Editing Open4E:Actions (section)

=====Example: Take a Drink=====
* (At-Will Minor Action * Basic Utility)
* Requirement:	You must have a drink in your hand.
* Special:	When you perform this action, you may stop and not take the drink if you notice that it tastes odd.
* Effect: 		You take a drink from the drink in your hand.

The first line, in bold, is the name of the action - in this case, “Take a Drink”. This means that when you want your character to do this action, you tell the DM “I’m going to Take a Drink” so he knows what’s going on and can react appropriately.

The next line, in italics, is the action’s type and keywords. This is two blocks, separated by an asterisk. The first block tells you when you can perform the action (in this case, at-will), how complicated the action is (in this case, it’s a minor action), and whether it’s an Action (which you can do any time on your turn) or a Reaction or Interrupt (which you can do on your or other players’ or NPC’s turns, but only in response to specific triggers).

The next lines will list special circumstances around performing the action, such as ‘Prerequisites’, ‘Requirements’, ‘Triggers’ or ‘Special’ blocks. A Prerequisite is something you need to have before you can even learn to do the action - in this case, taking a drink has no prerequisites. A requirement or trigger is a need that must be met before you can perform the action - in this case, it is a Requirement that you have a drink in your hand in order to take a drink, which makes perfect sense. A Special block just tells you some special rules or circumstances around this action that don’t fit into any other category, such as the fact that you can decide to stop taking the drink before it affects you if it tastes odd.

The next lines will list what happens when you perform the action. Each of these lines will say ‘Effect’, ‘Check’, ‘Target’, ‘Save’, ‘Success’, ‘Failure’, ‘Hit’ or ‘Miss’, and will be listed in the order that they occur. An ‘Effect’ block always happens when you perform the action; just read the line and assume that that effect occurs. A ‘Check’ or ‘Target’ line means that you must make some kind of check at this step, while a ‘Save’ means you must make a saving throw. ‘Target’ lines have you make a choice, usually selecting a particular creature or area, before making the check; the check’s DC will be based on the target that you choose. Finally, ‘Success’ and ‘Hit’ lines only occur if you succeed at the last check that you made, while ‘Failure’ and ‘Miss’ lines only occur if you didn’t succeed at the last check that you made.