Quickness

Quickness (QN) is an attribute that controls how quickly a character performs actions.

Some common actions include:


 * Moving
 * Attacking
 * Reloading
 * Waiting
 * Using an ability
 * Picking up an item
 * Equipping, unequipping, or using an item

The player and most other characters have a default QN value of 100. That value can be modified by a variety of factors.

Quickness can't be adjusted during character generation, and is not affected by other attributes, such as agility.

How Quickness Works
Caves of Qud is a turn-based game. Quickness determines the number of actions a character may take in one turn.

Action Points
Each turn, a character is granted a number of action points equal to ten times their quickness value. Action points are expended when taking actions.
 * The amount of action points that a skill consumes is sometimes referred to as the action cost or energy cost of that skill.
 * Turns are also sometimes referred to as rounds.

Most actions consume 1000 action points by default, which means that a character typically takes only one action per turn, such as moving one space, attacking one enemy, or equipping an item. Unspent action points are carried over to a character's next turn. For example, if a character has a quickness value of 125, they generate 1250 action points per turn. If the character attacks each turn, they use 1000 action points and carry over the extra 250 action points to their next turn. After four turns have passed, the character will have accumulated 1000 extra action points and will be able to attack two times in a single turn.

Free Actions
Free actions are special actions the player may take that do not consume any action points. Some examples of free actions include:
 * Using the look command to inspect your environment
 * Using the Juke ability
 * Applying an injector while wearing a chem vest
 * Equipping or unequipping items in the Thrown Weapon slot

Modifying Quickness or Action Cost
The number of actions a character can take per turn is affected by a wide variety of skills, mutations, items, statuses, and effects.

Generally speaking, a creature's effective quickness cannot be reduced below zero.

Quickness Modifiers
These things directly modify a character's quickness, changing the number of action points that a character generates each turn, and thus the number of actions the character may take.

Action Cost Modifiers
These things modify the action cost of certain actions, allowing a character with the same quickness to perform more or less of those actions.

Movement Speed
Movement is one of many actions that is influenced by quickness. Like most actions, it has a default cost of 1000 action points.

However, movement is special because it also has its own modifying attribute, called movement speed.

A character's movement speed controls the amount of action points that are required for the character to move, and thus movement speed can have a significant effect on how quickly a character moves, independent of other actions.