Level Up (A5E) No explanation for what a Reaction is in the AG

[lichmaster]

We're about to start a new campaign using LU, there is one new player and they're all new to LU.
One of them started asking some questions about reactions, and I realized that "what a reaction is" is never mentioned in the AG (or at least I spectacularly failed at searching). Same for the SRD on A5E.tools.
There's tons of combat maneuvers and features that require to use a reaction and there's even a mention of using reactions Off your turn (in the Turn Order section), but again, never is explained what a reaction is or how it should work in general.
This is also partially referring to an older thread

I know how reactions are supposed to work (or at least I think I do), but that comes from 5e, which has a specific paragraph in the Combat chapter.

Am I losing it?

 

[Toan Li]

On page 438, it spells out basic action economy, mentioning an action, a bonus action, and free actions on your turn and a reaction at any time. I don't see it get into specifics, like when your reaction returns. Top of a round or turn is a debate I've seen.

Opportunity attacks are explained on 446, which is the only reaction available to everyone. But it took some looking, so I understand how it would confuse someone new.
However, I have just noticed it looks like opportunity attacks just have to be a melee attack. It doesn't specify weapon. As written a melee spell attack could be made.

 

[Corinnguard]

We're about to start a new campaign using LU, there is one new player and they're all new to LU.
One of them started asking some questions about reactions, and I realized that "what a reaction is" is never mentioned in the AG (or at least I spectacularly failed at searching). Same for the SRD on A5E.tools.
There's tons of combat maneuvers and features that require to use a reaction and there's even a mention of using reactions Off your turn (in the Turn Order section), but again, never is explained what a reaction is or how it should work in general.
This is also partially referring to an older thread

I know how reactions are supposed to work (or at least I think I do), but that comes from 5e, which has a specific paragraph in the Combat chapter.

Am I losing it?

You aren't losing it. I also looked around the Adventurers' Guide for anything that defined what a reaction is. I looked through the chapter on Combat and I looked through the index. Like you I didn't come across anything that mentioned what a reaction was even though I too am familiar with the term and how it works.

That said, there is nothing in the Adventurers' Guide that defines what an Action or a Bonus Action happens to be either. The book just mentions what you can do with your Action and Bonus Action in a turn-based economy.

I think the absence of what an Action, a Bonus Action or a Reaction is in Level Up is due to an assumption that if you have played 5e before as either a narrator or as a player, you already have an idea of what they are. Thus, there is no need to remind you of what they are. The book doesn't take into account anyone who hasn't played 5e before. The task of telling such players the definitions of these terms then falls to the narrator.

Does Level Up have a Starter Set for players who are new to it and 5e? If it does, then I suspect that's where you would probably find the answer to what a reaction is. I bet that the starter set for 5e also has the answer to what a reaction is.

 

[lichmaster]

On page 438, it spells out basic action economy, mentioning an action, a bonus action, and free actions on your turn and a reaction at any time. I don't see it get into specifics, like when your reaction returns. Top of a round or turn is a debate I've seen.

That's where I looked and where it's mentioned, but there's no actual definition of a reaction.

Opportunity attacks are explained on 446, which is the only reaction available to everyone. But it took some looking, so I understand how it would confuse someone new.

I'm not confused about reaction per se, but I'm quite surprised they're not actually defined anywhere in the book, although there's plenty of spells and combat maneuvers that require a reaction.

However, I have just noticed it looks like opportunity attacks just have to be a melee attack. It doesn't specify weapon. As written a melee spell attack could be made.

I don't think that's possible, unless somehow one already has the spell active (eg because it lasts more than one round).

 

[noodohs]

I believe reaction is not explicitly defined on purpose, because every reaction is a little different. The details of what a specific reaction is are always spelled out in the description of the thing that does it. I'm pretty sure there's an older thread here about this, but I'm on my phone right now so I don't really feel like digging for it.

 

[lichmaster]

That said, there is nothing in the Adventurers' Guide that defines what an Action or a Bonus Action happens to be either. The book just mentions what you can do with your Action and Bonus Action in a turn-based economy.

Exactly. I was expecting to find loose definitions of actions/bonus actions/reactions somewhere in the combat chapter.

I think the absence of what an Action, a Bonus Action or a Reaction is in Level Up is due to an assumption that if you have played 5e before as either a narrator or as a player, you already have an idea of what they are. Thus, there is no need to remind you of what they are.

I don't really agree, as standard stuff like advantage/disadvantage is explained, as well as how to make attacks, saves, ability checks etc.

The book doesn't take into account anyone who hasn't played 5e before. The task of telling such players the definitions of these terms then falls to the narrator.

Although the assumption that most people play LU after having played 5e is reasonable, I don't think that LU actually does so.

Does Level Up have a Starter Set for players who are new to it and 5e? If it does, then I suspect that's where you would probably find the answer to what a reaction is. I bet that the starter set for 5e also has the answer to what a reaction is.

LU has a Starter Set. I'll check if reactions are defined there, but for me it would be super weird if there were something that's defined in the Starter Set but not in any of the core books

 

[Reynard]

I wonder if it is also missing from the 5.1 SRD and that is why.

 

[Corinnguard]

I did check out the 5.5 PHB to see if it could answer what a reaction is (and what an Action and a Bonus Action are). The answer is both on page 15 and in that book's glossary. It's pretty much what most players and narrators already expected.

 

[Corinnguard]

I believe reaction is not explicitly defined on purpose, because every reaction is a little different. The details of what a specific reaction is are always spelled out in the description of the thing that does it. I'm pretty sure there's an older thread here about this, but I'm on my phone right now so I don't really feel like digging for it.

While Action isn't also explicitly defined on purpose, both D&D and Level Up do present a list of what you can do with it. As for Bonus Action, it can use anything on the Action list when your character gets a particular class/subclass feature plus anything that doesn't require an Action. It's sort of like Extra Attack. I am amused at the moment that it wasn't called Extra Action when the idea for an additional Action arose in 5e.

 

[noodohs]

Right, but you can't really make a list of possible reactions very effectively as some reactions are spells, some are maneuvers, some are attacks, etc. A reaction can be anything, hence why it is not specifically defined.