Recovering Unused Held Spells

[Blue]

That is something to think about, but it isn't much more of an issue than trying to do the same thing with other actions--something that isn't allowed, but often you have to come up with some way to handle it when people want to do it in the fiction. I'd probably just make them roll initiative normally and not be able to release the spell until their turn comes up. If they were expecting a battle, I might give them advantage (as well as to anyone in that boat).

The goal isn't to provide a way to cheat the system between combats, but to not be overly harsh inside combat. Another thing that would make sense out of combat would be to require Constitution checks (or Constitution saves) to keep holding the spell for longer periods of time, since it strikes me that this is a bigger deal (you're kind of stuck mid-cast) than the normal "Concentration" mechanic, which doesn't mean you're actually concentrating at all (more like you've got a magical effect taking up a certain amount of your magical capacity in a barely conscious way).

Dammit, being reasonable. What type of warped internet debate is that?

Okay, I see your point. And you're right, people will try to Ready anything. As you as you have reasonable players (and I find they are the most fun to run with), it works out fine.

 

[Bradley Hindman]

I'm considering changing Ready so that a) you don't have to specify a trigger and b) you don't have to specify an action. In other words, when you Ready, you can later use your reaction to take an action. But you can't interrupt another creature's turn.

This would make Ready work a bit more like Delay from 3.5. The goal would be giving players more freedom to do nothing on their turn, either because they aren't sure what to do, or because there's nothing useful to do. I think this would speed the game up considerably.

Can anyone think of a way this could be abused?

Chaos man! Chaos! My players would never take their action on their own turn.

Seriously, I like the fact that Readying a spell requires concentration and I like the fact that readying an attack causes the loss of extra attacks. Without those penalties, I would deal with at least one or two players using ready instead of acting every round. It would probably be the same two players, but that doesn't really matter. It would slow play down to a crawl (for my table).

If no trigger was required, there isn't much incentive to not wait and see what happens. Over half of the players would be sitting around waiting for the opportune moment.

 

[jmucchiello]

I'm considering changing Ready so that a) you don't have to specify a trigger and b) you don't have to specify an action. In other words, when you Ready, you can later use your reaction to take an action. But you can't interrupt another creature's turn.

This would make Ready work a bit more like Delay from 3.5.

Wouldn't it be simpler to not change Ready and add the 3.5 Delay to your game?

 

[77IM]

Wouldn't it be simpler to not change Ready and add the 3.5 Delay to your game?

Not really, because Delay changes your initiative count, which is a bunch of wackiness that I don't want to deal with.

 

[jmucchiello]

Not really, because Delay changes your initiative count, which is a bunch of wackiness that I don't want to deal with.

It's not that big a deal. Or just say it doesn't change your initiative count. After you take your delayed action, you still act on your normal count. Make delaying eat your reaction for 5e balance.

 

[S'mon]

One alternative would be to say that only Cantrips can be Readied, and don't need to be pre-cast. Still makes casters better than multi-attack classes (and Warlocks a *lot* better), but not as much as Free Readying.