D&D 5E Take the Ready action.

[el-remmen]

And what about saves and other effects including reaction refreshes that occur at the start/ end of your turn?

If I delay my turn, does my reaction reset? Do I have to make an ongoing save for Hold Person, even though I'm not actually having a turn?

Your reaction refreshes on your turn, whenever it is you take it.

Why would someone delay if they were being held by a hold person spell unless they had some weird reason to want to be held longer?

I personally see no reason to implement anything other than the RAW which works fine for his purpose (and surprise).

For me static combat with the same initiative each round and without combatants jockeying of advantage over each other in terms of order of events is not as dynamic and fun or strategic. It is not like this stuff come up all the time, but often enough to want to play around with it. Like all house rules. . . heck, like all rules! . . if they are unforeseen consequences we'll deal with them when and if they come up.

I am skeptical as heck of the concept of "RAW."

 

[ECMO3]

To borrow from a scenario previously presented in this thread, let's say you anticipate an ally will cast darkness and you will be in the spell's area of effect. If you take the Ready action to Hide when the magical darkness spreads, you're stuck standing in place when you take your reaction. What's the benefit this round and how does it differ from simply being unseen?

If the enemy does not search for you you remain hidden until you expose yourself through an attack, byu leaving the obscuration, making noise etc. Your next turn you can move wherever you want on your turn and remain hidden (assumign you don't move out of the darkness). You can even use your action and remain hidden provided that action does not expose you (note RAW attacks always expose you).

If you are a Rogue you start the turn hidden without the need to use a bonus action and if you attack you can take your bonus action afterf the attack to hide again in the darkness.

 

[ECMO3]

That’s clearly not the case, otherwise you would be able to spend some of your movement on your turn, and spend the remainder on another turn (because that would be a turn on which you had movement).

No because you don't normally have any movement on another turn and you can't "save" movement one turn to the next. You have a speed on another turn but you do not have a movement unless something gives you a movement on that turn. Absent another effect, your movement is 0 on every turn except your own. Your speed is still 30 or whatever, but your movement is 0 regardless of how much you have or have not moved on other turns.

Dash gives you a movement on the turn it is taken (whenever that turn is), it is in the description. On the turn it is taken it changes your movement to be 30 more. Other reactions like skirmisher or maneuvering attack can also give players movement on a turn that is not theirs.

 

[Flamestrike]

Your reaction refreshes on your turn, whenever it is you take it.

Why would someone delay if they were being held by a hold person spell unless they had some weird reason to want to be held longer?

Death saves? Being inside a Spirit Guardians?

 

[mrpopstar]

I think you are making it too hard on yourself and thinking of it a little backwards.

If the party says they want to sneak up on or past the guards and you allow the check, you have in making that decision established that appropriate conditions exist. You don't need to check lighting or cover. At this moment, in these circumstances, hiding is a thing so surprise is a possibility.

I’m comfortable now determining that circumstances are or are not appropriate for hiding, but it definitely took some early tinkering with the interplay of light sources, obscurement, and cover before it all clicked.

If the enemy does not search for you you remain hidden until you expose yourself through an attack, byu leaving the obscuration, making noise etc. Your next turn you can move wherever you want on your turn and remain hidden (assumign you don't move out of the darkness). You can even use your action and remain hidden provided that action does not expose you (note RAW attacks always expose you).

If you are a Rogue you start the turn hidden without the need to use a bonus action and if you attack you can take your bonus action afterf the attack to hide again in the darkness.

It makes even less sense for a rogue to take the Ready action to Hide when he takes his reaction if he anticipates the circumstances of the environment will change so that he'll be standing in darkness.

He's able to hide at the beginning of every one of his turns using the Cunning Action feature, so there's no benefit to readying to hide last round.

 

[Oofta]

I’m comfortable now determining that circumstances are or are not appropriate for hiding, but it definitely took some early tinkering with the interplay of light sources, obscurement, and cover before it all clicked.



It makes even less sense for a rogue to take the Ready action to Hide when he takes his reaction if he anticipates the circumstances of the environment will change so that he'll be standing in darkness.

He's able to hide at the beginning of every one of his turns using the Cunning Action feature, so there's no benefit to readying to hide last round.

Hiding as a reaction is one of those things that might be theoretically possible, but I can't really imagine the circumstances nor have I ever actually seen anyone do it.

 

[mrpopstar]

Hiding as a reaction is one of those things that might be theoretically possible, but I can't really imagine the circumstances nor have I ever actually seen anyone do it.

Yeah, I kept toggling it between don’t benefit and possibly benefit in my list above. Theoretically you could, just haven’t conceived of a scenario as of yet.

 

[Mort]

For me static combat with the same initiative each round and without combatants jockeying of advantage over each other in terms of order of events is not as dynamic and fun or strategic. It is not like this stuff come up all the time, but often enough to want to play around with it. Like all house rules. . . heck, like all rules! . . if they are unforeseen consequences we'll deal with them when and if they come up.

Sure, dynamic combat over static is highly preferable.

But for me, the delay action is just too pat. It's basically pick any initiative under yours and act then - no cost to doing so, other then acting later. Ready action, on the other hand, imposes a cost - your reaction AND it sticks a concentration requirement onto any spells you want to cast as a reaction.

So you can still jockey around with the ready action, but since there's a cost - more math to weigh.

An example, that's niche but certainly comes up often enough:

My caster PC goes right before the baddie and wants to cast hold monster on it (let's assume no legendary resistance etc. for the moment), I want the rest of the party to get some serious shots in on this thing! If I cast Hold Monster on my initiative, the baddie gets a save, if it fails great BUT it then goes and while it can't act it gets another save before anyone else can act.

I decide to gamble, I'll let it act once AND THEN cast hold person.

With DELAY (as done in 3e but for 5e) this is trivial, I position myself right after it and go. I get my full set of bonus, action, movement and I get to keep my reaction for stuff like counterspell etc.

With READY it's easy but riskier. I state my trigger (something like "I cast once the baddie has finished all of it's actions) I ONLY get my action so if the baddie moved out of range of my spell - too bad (unlike Delay where I may be able to compensate). Also I had to start casting on my actual initiative so if the baddie (or something I wasn't anticipating) hits me before the trigger - I may well lose my spell. Also if something happens before my next turn (on it's standard initiative) no shield, absorb elements etc. This is a significantly bigger gamble than just simply delaying!

I suppose I prefer option 2 because it provides options, but at a cost PLUS it doesn't mess with the actual initiative order (I was never a fan of how much the 3e initiative order jumped around YMMV).

 

[el-remmen]

Death saves? Being inside a Spirit Guardians?

Death saves happen when you are unconscious. You cannot do anything, including delay, when you are unconscious.

If someone starts their turn in Spirit Guardians but wants to delay, they still have to make the save because they are there when their turn would have started. If that means you'd have to deal with the spell twice in a round - maybe consider not delaying (which there should be downside to doing in the midst of a frantic combat). Everything is supposedly happening nearly instantaneously anyway, so if timing is slightly off sometimes, I don't worry about it. But like I said if it became an issue we'd address it then. Pretty sure spirit guardians has not been cast in my games yet - but there are other spells that work similarly and it hasn't really come up much.

 

[Oofta]

Death saves happen when you are unconscious. You cannot do anything, including delay, when you are unconscious.

If someone starts their turn in Spirit Guardians but wants to delay, they still have to make the save because they are there when their turn would have started. If that means you'd have to deal with the spell twice in a round - maybe consider not delaying (which there should be downside to doing in the midst of a frantic combat). Everything is supposedly happening nearly instantaneously anyway, so if timing is slightly off sometimes, I don't worry about it. But like I said if it became an issue we'd address it then. Pretty sure spirit guardians has not been cast in my games yet - but there are other spells that work similarly and it hasn't really come up much.

Some of the aspects of delay can be handled by a simple "anything that would have automatically happened on your turn still happens".

I still prefer readied, but it's not hard to put delay back in if it's your preference.