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

[Tallifer]

As I understand it, you cannot delay your turn in the initiative order in 5E (unlike in 4E). Instead you can only ready one action (which means you lose the other actions; and if the trigger does not occur, you also lose the readied action).

Is my understanding correct?

And if so, why did 5E get rid of delaying your turn in the initiative order?

 

[Fenris-77]

That sounds right. I'm not sure why it got axed, but I pit it back into my game right quick.

 

[iserith]

You can still move and take a bonus action, if it's not reliant on you taking a specific action (e.g. Attack action), before taking the Ready action. But otherwise, you are correct. Be sure to check out what it means to Ready to Cast a Spell as well (PHB, p. 193).

I feel like I used to know the reason why you can't delay in this edition, but I've forgotten. I haven't missed it.

 

[DND_Reborn]

Like @iserith said, you can still move and take a bonus action on your turn when taking the Ready action (and using your reaction if the trigger specified during the ready action happens).

And do be very careful with spells, because they are actually cast on your turn, even when you use the Ready action. Instead of being "released" on your turn, you are holding them to release to the triggering event. And yes, if the triggering event never happens, the spell (and corresponding spell slot) are both "lost."

FWIW, we also house-rule you can move as part of the readied action (like if you want to move and attack a target for a ready action) if you want to.

As I understand it, they found too many instances of people delaying their turns and slowing the game down, but I could be wrong.

 

[BluejayJunior]

Yeah, I think it was to help speed up play and keep turn order consistent, rather than changing things up and trying to remember changes. Also to prevent people from gaming it in order to keep buffs or other spells up longer than they should by moving to a lower initiative order.

 

[Oofta]

Yep, same things as others have said. I don't think it breaks anything if you allow delays as long as you have a good way of tracking initiative. I use laminated index cards (I write notes on them) myself.

The other thing I've seen DMs differ on in addition to being able to move/bonus action on your turn is whether you still get a regular attack action.

I rule that you do, but the wording in the PHB is: "you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn."

I rule that the fighter gets all their attacks and can even action surge. It almost never comes up though.

 

[Mistwell]

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.

 

[Fanaelialae]

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.

Since this is the result of a house rule, you could easily just change it so that familiars go either immediately before or after their owner. It's basically just as expedient.

 

[BookTenTiger]

Yes, I believe the intention was to speed up combat. When Delay is a choice, it vastly increases the decisions you make because you are balancing what you could do now versus what you could do in the future. Without delay, you are stuck in the present.

 

[jayoungr]

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.

Is it possible that the house rule was set up the way it was deliberately to prevent you from doing that? If so ... sounds like your group needs to have a talk.