Combat Sequence
A Pathfinder combat is broken into rounds, each representing 6 seconds of in-game time. Ten rounds equal one minute. Within a round every combatant acts once, in initiative order. This page covers the sequence from the first moment of combat through the structure of a round — the when and why of who goes when.
Time in Combat
A round is the basic unit of combat time. Every combatant gets one turn per round; a turn represents roughly 6 seconds of frantic in-game action. Multiple combatants acting in the same round are considered to act simultaneously for most purposes, even though the game resolves their actions sequentially for bookkeeping.
Effects with durations measured in rounds (spells, conditions, ongoing effects) count down at the start of the affected creature's turn unless the effect states otherwise. A duration of "1 round" on your turn means it ends at the start of your next turn.
The Surprise Round
When combat begins, the GM checks whether any combatants are unaware of their enemies. Awareness is typically resolved as a Perception check opposed by the enemy's Stealth check (or a flat DC for ambushes). A combatant who fails to notice any enemy is surprised.
If there are surprised combatants
- A surprise round occurs before normal initiative order begins.
- Only aware combatants may act in the surprise round — each gets a single standard action (no move action).
- Surprised combatants are flat-footed and skip their turn entirely.
- After the surprise round, initiative is rolled normally and combat proceeds.
If no one is surprised
- There is no surprise round — skip directly to initiative.
- All combatants are still flat-footed until they act on their first turn, even without a surprise round.
- Some abilities (Uncanny Dodge, etc.) prevent a character from being flat-footed at the start of combat.
Initiative
Once any surprise round is resolved, every combatant rolls initiative — a single d20 + DEX modifier roll that determines turn order for the entire combat. You do not re-roll initiative each round. Higher results act first; in the event of a tie, the combatant with the higher DEX score goes first. If that also ties, each tied combatant rolls 1d20 and the highest result wins.
Every combatant is flat-footed until they have taken their first turn in combat, regardless of whether a surprise round occurred.
The Combat Round
After initiative is established, combat proceeds in rounds. On your turn you take your actions (a standard action, a move action, and any free actions — or a full-round action in place of both). Then play passes to the combatant with the next highest initiative. When the last combatant in the order has acted, the round ends and a new one begins at the top of the same initiative order.
For full detail on what each action type lets you do, see Actions in Combat.
Special Initiative Actions
Two actions let you change when in the initiative order you act. Both are full-round actions (or effectively use your entire turn), and each has specific timing rules that matter in edge cases.
Ready
You declare a trigger (an observable event or condition) and a standard action you will take if the trigger occurs. You hold your action until the trigger fires or the round ends. Readying uses your standard action; you may still move beforehand.
- If the trigger occurs, your action interrupts it — you act before the triggering action resolves.
- If the trigger never occurs, you lose the readied action at the start of your next turn.
- Readying lowers your initiative to just before the creature that triggered it. This is your new initiative count for subsequent rounds unless you ready again.
- You cannot ready a full-round action (only a standard action).
Delay
You choose to act later in the round, skipping your current place in initiative and waiting for a more favourable moment. You may re-enter the initiative order at any point later in the same round.
- When you choose to act, your new initiative count becomes the count at which you acted. This carries forward to future rounds.
- If you delay until the end of the round without acting, your initiative count drops to 0.
- Unlike readying, delaying does not interrupt — you simply choose when to take your turn.
- You may delay indefinitely but lose your turn for the round if you never re-enter.
Ready vs. Delay — key distinction:
A readied action interrupts the trigger (you act before it resolves). A delayed action does not interrupt anything — you simply pick a new time to take your turn. Use Ready when you want to react to a specific event; use Delay when you want to coordinate with an ally or wait for a better tactical position.
Size, Space & Reach
Every creature occupies a space on the battlefield and has a natural reach determined by size. A Large creature occupies a 10×10 ft. space and threatens all squares within 10 ft.; a Medium creature occupies 5×5 ft. and threatens 5 ft. Creatures smaller than Small have 0 ft. reach and must enter their target's square to make a melee attack.