D&D 5E Common rules mistakes

[Rabbitbait]

You can use your reaction in the first round at any point in the first round (including before your turn). Unless you are surprised - then you can use your reaction after your turn passes (which you don't get to use), but still in the first round.

I can't post a reference sorry - I'm at work and should be working. Whoops, here comes the boss.

 

[damnbul]

Drinking from a tankard is considered part of interacting with an object during your movement, but drinking a potion requires an action to do.

I would say reason being that you are not only drinking the potion like the tankard, but you are receiving the healing as well. So it takes the action to drink it and receive the healing effects.

 

[Pvt. Winslow]

From what I can tell, this would rarely be an advantage for the wizard. I don't have my PHB in front of me, but I am unaware of any non-concentration spells getting disrupted. So, if a concentration spell goes off, very few of them actually adversely still affect the PC if the concentration is broken. For example, Hold Person just stops paralyzing the foe. Web doesn't even do anything until the start of the foes turn, so no difference there. Mordenkainen’s Sword and Witch Bolt are probably exceptions (since they would do damage right away), but the number of spells affected by losing concentration before casting as opposed to after casting is probably a very low number. Probably concentration spells that do damage right away are the main ones.

You know what, I actually didn't think of that. I guess I'm also guilty of being in a previous edition mindset where you had to do concentration checks any time you took damage during a round while you were trying to cast a spell. Huh... I guess spellcasters can still have it pretty rough when it comes to their spells being interrupted.

 

[SkidAce]

I imagine you can't do that. Even the Player's Handbook makes that clear:

"When the trigger occurs, you can either take your reaction right after the trigger finishes or ignore the trigger." (PHB, pg.193)

It's pretty clear that you have to wait until after the spell is cast. Only certain reactions have the ability to interrupt the action (like Opportunity Attacks), and it is usually spelled out in the description.

"My trigger is the magic user opens his mouth to speak"

- my players

 

[Superking]

Not all undead are vulnerable to Radiant damage type.

 

[Hussar]

Not too sure about that. Note that the Multiattack action (which loads and loads of monsters have, including NPCs) doesn't have this on-your-turn limitation and can be fully used on a Readied Action.

Thank you for answering this before I had a chance to ask. I was just wondering about that.

And thanks to Paraxis for clarifying. This came up in our last session, the enemy goblin rogue was hidden around the corner and readied an action for anyone who moved out. The DM gave him two attacks, which I see now was a mistake. Will know for next time.

 

[mach1.9pants]

"My trigger is the magic user opens his mouth to speak"

- my players

Magic users says " haha prepare to die" ouch takes an arrow then casts spell says my DM ( me) two can meta game

 

[miniaturehoarder]

"My trigger is the magic user opens his mouth to speak"

- my players

Then the caster is shot before the spell is cast and then casts the spell.

Oh and the section on longer casting times even calls out that if the act of casting is broken the spell stays unused and available.

When you cast a spell with a casting time longer than a single action or reaction... If your concentration is broken, the spell fails, but you don’t expend a spell slot.

 

[BoldItalic]

So does this sound accurate to tell my players to clarify the issue with all of us?

So, for example, orcs are charging through a door. The orcs have Initiative. Players go next. Elgweth's trigger is: "When an orc comes through the door, I fire an arrow." It is an action to Ready, and it triggers your "reaction", which you only get one per round (usually)

So the orc enters, and Elgweth fires after the trigger, then the orc finishes its move if still alive. Player's turn: well, Elgweth has already used his action and reaction for that round, but he has a move left if he wants to relocate.

Readying an Action in 5th edition does not change your Initiative order.

I'm still worried about this one. I know it's been answered, but there's something deeper. A confusion between rounds and turns stemming from an earlier edition, perhaps. Let's try to straighten things out.

PHB p,189 Sets out how initiative works. (If you don't have the PHB, it's on p.9 of the Starter Set rulebook or under Combat/The Order of Combat in the online Player's Basic Rules). It's not: "all of one side goes, then all of the other side goes". There are no "sides" as such; each creature is an individual participant.

On its turn, a creature decides what to do, then attempts to do it while all the other creatures wait. (They might react to what it does, but not until it is doing it). If it decides to forego its action to ready a (re)action instead, that's fine. The reaction may or may not occur sometime before its next turn (which would normally, but not necessarily, be in the next round). It's not :"Readied Actions are decided at the start of the round".

Indeed, nothing special at all happens at the starts or ends of rounds, except that initiative order rolls round to the top again. Rounds are not used for timing (except that some spells have a duration of 1 round - see below). There are no rules that say "at the start of then next round" or "until the end of the round". Rounds don't have that significance in 5e. Timings all work using turns, with phrases like "at the start of your next turn" or "until the end of your next turn" and so on. That means your individual turn, not some conjectural global turn. The only place the phrase "next round" occurs in the rules is where it says that the fight continues with the next round when everyone has had their turn.

Spells with a duration of 1 round last from the turn you cast them until your corresponding turn in the next round. During that period, every other creature will have had a turn, either later in the same round (if it has lower initiative than you) or earlier in the next round (if it has higher initiative than you) so it will have had one opportunity to resist or benefit from your spell.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

This makes a lot of sense to me. I suppose it's all in the wording. Even IF movement was an action (which the above posters have convinced me it is not, thank you for the explanations,) just stating "I'll shoot as soon as he moves 5ft closer to me" would be enough to shoot before he reaches you, as your Ready action would go off after he moves that 5ft. So this is all good to know.

I wonder if the biggest reason behind the wording in the DMG is to give a bit of a boon to spellcasters when they cast a spell? By making your Readied action occur after the triggering Action, you can no longer shoot a caster as he casts a spell, potentially ruining it. This is important to know, as there could be times a DM (one playing particularly savvy foes), might have five archers Ready actions to shoot the spellcaster if he casts a spell, which would force five separate Concentration checks. Now, the caster would complete the spell, then five arrows would come his way. Equally scary, but perhaps less frustrating?

Well, you could ready an action to shoot him "as soon as he opens his gawping mouth." Same effect except that it happens before the spell goes off, unless the spell has no verbal components.