An action zone is a fancy way of defining how a character can interact with the environment during a battle. Usually, these options are a lot like stunts that require you to use the environment in some way. Most action zones offer benefits that are greater than or different from those offered in the stunt rules. For example, a massive boulder perched at the edge of a steep slope might inflict more damage against a greater number of targets than the typical area attack stunt.
(Nonreusable Action Zone)
With a Hard skill check as a full-round action, you can send a boulder rolling down a slope to smash into your enemies.
+10 vs PD; 3d6 damage (Adventurer)
+15 vs PD; 4d8 damage (Champion)
+20 vs PD; 3d20 damage (Epic)
(Reusable Action Zone)
You can climb a tree and launch yourself down upon a foe. You may substitute a skill check for your normal attack roll as a full-round action. If you hit, your opponent suffers damage equal to the falling damage you would normally take from the jump in addition to your weapon damage. You suffer half the normal falling damage.
(Nonreusable Action Zone)
You can use a skill check (Hard DC) against a dying, dead, or otherwise unsteady tree to send it crashing into your enemies. The tree covers a line up to its height.
+10 vs PD; 3d6 damage (Adventurer)
+15 vs PD; 4d8 damage (Champion)
+20 vs PD; 3d20 damage (Epic)
(Reusable Action Zone)
With a successful Normal skill check, you can jump on the banister and slide down to the bottom of the stairs. This grants you moving down the stairs as a quick action rather than a move action.
(Reusable Action Zone)
You can kick a barrel onto its side and roll it toward your opponents, knocking them to the ground as the barrel careens over them. You must make a Normal check as a full-round action to knock the barrel over and kick it toward your enemies or pick it up and throw it. In either case, you launch the barrel in a line to a nearby point.
+5 vs PD; 2d6 damage (Adventurer)
+10 vs PD; 4d6 damage (Champion)
+15 vs PD; 2d20 damage (Epic)
In addition, creatures one or more size categories smaller than you are hampered on a failed Normal save. The barrel lands at the end of the line.
(Reusable Action Zone)
You leap through the air, grab hold of the chandelier, and use it to swing across the room. You must make a skill check as normal to reach the chandelier. You then use it to swing across the room as a free action. The distance it carries you depends on its size and the length of the rope or chain used to suspend it from the ceiling. If, after swinging across the room, you immediately attack a foe in melee, you gain a +2 to hit and may add your level to damage.
(Nonreusable Action Zone)
With a successful basic attack made with a ranged weapon (AC 20 at Adventurer Tier, +5 per tier after), you shoot the chandelier’s supporting rope or chain and send it crashing to the floor. Anyone standing in the four squares beneath it suffers 3d6Adventurer/4d8 Champion/3d20 Epic points of damage. The area underneath now counts as light rubble. Obviously, once you destroy the chandelier, it’s useless. If candles on the chandelier are lit, targets may catch on fire.
(Reusable Action Zone)
With a Normal skill check as a standard action, you flip a table over. The table covers the same area as before, but one side of that space now counts as a low wall. You can switch the side that the wall runs along with another Normal skill check as a standard action.
(Reusable Action Zone)
You can pick up and throw a bench at a group of 1d3 Nearby targets.
AC 20; 1d10 per level damage (Adventurer)
AC 25; (Champion)
AC 30; (Epic)
(Reusable Action Zone)
As a standard attack action, you can pull down a curtain and wrap it around an opponent. Make an attack against your opponent's PD. If you succeed, you grab the tapestry, swirl it in the air, and wrap it around your foe. Your opponent becomes Stuck and Hampered in the tapestry until the end of his next action. Of course, both you and the target must be close enough to the tapestry for this maneuver to work.
(Nonreusable Action Zone)
As a standard action, you pull the tapestry down upon your opponent. You must make a Hard skill check (though it could be higher or lower depending on the tapestry’s material) to tear it from the wall, and then make an attack against your opponent's PD. If you hit, your opponent is Hampered and Stuck until he makes a Hard skill check as a standard action to escape.
(Reusable Action Zone)
You stab a sharp weapon into a tapestry or similar object and then hang from the weapon. As it slices down the tapestry, you ride it safely to the floor. With a successful Normal skill check, you can fall any distance down a tapestry without suffering damage. Moving in this manner is a move action.
(Nonreusable Action Zone)
As a full-round action, a character may attempt to collapse any building they are Next To. Make a Normal skill check: If the check succeeds, the building collapses, inflicting 2d6 points of damage on all inside and on those Next To its exterior.
(Nonreusable Action Zone)
One use per mug. A character can dash a mug full of alcohol into the face of an opponent they are Next To by making an attack vs PD. If the attack is successful, the target is blinded (treat as Weakened) for 1d4 rounds by the stinging alcohol.
(Nonreusable Action Zone)
With a standard action and Normal skill check, a character can push over the wardrobe or similar large piece of furniture to attack 1d2 creatures Next To the furniture.
+5 vs PD; 2d6 damage (Adventurer)
+10 vs PD; 4d6 damage (Champion)
+15 vs PD; 2d20 damage (Epic)
(Reuseable Action Zone)
If presented with a whirlwind-like ability, this pile of shards is lifted around into a deadly whirlwind of razor-sharp shards. Every creature Next To the pile is subject ot attack.
+10 vs PD; 3d6 damage (Adventurer)
+15 vs PD; 4d8 damage (Champion)
+20 vs PD; 3d20 damage (Epic)
(Reusable Action Zone)
A character can throw mud into the face of an opponent they are Next To by making an attack vs PD. If the attack is successful, the target is blinded (treat as Weakened) for 1d3 rounds.
(Nonreusable Action Zone)
Once per bag. Often found on scaffolding, These tough canvas bags are filled with sand, held up by ropes, and used as counterweights. By cutting the rope with a sharp object (standard action), the creature below is subject to an attack.
+5 vs PD; 2d6 damage (Adventurer)
+10 vs PD; 4d6 damage (Champion)
+15 vs PD; 2d20 damage (Epic)