Cancel a ready action,,,HELP

[alanbrain]

Hi
I have never asked someone about rules but there has been little trouble in my campaign around this situation. Please give me some light here.

This is the scenario, dragon, wizard1,wizard2 and 5 other characters around.
Dragon has his leg over wizard2. Wizard 1 is 20 feet away from Dragon, and being first in the initiative roll,declared a ready action against the dragon breath weapon, he says if the dragon start using his breath weapon I will cast,then in the same round later, wizard2, under the dragon leg cast a spell with only verbal component, wail of the banshee(lev9),the wail of the banshee will affect all the characters in the area including dragon and wizard1, so, wizard1 declares a counterspell using the same spell wail of the banshee. Wizard1 have the reactive counterspell feat, that allow him to counterspell even if he havent ready an action to counter,(REACTIVE COUNTERSPELL FROM THE MAGIC OF FAERUN) but in this situation, wizard1 have already declared another ready action against the dragon, so the question is
¿Can wizard1 cancel the ready action and make the counterspell with this feat?
Thanks for your time
Alan Brain

 

[Thanee]

Sure, why not. That's the point of the feat, that you can use it, even if you did not specifically ready for it. The ready action doesn't really matter.

Bye
Thanee

 

[alanbrain]

But isnt a ready action a rule that is over the feat?
Because readying an action against something is big deal, so It wil make this feat very powerful, because even when the character would be in ready action against another foe, he can counterspell if he wants.Also the feat doesnt says that the character can cancel his another ready action, What do you think?

 

[Peter Gibbons]

But isnt a ready action a rule that is over the feat?
Because readying an action against something is big deal, so It wil make this feat very powerful, because even when the character would be in ready action against another foe, he can counterspell if he wants.Also the feat doesnt says that the character can cancel his another ready action, What do you think?

There's a slight conceptual problem with the scenario you've described, because the Reactive Counterspell feat doesn't let you "cancel" actions; it simply allows you to cast a counterspell before your regularly scheduled turn. Strictly speaking, wizard1 would get to counterspell the wail of the banshee spell and continue readying an action triggered on the dragon breathing.

This would mean that if the dragon breathed, wizard1's place in the initiative order would drop to just before the dragon, but on his next turn, he would not get to act (because he's already "used up" that turn on the reactive counterspell). If the dragon didn't breathe before wizard1's next turn in the original initiative order, wizard1's place in the order wouldn't change, but he'd still be unable to act on that turn (because his turn would still have been "used up").

Now, for the sake of simplicity, you could simply allow wizard1 to "swap" the wail-counterspell for his original readied action (and not have to give up his next turn), but that would be an ad hoc ruling by the DM. Such a ruling would not (IMO) make the feat unjustifiably powerful.

Ready actions are not a "big deal," so you shouldn't worry about them any more than you do Sunders, Disarms, or Total Defense actions (for example). Except where specifically noted, they follow all the same rules as any other standard action.