D&D 5E 5E and delaying your turn.

[iserith]

It basically handle shenanigans. In my own experience games with delay tend to run faster than games without because players are more likely to know what to do when it is their turn. Much better than sitting there thinking through all your options and trying to make something work.

A player's turn is for acting in my view, not for thinking about what to do. That's what they should have been doing on other people's turns. I instill this philosophy in my players such that it's seen as inconsiderate of other people's time not to be ready. As such, there's no need for Delay options.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I do find it annoying there is no form of delay.

My rogue has a familiar. For expediency we ruled familiars always go directly after their owner.

It would be perfect if I could delay until my familiar flies in with the help action, and then I could move, attack with advantage and get sneak attack, and then use my bonus action to disengage, and move back out.

But without delay, I cannot do that. I can move in and ready an action to attack once my familiar moves in and provides the help action, but I cannot then use my bonus action to disengage and finish my move back out.

Actually a good thing...

 

[Sword of Spirit]

Delay slowed down 3e for me, and the lack of it speeds up 5e for me. There are some times when you really want to do it, but overall I think the game works better without it as an option.

It would be perfect if I could delay until my familiar flies in with the help action, and then I could move, attack with advantage and get sneak attack, and then use my bonus action to disengage, and move back out.

Random question. While I recognize the inherent value of Advantage itself to your attack, do you really find you need Advantage very often to trigger your Sneak Attack? Of the two ways of getting Sneak Attack, I think the "flanking" version is the one that should be listed first, and the Advantage one second in the description, because I find it pretty rare that characters can't get Sneak Attack just by attacking someone that an ally is in melee with. I see people online talking about getting Advantage to enable Sneak Attack often enough, but it's just weird to me. Are people playing in parties without any melee characters, or is this just a concern about winning initiative on the first turn? In the latter case, rogues actually suffer less from Readying an attack than others since they don't lose Extra Attacks (though if they have an off-hand weapon they'd lose that attack). For Sneak Attack, just run up to the opponent and Ready an attack for when your ally comes within 5' of them.

 

[Mistwell]

Delay slowed down 3e for me, and the lack of it speeds up 5e for me. There are some times when you really want to do it, but overall I think the game works better without it as an option.



Random question. While I recognize the inherent value of Advantage itself to your attack, do you really find you need Advantage very often to trigger your Sneak Attack? Of the two ways of getting Sneak Attack, I think the "flanking" version is the one that should be listed first, and the Advantage one second in the description, because I find it pretty rare that characters can't get Sneak Attack just by attacking someone that an ally is in melee with. I see people online talking about getting Advantage to enable Sneak Attack often enough, but it's just weird to me. Are people playing in parties without any melee characters, or is this just a concern about winning initiative on the first turn? In the latter case, rogues actually suffer less from Readying an attack than others since they don't lose Extra Attacks (though if they have an off-hand weapon they'd lose that attack). For Sneak Attack, just run up to the opponent and Ready an attack for when your ally comes within 5' of them.

It's because rogues are squishy and do not want to stay in melee. So you need to use your bonus action to safely get out of there. But if you are using your bonus action for that, then you cannot use it for an off hand attack. Which means you are pouring everything into a single d20 roll. Getting advantage on that roll becomes important for that. Fighters, they can strike 2-5 times in a single round. Rogues...one.

 

[Fanaelialae]

This is a bit tangential, but an idea I had recently would be to give classes that gain extra attack the ability to forgo their extra attacks in order to perform a heavy attack that deals 1 weapon damage for each level of extra attack you have. So a character with extra attack 2 wielding a greataxe could ready an attack that deals 3d12 (plus modifiers) damage. Not quite as good as getting 3 attacks, but significantly better than 1. (This would also make Opportunity Attacks from warrior classes significantly more fearsome. )

 

[Eltab]

I like a house rule that you can Delay your turn on Round One only. When we get to the top of Round Two, the order is cast in stone for the rest of the encounter.

This lets the Rogue - if he thinks of it - delay until the Fighter moves up and hits something, then take his turn and double-team it.
It also lets me as DM do the same with the monsters. Why is that Kobold running over to the PCs all by himself to Cower Grovel and Beg? (Bwahahaha)

 

[Charlaquin]

I much prefer 5e’s lack of a delay action. It’s your turn, do something. If you can’t do anything, Ready to do something and pass so we can get on with the game.

 

[Charlaquin]

I like a house rule that you can Delay your turn on Round One only. When we get to the top of Round Two, the order is cast in stone for the rest of the encounter.

This lets the Rogue - if he thinks of it - delay until the Fighter moves up and hits something, then take his turn and double-team it.
It also lets me as DM do the same with the monsters. Why is that Kobold running over to the PCs all by himself to Cower Grovel and Beg? (Bwahahaha)

I Ready actions all the time when I play rogues. They tend to have high Inititative mods due to being Dex based, but benefit from acting after their allies are in position. Fortunately, they don’t rely on Extra Attack for their damage, so they don’t miss out much in DPR by Readying.

 

[Charlaquin]

Re: Help action familiars, I have them roll initiative if the player intends to use them in combat. My longstanding policy is that I won't harm your familiar - usually. But the second you have it do the Help action, it's got a target on its back and I will blast that thing given half a chance so I can put pressure on your time resources.

Hey, works for me a Familiar that draws a few attacks away from the PCs is an excellent use of those resources, if you ask me,

 

[iserith]

Hey, works for me a Familiar that draws a few attacks away from the PCs is an excellent use of those resources, if you ask me,

Depends on the possible damage averted versus what an hour means in context (or a spell slot).