Paladin and Armor

[vhailor]

1.

___________________________
|      |      |      |      | 
|  A1  |enemy |  A3  |      | 
|______|______|______|______|
|      |      |      |      | 
|  B1  |player|      |      |
|______|______|______|______|

The movement of the character from B2 to A3 gives the enemy attack of opportunity?
2. If a human Paladin takes Plate Armor and Heavy Shield, he has speed 3 squares?????
3. I choose to ready an action. It will trigger when the enemy uses a move action.
If the enemy shifts, does the trigger activates?

 

[Alraiis]

1.

___________________________
|      |      |      |      | 
|  A1  |enemy |  A3  |      | 
|______|______|______|______|
|      |      |      |      | 
|  B1  |player|      |      |
|______|______|______|______|

The movement of the character from B2 to A3 gives the enemy attack of opportunity?
2. If a human Paladin takes Plate Armor and Heavy Shield, he has speed 3 squares?????
3. I choose to ready an action. It will trigger when the enemy uses a move action.
If the enemy shifts, does the trigger activates?

1. Yes, but the player can shift to avoid the opportunity attack.
2. A human paladin with plate armor and a heavy shield has a speed of 5. Heavy shields have a check penalty, but no speed penalty.
3. In my opinion (the rules are vague on the point), readied actions should be triggered off of specific character/NPC actions ("when the enemy moves away from me"), not game mechanics ("when the enemy takes a move action") as there are multiple things that fall under the category "move actions." Either trigger would allow the readied action when the enemy shifts, however, because readied actions aren't opportunity attacks, and shifting is no protection against them.

 

[Khime]

1) Yes, you left a square adjacent to the enemy in A2, so he gets to hit you. Just because you ended up in a different square adjacent to the enemy doesn't mean you didn't leave one.

2) Human (Speed 6), Plate armor (Speed -1, Check -2), Heavy shield (Speed -, Check -2) means he has a speed of 5, and a -4 to skill checks that are impacted by armor. Where did you get 3?

3) Shifting is a move action that does not provoke opportunity attacks. A readied action is an immediate reaction, so shifting does not stop it, but the attack will happen after the shift is complete, possibly leaving you out of range.

 

[Griogre]

3) Shifting is a move action that does not provoke opportunity attacks. A readied action is an immediate reaction, so shifting does not stop it, but the attack will happen after the shift is complete, possibly leaving you out of range.

Just wanted to emphsize this. Ready actions are reactions that happen *after* the action that triggers it. This is a pretty big differance from 3rd edition. Thus if the player was readied to attack if the enemy moves and the enemy shifted north off the top of the drawing the readied player would not get an attack because when the ready went off the enemy would be out of range.

 

[Gloombunny]

Just wanted to emphsize this. Ready actions are reactions that happen *after* the action that triggers it. This is a pretty big differance from 3rd edition. Thus if the player was readied to attack if the enemy moves and the enemy shifted north off the top of the drawing the readied player would not get an attack because when the ready went off the enemy would be out of range.

Readied actions that take place in response to movement can interrupt the movement, actually, but only after the triggering creature has moved at least one square. So you're generally right about the player not being able to use a readied action to attack to attack an enemy moving away from him, but not if the player has a reach weapon or had readied a ranged attack or something.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Just wanted to emphsize this. Ready actions are reactions that happen *after* the action that triggers it.

Also recall, though, that reactions can trigger after each individual square of movement.

So while a one-square shift north would leave him out of range by the time the readied action triggered, a three-square shift east would not. The shift ends with him out of range, but the readied action triggers after he has moved one square, not after the entire shift.

-Hyp.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Is difficult to ready an action vs a shift, but you can set triggers that happen before the actual action:

but you need hints...
like: i attack the wizard, when he reaches for his wand... instead of when he cast a spell...

 

[Regicide]

Also recall, though, that reactions can trigger after each individual square of movement.

So while a one-square shift north would leave him out of range by the time the readied action triggered, a three-square shift east would not. The shift ends with him out of range, but the readied action triggers after he has moved one square, not after the entire shift.

The example of ready shows that you can interrupt a partial use of a power, in other words their definition of "action" is a general one and not a specific "combat action" which is good, otherwise there are a lot of things you couldn't ready against. So make your triggering action "anything" and you will almost always be able to act on the target before it leaves the square. If it has to turn before it can move away, look at where it's going, give a command, but one foot in front of the other etc. you'll swing at it.

 

[Hypersmurf]

So make your triggering action "anything" and you will almost always be able to act on the target before it leaves the square.

I suspect you'll find it hard to make that fly with many DMs. I wouldn't allow it - the immediate reaction wouldn't be able to trigger off "the thing he does before he does something".

It's a reaction - it occurs after his, not before, with certain prescribed situations where one action can be subdivided.

The game has no facing, so "turn before it can move away" is not a mechanical action, it's a cinematic action. Moving in a mechanical sense involves a change of squares, so putting one foot in front of the other either involves a change of squares (in which case it is a mechanical Move, and also means he's too far away for your Readied melee attack to hit), or it does not (in which case it is not a mechanical action, it is a cinematic action).

If we're assuming "Anything" to cover cinematic actions, he's doing those things all the time, even when it isn't his turn. He's looking around, he's moving from foot to foot, he's dodging, he's poking at you with his sword... he's not standing completely still from the end of his turn until the start of his turn, it's just that he only takes actions in the mechanical sense on his turn.

So if you ready an attack for when he does "anything", including moving his foot?

"... so I ready the action... and that's the end of my turn."
"Your readied action triggers."

... may as well have just done it on your turn!

(Now, personally, I still wouldn't allow it.)

-Hyp.

 

[Regicide]

I suspect you'll find it hard to make that fly with many DMs. I wouldn't allow it - the immediate reaction wouldn't be able to trigger off "the thing he does before he does something".

Then theres a problem. If the rules make it impossible to do anything before someone has moved 5 feet away when watching carefully for them to do just that, then DnD characters have the slowest reflexes imaginable. The fact that, unprepared, while fighting someone else and facing the opposite direction, you can OA to swing at someone, but prepared and concentrating on someone's actions you can't even react at all is... strange.