Does anyone 'ready' much?

[radmod]

A few weeks ago, I readied a spell against an opposing spellcaster so that when he began to cast I disrupted the spell. I did the same thing the next round (since my init would be automatically higher and I was certain of what he was going to do). This really freaked out the DM. Probably because he's use to his group of old-2e players and isn't used to people taking readied actions. This got me thinking of all the times as a DM I've used readied actions, but, for the most part, I rarely see them used by players.

So, do y'all see people take ready actions that much?

 

[Jhaelen]

So, do y'all see people take ready actions that much?

All the time! There are all kinds of situations where it's the best you can do. Readying spells to disrupt spell casters is usually not among them, though, unless they're blinking/teleporting/invisible, etc. but then the trigger is not the spellcasting but being able to target the spellcaster.

 

[HoboGod]

When DMing, I encourage my players to ready actions, otherwise they often forget and just waste their actions on crappy choices. However, my players surprise me every now and use readied actions quite nicely. I gave some fish men swim-by attack and they would swim to the water's edge, throw javelin's at the players, and swim back under. This was a ploy to lure the adventurers underwater, but instead they readied action to volley arrows and fireballs the very instant the fish men swam to the surface.

As a player, it depends what kind of character I've built. If I'm playing a wizard, I like to ready action to cast area effects in front of the party as the enemy charges, ensuring that the enemy keeps a distance or takes crippling affects. As a rogue, I'll ready action with another player until we have flanking. As a cleric, I'll ready action to heal an injured ally. As the beatstick, not so much unless I'm using sunder.

 

[Magesmiley]

From what I've seen, it depends a lot on the player.

Less experienced players will often just delay rather than using a ready action, which doesn't usually get them the effect that they are after. Players in my games who are more comfortable with how the rules work often use the ready action when it is appropriate.

The ready action actually is fairly powerful if used right, and as was already noted, disrupting spells is quite often more potent than casting your own.

 

[radmod]

However, my players surprise me every now and use readied actions quite nicely. I gave some fish men swim-by attack and they would swim to the water's edge, throw javelin's at the players, and swim back under. This was a ploy to lure the adventurers underwater, but instead they readied action to volley arrows and fireballs the very instant the fish men swam to the surface.

This is a perfect example of what makes me shake my head at some PCs I've seen. I've had flying creatures use adroit fly-by attacks against land-locked PCs. The big damage Barb, instead of readying against the fly-by, would choose instead to do relatively paltry damage with a bow. The cleric with no real distance attack spells simply tried to find cover. The monsters had relatively easy AC and low hps but they severely damaged the party (despite my occasional hint about readying).
A PC was testing me once and would spring attack me. Rather than chase him down and severely hurt him, I readied against the attack. This shocked the beejezus out of him, because he thought spring attack was the end all be all and no one had ever done that to him before.

 

[Sorry_Charry]

...I did the same thing the next round (since my init would be automatically higher and I was certain of what he was going to do).

Did you mean that against that particular opponent you would always go first? Or did you mean that by readying an action to distract any spellcaster... that you would always be able to go first?

Once you take your readied action, your initiative count drops to the count of the action that triggered it. So, if you and the opposing mage had inits of 10 (for example) on the round after you interrupted a casting... the character with the highest initiative modifier (or the result of another initiative roll, in the case of a tie) would go first.

 

[Jeff Wilder]

Once you take your readied action, your initiative count drops to the count of the action that triggered it.

When one character uses a Readied action to interrupt another character, the interrupting character is always placed immediately before the other character in the initiative order. There's no roll-off or anything.

 

[irdeggman]

Our group uses readied actions frequently.

Hold less often but still used.

 

[Sorry_Charry]

When one character uses a Readied action to interrupt another character, the interrupting character is always placed immediately before the other character in the initiative order. There's no roll-off or anything.

Is that how it should work, or are you citing a rule in the PHB/FAQ/some other source? As far as I can tell, when initiatives are tied, the init mods are used to determine order.

 

[Jack Simth]

Is that how it should work, or are you citing a rule in the PHB/FAQ/some other source? As far as I can tell, when initiatives are tied, the init mods are used to determine order.

Ready an Action:

Your initiative result changes. For the rest of the encounter, your initiative result is the count on which you took the readied action, and you act immediately ahead of the character whose action triggered your readied action.

There you go.