The difference between Delay and Ready?

[Xahn'Tyr]

On his turn, the subject may take an extra partial action,
either before or after his regular action.

So he readies an attack as his partial. When the ready goes off, it is followed by his regular action - pretty straight forward.

It kind of sounds like you're wanting to twist the rules around (and complicate things) to keep Haste from being more powerful. That is a laudable endeavor, but there are probably cleaner ways to do it.

 

[EOL]

I don't think I'm twisting the rules to even allow the the hasted partial action to be used to ready is twisting the rules. Readying an action is a "standard action" so you can move and ready, but lets assume you don't move all you do is ready, that move portion of the standard action is lost. I would argue that a strict interpretation of the rules would indicate you can't use your partial haste action to ready (I don't play that way).

So what about the question of the interrupt? That is the key difference between a ready and a delay, those of you saying that you can ready a Full Attack seem to be arguing that haste allows you to get around that key difference. So does the entire Full attack go off before the action that triggered the ready? If so you're readying a full round action which directly contradicts the rule, "Only partial actions can be readied." (pg. 134 PHB)

I don't think I'm complicating things. I think that this is just the way the rules are written.

 

[Tiberius]

Three major differences.

1/ Only a readied action (or an AoO) can interrupt another's action. So yeah, if Joe delays, the goblin gets away clean.

I'm not sure that anything can interrupt another combatant's turn. From the SRD:

The ready action lets a combatant prepare to take an action later, after a combatant's turn is over but before a combatant's next one has begun. Readying is a standard action, so a combatant can move as well. It does not provoke an attack of opportunity (though the action that a combatant readies might do so).

With this in mind, is it possible for, say, a fighter to ready an action to "attack anyone who moves up to and attacks the mage I'm defending"? Which of the following would occur?

1) Enemy paladin from 30' away walks up to attack the mage, is thwacked by the fighter, then hits the mage

2) Enemy paladin walks up, hits the mage, then is attacked

3) Enemy paladin's player declares his action, at which point the fighter's readied action kicks in and the fighter must make a partial charge to be able to hit the paladin with his axe

4) Something else?

It looks to me like the answer is 3. Anyone have thoughts one way or the other?

-Tiberius

 

[EOL]

The answer is #1, in the SRD quote you reference there is never any reference to the person who triggers the action all "combatant" references refer to the person doing the readying. In the PHB it says, "The partial action comes before the action that triggered it." In your example it is the attack which triggers it not the move, though the trigger could have been worded better.

 

[Tiberius]

The answer is #1, in the SRD quote you reference there is never any reference to the person who triggers the action all "combatant" references refer to the person doing the readying. In the PHB it says, "The partial action comes before the action that triggered it." In your example it is the attack which triggers it not the move, though the trigger could have been worded better.

Ah, I see how you are interpreting it. That makes more sense now. Yeah, the trigger could be better-worded, but I think it got the point across. Thanks!

-Tiberius