action had to be taken on his turn I let him keep going but he killed 3 NPCs on a reaction…

It was an epic in game moment and I’m glad I ruled it, but I wonder if that’s too OP to let him keep doing.

2

The default rule is that it has to be on your turn. A free action requires you to take an action, and you can only take actions outside of your turn with attack of opportunity or an interrupt. Your ruling is a fine interpretation (and we do encourage GMs to use their own interpretation if the rules are unclear) but as you’ve already spotted it seems a little too powerful. Provided it’s not upsetting the rest of your party though, there’s nothing wrong with it; just be careful about letting that single character take over combat encounters, it may make the other players feel a bit useless.

1 Like