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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Felon" data-source="post: 2197235" data-attributes="member: 8158">Are you trying to assert that being deprived of your Dex bonus is some imperceptible, indistinguishable abstraction? If so, I pity the rogues in your campaign. Flat-foofedness is a game mechanic that represents an action concept. If characters can perceive the difference, it sounds like a suitable condition for readying an action to me.  I'm looking at the rules for readying an action, and there is not mention of a need to be highly specific with regards to the condition, nor that the condition need be some standard or move action. Regardless, this is a very specific and a very commonly-used condition. Freeze or I'll shoot. Stand perfectly still. Do not move a muscle or I'll blow you away. He stops being flat-footed even if he doesn't want to? That's pretty asinine. It's safe to say that people can remain in a still position and forego their Dexterity bonus if they choose to. Then again, this goes back to the rather obtuse assertion that it's just a mechanic with no physical correllary whatsoever. And allow me to add, if you possess some official authority on the rules that I'm unaware of, please state your qualifications. I do not dispute your knowledge of the RAW--your posts on the whole display that you are erudite in these matters--but your attitude that you are qualified to declare with absolute finality what isn't "specific" or "valid" is pretentious in the extreme. You are making a unliateral ruling on matters that are entirely subjective and argumentative. Really, the only rebuttal I needed here is "says you, Karinsdad".Unless there's some Sage Advice column I haven't read, then that's not a rule that's covered. Use initiative bonus? Use a random die roll? A combination of the two? It's hardly problematic (indeed, the lack of predictability in such a tense situation could be very entertaining). In this case, I submit that it isn't the rules that are inflexible, but rather your interpretation of them. I just provided a very simple, easily-implementable way to handle the scenario using the open-ended nature of the rules for readied actions, you went out of your way to dismiss it as unplayable. You did not find flaws of a practical nature, so you focused on conjectural issues. Indeed, asserting that characters cannot voluntarily remain flat-footed is highly impractical.EDIT--Having said all that, I should emphasize that I too am dealing in a very conjectural manner with how readied actions work. While your average "un-flat-footed" character is noticably on-guard, shifting his facing constantly and trying to keep an eye out in every direction against incoming attacks, a character that is surprised in the manner I illustrated above is probably being more subtle, and could conceivably appear to be complying while cautiously putting his guard up, which is why I added that a Sense Motive check opposed by Bluff would be an appropriate response.</blockquote>

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