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<blockquote data-quote="Arial Black" data-source="post: 6682393" data-attributes="member: 6799649"><p>In 5E the full name of 'Actions' is actually 'Actions In Combat'. To organise the things that every combatant wants to do at the same time, we have Initiative Order, Turns, and Actions In Combat. In order to do stuff during combat rounds, you absolutely need permission by taking the appropriate Action In Combat, and doing so allows you to do stuff related to that particular Action In Combat from the moment you take that action until the end of your turn.</p><p></p><p>Outside of combat rounds, you don't need to take an Action In Combat to do stuff, you just Do Stuff.</p><p></p><p>The Ready Action In Combat does not represent Doing Stuff. It represents Doing Stuff Later In The Combat Round. It therefore has no existence (and no need for existence) outside of Combat Rounds, and you just inform the DM <em>when</em> you Do Your Stuff in relation to the Other Stuff that is happening.</p><p></p><p>If you make the mistake of allowing the Ready Action In Combat outside of Combat Rounds, then you'll run into the same trouble as MC.0 did in players declaring Readied Actions for every single six seconds of their existence in a bid to ALWAYS go first.</p><p></p><p>A similar problem is created whenever you allow players to declare that their PCs are ALWAYS 'ready for trouble' and therefore can never be Surprised!</p><p></p><p>Think of it this way: if it <em>were</em> possible to Ready Actions In Combat outside of Combat rounds, then the bad guys would do it too! Both sides would have declared (as soon as they finished breakfast) that they had a Readied Action to shoot/blast/enspell/eviscerate the first enemy that hoves into view. Since they <em>all</em> have readied attacks, in which order are they resolved? Roll initiative?</p><p></p><p><strong>This</strong> is how the game works here: initiative resolves the order in which turns are resolved, based on how fast they react to the threat. Initiative does not help you <em>notice</em> the threat, but once you do notice it then initiative measures how fast you react to it.</p><p></p><p>'Surprised' creatures are slow to go from 'not doing anything, including being ready to dodge attacks' to 'being ready to dodge attacks'. That's why they can suffer auto-crits when they are not ready, but can't when they are. Houdini could take a punch to the stomach when he was ready, but died as a result of a surprise punch to that same gut; that's why the surprise rules interact with the initiative rules in the way that they do.</p><p></p><p>This is why something that is detected by Perception or Insight or whatever affects what you can or cannot do when your turn comes up in the initiative order, but your place in the initiative order does not affect what you detect.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Arial Black, post: 6682393, member: 6799649"] In 5E the full name of 'Actions' is actually 'Actions In Combat'. To organise the things that every combatant wants to do at the same time, we have Initiative Order, Turns, and Actions In Combat. In order to do stuff during combat rounds, you absolutely need permission by taking the appropriate Action In Combat, and doing so allows you to do stuff related to that particular Action In Combat from the moment you take that action until the end of your turn. Outside of combat rounds, you don't need to take an Action In Combat to do stuff, you just Do Stuff. The Ready Action In Combat does not represent Doing Stuff. It represents Doing Stuff Later In The Combat Round. It therefore has no existence (and no need for existence) outside of Combat Rounds, and you just inform the DM [I]when[/I] you Do Your Stuff in relation to the Other Stuff that is happening. If you make the mistake of allowing the Ready Action In Combat outside of Combat Rounds, then you'll run into the same trouble as MC.0 did in players declaring Readied Actions for every single six seconds of their existence in a bid to ALWAYS go first. A similar problem is created whenever you allow players to declare that their PCs are ALWAYS 'ready for trouble' and therefore can never be Surprised! Think of it this way: if it [I]were[/I] possible to Ready Actions In Combat outside of Combat rounds, then the bad guys would do it too! Both sides would have declared (as soon as they finished breakfast) that they had a Readied Action to shoot/blast/enspell/eviscerate the first enemy that hoves into view. Since they [I]all[/I] have readied attacks, in which order are they resolved? Roll initiative? [b]This[/b] is how the game works here: initiative resolves the order in which turns are resolved, based on how fast they react to the threat. Initiative does not help you [I]notice[/I] the threat, but once you do notice it then initiative measures how fast you react to it. 'Surprised' creatures are slow to go from 'not doing anything, including being ready to dodge attacks' to 'being ready to dodge attacks'. That's why they can suffer auto-crits when they are not ready, but can't when they are. Houdini could take a punch to the stomach when he was ready, but died as a result of a surprise punch to that same gut; that's why the surprise rules interact with the initiative rules in the way that they do. This is why something that is detected by Perception or Insight or whatever affects what you can or cannot do when your turn comes up in the initiative order, but your place in the initiative order does not affect what you detect. [/QUOTE]
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