Help on handling Ready actions before opening that door

[Sammelsurum]

Same thing every time. The party moves up to the dungeon soon-to-be-kicked-in door.
The dwarven fighter prepares to boot, the halfling rogue readies a crossbow stating that he will attack anyone in the room, the wizard readies a scroll stating that he will read it and cast sleep on anyone in the room, and the orcs in the room readies their crossbows (they heard´em coming).
How do you handle this? Is this excessive use of ready actions or common procedure? It is a bit tedious with all these ready actions before opening every door.

 

[Pielorinho]

By the rules, readying an action is a combat action; you can't do it outside of combat. So you could be a strict rules-guy and disallow this tactic.

In our campaigns, we are slightly friendlier: any such readied action grants the readier a +2 bonus on her initiative check, at the expense of flexibility (e.g., the mage readies an action to cast sleep on whatever's in the room; she gets a +2 on her initiative check, but she starts casting the spell before she realizes that the room is full of zombies).

The game kinda deals with readied actions before combat by allowing a surprise round: if one side is ready and the other isn't, the ready side gets a partial action before initiative is rolled.

Daniel

 

[skunian]

If both sides are "ready" we just use standard initiative to see who was quicker. If only one side was "ready" then we let them take their actions (automatic surprise), then jump into standard initiative.

 

[Crothian]

If both sides are "ready" we just use standard initiative to see who was quicker. If only one side was "ready" then we let them take their actions (automatic surprise), then jump into standard initiative.

That's what we do. So, have you had a good guy on the other side of one of these doors yet? They are readying actions to attack anyone they see. Let them take out a few of the good guys.

 

[EOL]

Yeah, you can't ready an action outside of combat. If the people on the other side of the door are aware of the people outside the door then it's just a standard initiative roll. If they're not then it's a surprise round.

 

[hong]

Yeah, you can't ready an action outside of combat. If the people on the other side of the door are aware of the people outside the door then it's just a standard initiative roll. If they're not then it's a surprise round.

The usual solution to this is to assume that combat started as soon as both sides were aware of each other, even if the door prevents actual hitting of people. So both sides could ready actions to do stuff as soon as the door is opened. To adjudicate who exactly goes when, a standard init roll would be required, as suggested before. In this situation, furthermore, no-one is flatfooted.

(Why are the other PCs with the dwarf readying, though? They could just delay their action until the door is bashed down, and then they would have a full round's worth of actions at their disposal, instead of a partial action.)

 

[Henrix]

(Why are the other PCs with the dwarf readying, though? They could just delay their action until the door is bashed down, and then they would have a full round's worth of actions at their disposal, instead of a partial action.)

Because a Readied action is faster than a Delayed action?

When you have a readied action you can act even if it is in the middle of another participants action, but with a delayed action you start your round _after_ the other has finished.

Thus, in the example, the (ready) orcs would get to shoot before those who delayed (?) got to do anything.

 

[dvvega]

I let players ready actions even outside of combat.

It's the same as when you were a kid (I'm assuming everyone has done something similar) and you were supposed to be studying but you were doing something else instead. You would keep an ear out for mum or dad to be coming to quickly switch over to studying. Not really combat, but valid.

However I'm also very strict about their statements for a readied action. If they say "My halfling readies his crossbow and shoots at anyone in the room" etc, that's exactly what happens.

If the bad guys do the same, everyone's readied action occurs simultaneously. What this means is:

1) if you drop the orc he still gets to shoot you
2) the wizard could get shot up but sleep the orcs at the same time
3) everyone is flatfooted (so no sneak attacks, nothing since everyone was technically ready for everyone else)
4) then everyone does initiative and life proceeds as normal

Basically it's a mini-surprise round for everyone. It simulates the chaos of opening a door and seeing shapes in there etc.

And yes, they've done it to friendlys before. It was extremely interesting, and required a lot of double-talk and Diplomacy to get out of it ... but was fun.

One thing some of my more intelligent monsters do (those with class levels, especially Rogues, or who have Hide) is to hide either side of the door, or behind furniture and so forth.

1) hiding either side of the door makes the room look empty, so diffuses the party's readied actions and moves the advantage back to the monsters.
2) furniture and so forth provides cover.

Monsters aren't stupid. If they're studied how to Hide, have a couple of levels here and there, they're going to use them to the best of their advantage.

 

[Xahn'Tyr]

You can't ready outside of combat. You can't start combat until you are taking hostile actions towards each other. It is when that first person does something to trigger combat that you get into initiative order and can ready actions. And until you act, you are flatfooted.

To do otherwise is to invite trouble from the game-mechanics gods.

 

[hong]

To do otherwise is to invite trouble from the game-mechanics gods.

Huh?