Ready Action

[anon]

We are currently unhappy with the Ready action limitations, and are considering a house rule that would let you ready any type of action (free, move, standard, full). What are the possibilities for abuse in letting characters ready free actions, move actions, standard actions or full round actions?

So, a character could take a 5ft move then ready a full round action, or take a full move action then ready a standard action.

 

[Silverglass]

Those examples you give at the end are actually allowing you to take more than a full rounds worth of actions in a round. This is not a very good idea mechanically or from a realism perspective.

I think from what you have said that you may be reading the rules wrong, Ready allows you, as a standard action, to ready a free action, a move or another standard action. The only thing that is does not allow you to do is ready a full round action. (If you are playing 3.0 its a partial action but that is a standard action (minus the move) or move your speed or take a free action or make a partial charge).

This does make sense as a full round action is supposed to take up almost the entirety of your available 6 seconds in the combat round to perform. If you spend some time waiting for something to happen so that you can react and interrupt them then that does strongly imply that you should not have enough time to fit in a whole rounds worth of activity as well.

There is a mechanic that would allow you to respond to someone with a full round action and that is delay. The price you pay for being able to make a full attack or a double move is that your action is resolved just after your target's so you do not get to interrupt them, but the advantage you get is that you dont have to declare any conditions for you to act.

What you may wish to allow is to ready a partial charge or, if you really want to do it, is to create a "Full Round Ready" action that as a full round action allows you to ready another full round action, but as an interrupt of someone elses action this does not make that much sense.