Field actions are now live in the system. We gave these a decent trial run last event, but for those of you who don't know how they work, here's the breakdown.
- They are designed for high level characters. They're meant to fill the niche that trump actions never really did by giving a strong reason to single-class past level 10. Generally speaking, you will qualify for a field action 10 levels after the lower-level ability that it mimics.
- One per party per adventure. Field actions are not prepared. Instead, you get to use them at the start of an adventure, and the entire party is only allowed to use one. The plot member running the adventure will announce them to everyone, including the monsters. In very large battles, plot may allow more than one at their discretion.
- They affect lots of people at once. "Ally" field actions affect your entire party, while "Foe" field actions affect all monsters.
- They last the whole adventure. If they're beneficial effects, like Guard, Hone, Immune, or Strength, they last the entire adventure. If they're attacks, they get applied once after every successful rest (if you're a PC) or once whenever you spawn (as a monster). They can't be avoided or blocked, but you can counter them normally if you're able.
- They end if the user dissipates. If you're using a field action and dissipate, you go to the plot member running the adventure. He or she will call a hold and announce that your field action is no longer in effect.
- Monsters can kill the user. If you use a field action, the monsters don't have to pay you any quarter. They can call Crit against you, killing blow you, drag you away from the party, etc. It's a risk you have to take in order to use the field action, and it gives the monsters a clear objective.
- Plot will use them too. You can reasonably expect plot to start throwing these around, too, especially on higher-level adventures. They're encouraged to follow the same mechanics (i.e., tie the action to a particular, known monster so the PCs know who to kill to get rid of it), but it's not a hard requirement.