D&D 5E Useful things that could be allowed as a Reaction

[ccooke]

So as standard, everyone has one thing they can do with a Reaction - they can use an opportunity attack if there is a trigger. They could also create a trigger of their own with the Ready action.
I have been allowing a couple of extra things that my players can spend their reaction on:

• Talking outside their own turn. Specifically, I allow anyone to spend a reaction to speak a short message of 12 words or so once. If they realise they should have warned people about something else? Tough. They already used their reaction.
• Dropping an item they are holding. Not placing it anywhere, just dropping it. Obviously this doesn't negate the damage effects of things like Heat Metal, since the damage for that is dealt on-turn with a bonus action.

How do people feel about these? The former one in particular has been fun with the group I've tried it on. There's always been some off-turn chat, and giving them a resource they can use to justify it makes for some interesting decisions (and has actually cut down on subconscious metagaming¹). I don't think it would work with every group, though.

Is there anything else that you have allowed that's light enough? Without a Ready action and a trigger, I personally wouldn't allow anything that looked at all like an action, a move or anything that requires finesse (so using an object or moving a bit are out).

¹ It's very easy to just let some words slip, and very difficult not to take the words of someone else into account when you take your own turn. Putting a cost on those slips of the tongue gives people more of an incentive to avoid them.

 

[DEFCON 1]

I personally allow characters to shout stuff at each other off-turn, so your #1 doesn't do a whole lot for me... but as you say, each table is different so rock on if it works for yours!

As far as your second... I actually still default to 4E's methodology, which is that dropping an item to the ground doesn't cost an action at all. So now that you mention it... if I was to use that kind of rule, I'd actually probably make it at my table that you can stow an item as a Reaction, rather than just drop it. So for instance, an archer holding their bow could put their bow back over their shoulder as a Reaction to an enemy moving in to engage them. That way when it was the archer's turn, they could just draw their melee weapon with their "one small activity" connected with their Action and not have to also drop their bow completely to the ground as they normally would.

This would also work the opposite way... a character holding a sword has just cut down the last enemy in front of them. With their Reaction right before their next turn (on the turn of the PC or enemy right before them), they sheathe their sword. Then on their own turn they pull out their ranged weapon and attack.

It's an interesting idea inasmuch as does avoid the whole "where did I drop my weapon?" bit that always creeps up with the ranger characters (and other PCs that swap between bows/crossbows and melee weapons)... plus creates an interesting tactical situation as to whether or not to keep their melee weapon in hand long enough on the off-chance they have to use it *and* their Reaction for any OAs before their next turn.

Very interesting idea. I might need to bring this up tonight at my game and see what my players think of it. Thanks!

 

[the Jester]

Hmmm. I like the basic idea... I don't have a lot to add at this point, but I wanted to give a "Good thread!" anyhow.

 

[Voort]

I've allowed characters who see someone shooting at them to drop prone as a reaction.

 

[Tormyr]

In our last game, the party was crossing the beams of a rotted floor over a stagnant pool with discarded swords and spears sticking up out of it. Halfway across, they were attacked by a group of invisible stalkers. One of the stalkers managed to grapple the Half-Gnoll Paladin on its second attempt and drag him out over empty space before dropping him. I let him try to grab the invisible stalker as a reaction. The paladin was suspended in mid air, yelling to the Blue Dragonborn Sorcerer, "Shoot me!" The sorcerer let loose with a lightning bolt, hitting the paladin, the stalker, and another stalker that had a crossbow bolt sticking out of it. The fun part, the sorcerer rolled high, but between the sorcerer's careful spell and the paladin's resistance to magic, he only took a little damage.

 

[77IM]

By RAW, if the mount you are riding goes prone, you can spend your reaction to land on your feet. I'd allow someone pushed off a cliff to spend a reaction to grab the ledge.

 

[aramis erak]

To the OP: I dislike your first as needlessly controlling of the environment.
Dropping an item is needlessly narrow, and should cost nothing.

 

[Joddy37]

I wouldn't use the first one. Talking is not a thing that can be simplified to an action or a reaction. A character can fight and still talk all the time, sometimes just to amuse, sometimes to irritate. It should be free. Just look at those three musketeers, or pirates of the Carribean. Talking while fighting adds drama and fun to the game. Encourage your players to do that. But, maybe too much talking (like a giving a long speech that villains always do before killing) can distract a character, granting advantage to those readied their attack against him/her.

Dropping an item should always be free, because it costs no time, no effort, no second-thought. If you try to interact with an item, that costs something and it is up to you. If you ask me, I would make the first interaction free, the second one to cost a reaction, the third one to cost an action.

 

[ccooke]

I wouldn't use the first one. Talking is not a thing that can be simplified to an action or a reaction. A character can fight and still talk all the time, sometimes just to amuse, sometimes to irritate. It should be free. Just look at those three musketeers, or pirates of the Carribean. Talking while fighting adds drama and fun to the game. Encourage your players to do that. But, maybe too much talking (like a giving a long speech that villains always do before killing) can distract a character, granting advantage to those readied their attack against him/her.

Dropping an item should always be free, because it costs no time, no effort, no second-thought. If you try to interact with an item, that costs something and it is up to you. If you ask me, I would make the first interaction free, the second one to cost a reaction, the third one to cost an action.

Well, as I said, everyone has the right to play the game the way they think is best. But since you framed the above as advice to me, I will counter with my own view ;-)

Talking would be a free action (if such things still existed), on your own turn. According to the rules of the game, you can communicate during your turn by gesture or utterance. You cannot communicate, as standard, outside your turn at all. Now, some groups will allow that, which is fine. One of the groups I play in have always discouraged communication off turn, and the ability to spend a reaction for it is a useful addition to our game - it allows the ability to shout warnings and such (which, hey, makes for a more natural flow) at a cost that actually matters. The other main group I play with don't really care one way or the other, and I would only introduce this houserule to them if it looked like something they would like.

As to dropping items off turn - again, you can, according to the RAW, freely interact with one object on your turn. If you want to interact with a second object, you have to spend your action. You can't so anything with objects off your turn, unless you have readied a trigger to do so.

 

[pedro2112]

Can someone point me to the specific page number that indicates a PC can only communicate during their own turn?