What action type is retrieving an item in Pathfinder?

Question

I couldn't find references about the action type(s) of the following acts (standard, move, full-round, etc.) nor if they provoke attacks of opportunity.

• Retrieving an item attached to the character's equipment (such as a pan hanging from a hook on the backpack).
• Retrieving an item in the main sack of the backpack.

Is this one of the case-by-case things left to the GM's discretion?
How would you model them in their commonest case?

Answer 1

In D&D 3.5, it would indeed be a move action in the general case:

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/combat/actionsInCombat.htm#manipulateanItem

In most cases, moving or manipulating an item is a move action.

This includes retrieving or putting away a stored item, picking up an item, moving a heavy object, and opening a door. Examples of this kind of action, along with whether they incur an attack of opportunity, are given in Table: Move Actions.

Checking the Pathfinder SRD at d20pfsrd.com shows that retrieving an item is still a move action in Pathfinder:

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/combat#TOC-Actions-In-Combat

For the frying pan, you might rule that it's easy enough to grab on to that it behaves like a Handy Haversack, or drawing a weapon. In that case, it would still be a move action but would not provoke attacks of opportunity:

When the wearer reaches into [a Handy Haversack] for a specific item, that item is always on top. Thus, no digging around and fumbling is ever necessary to find what a haversack contains. Retrieving any specific item from a haversack is a move action, but it does not provoke the attacks of opportunity that retrieving a stored item usually does.

Answer 2

Generally, it's a move action that provokes attacks of opportunity (as in DM1). You can get around this with (for example) a Handy Haversack that makes it a Move action that doesn't provoke attacks of opportunity.

Dropping a held item is a free action.