Full Attacks

In 1st and 2nd edition fighter types, fighters, rangers, and paladins acquired extra attacks as they went up in level. At 7th level they gained an extra attack every other round. At higher levels (I don't remember which level) they gained a full 2nd attack every round. If I remember correctly these extra attacks happened after everyone had their normal attacks. Monsters, however, often had a large series of attacks they used all at once. In edition, fighters got one attack per level to use against creatures under 1 HD.

In third edition this evolved. Every character got multiple attacks but fighter types got them faster. At 20th level it was possible to have 4 attacks. The limitation was that if you moved you only got one of your attacks. Monsters still had a series of attacks, but they also had the limitation that they could attack once and move or attack with all their attacks. But gone was the notion of a round of second attacks after all the normal attacks. Also gone was the special attack per level for under 1 HD creatures. Instead they added Cleave and Great Cleave that allowed you to take extra attacks after dropping a target. So what you ended up with was a big distinction between a full attack and a standard attack especially since some effects gave you an extra attack during a full attack like haste. Certain monsters, also had numerous attacks. So the difference between a standard attack and a full attack gets so big that it defines strategies. For example, let's say you are a 9th level fighter battling a large white dragon. We are going to ignore the effects of reach for now in order to demonstrate a point. You have 2 attacks while the dragon has 6. Instead of fighting toe to toe, the better strategy is to attack and then run away. You suffer an attack of opportunity, but if the dragon wants to attack you again it must move to you in order to attack so it will only get a single attack. So instead of you getting 2 attacks for every 6 the dragon gets you get 1 attack for every 2 the dragon gets. So if you are fighting a foe that has a full attack much more potent than your own full attack it is better to attack him once, then run away taking an attack of opportunity. Various strategies become focussed around trying to deny your opponent a devastating full attack since the full attack is so powerful.

One option is to get rid of full attacks, but that poses a rather significant balance issue. Multiple attacks are one of the major tools for balancing melee types and casters. Some people tend to think that melee types are already to weak compared to casters, although that is a discussion for another post.

So what did 4th edition do. They essentially got rid of the full attack. You have a standard action that can be used as an attack. Dedicating your movement to attacking does not give you any advantage. But you are largely stuck with a single attack. This single attack can be turned into multiple attacks or attacks that do large amounts of damage by encounter and daily powers. Monsters often have a power they can use at will that allow them to use multiple attacks, but they tend to get much fewer attacks than they did in 3rd edition. For example, the king of multiple attacks, the dragon goes from around 6 attacks to 2 or 3. In general, the whole system of actions in 4th edition tends to be more solid and make more sense.

I would have to say that, in general, 4th edition wins, but in 4th edition you don't need fighters to have multiple attacks because fighter powers are equivalent to every other classes powers. The idea that rarely used magic spells are superior to what the fighter can dish out every round without fail is gone. This, I think, isn't so great of a thing.

So how would I change 3rd edition. Well, it would be nice to have the full attack be less dominant and have the general structure of an turn make more sense. You could have people with multiple attacks take half their attacks as part of a standard action and half as part of their move action. This way the difference between a standard and full attack wouldn't be so huge as 1 versus 6 attacks like in the example of the dragon.