D&D 3E/3.5 3.5 Surprise round = no melee attacks?

[Pickaxe]

On the other hand, I can see the argument that when you ready an action, your turn is essentially over until the triggering action occurs, and then that's your next turn.

Actually, isn't readying an action a standard action? The triggering of the readied action technically complete's your turn.

Without that, it would be impossible to ready a melee attack on a spell caster to interrupt a spell unless you are in the adjacent square, and that does not seem right.

I'm assuming you mean as part of a surprise round. In any normal round, you can always move and ready, and even in a surprise round you could ready an attack with a 5 foot step.

--Axe

 

[Hypersmurf]

I'm assuming you mean as part of a surprise round. In any normal round, you can always move and ready, and even in a surprise round you could ready an attack with a 5 foot step.

What he means is you can no longer stand thirty feet away and ready a melee attack on a caster for when he starts to cast.

You would need to move up next to him and then Ready... and since you've already moved, your Readied attack cannot include a 5' step, so if he steps back you're screwed.

Whereas in 3E you could Ready a Partial Charge, and he'd have to be more than thirty feet away when he casts to be safe.

-Hyp.