Readied Action vs Readied Action

[Lord Zardoz]

Secondary question resulting from something that occurred to me in this thread:

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=217552

Consider this situation.

Bob casts a lightningbolt spell.
Tim has a readied action to cast a Silence spell as soon as Bob starts to cast a spell.
Xaxos has a readied partial charge action to charge Tim the moment tim casts anything.

Will Tim be charged by Xaxos before he can cast Silence?

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[Maleketh]

Partial charges don't exist in 3.5, so I'd say that no, Tim won't be charged.

If, however, Xaxos had readied an attack action, my understanding of the rules is that it would go off before the silence, potentially ruining Tim's concentration.

 

[akbearfoot]

Ditto on the no partial charges thing...except on a surprise round which apparently is allowed as per the rules compendium.

I'd say last in first out regarding multiple readied actions though. That's the simplest way to handle it imo. I doubt it is spelled out in the rules anywhere. Obviously they can't happen at exactly the same time, so whoever was originally closest to the initiative that invoked the action should go first.

 

[Deset Gled]

When two players have actions readied on the same instance, I would rule that the player with the higher Dex score goes first, with a roll to break ties. This is (IMO) most consistent with the rules for determining initiative.

If one readied action prevents the event from happening, the second player's readied action is lost. Careful wording can be used to avoid this, though.

 

[Artoomis]

Assuming the charge was legal (as in 3.0) and successfully disrupted the Silence spell, then the Silence spell is wasted and the Lightning Bolt goes off.

It has to be this way because the triggers work in that order.

Now if two PCs readied actions based upon the same trigger, I'd use the rule that the higher dexterity goes first.

 

[blargney the second]

If multiple readied actions trigger on the same event, I'd have them roll initiative checks to see whose goes off first.

If they're chained like in the OP, then whoever readied the last item in the chain would go first.

 

[mvincent]

Ditto on the no partial charges thing...except on a surprise round which apparently is allowed as per the rules compendium.

To clarify: you cannot ready a charge.

Yes, there is a glitch in the rules that could lead one to interpret the rules as allowing one to ready a charge if one were slowed, in the surprise round, a zombie etc., but that is just a glitch (and not the intent).

 

[mvincent]

If multiple readied actions trigger on the same event, I'd have them roll initiative checks to see whose goes off first.

If they're chained like in the OP, then whoever readied the last item in the chain would go first.

I agree.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Bob casts a lightningbolt spell.
Tim has a readied action to cast a Silence spell as soon as Bob starts to cast a spell.
Xaxos has a readied partial charge action to charge Bob the moment bob casts anything.

Will Tim be charged by Xaxos before he can cast Silence?

No, because Xaxos apparently screwed up his readied action - he's readying versus Bob, not Tim.

So assuming Xaxos's action is incorrect, and assuming an Attack action rather than a Charge action to get around the can't-ready-a-Charge problem (Tim and Bob are both casting defensively, thus the Readied action is required to disrupt the spell), it should either be:
A. Xaxos has a readied attack action to attack Tim the moment Bob casts anything, or
B. Xaxos has a readied attack action to attack Tim the moment Tim casts anything.

In case B, the actions are resolved Xaxos, Tim, Bob. Bob's action triggers Tim's action, Tim's action triggers Xaxos' action. No problem.

In case A, we have a problem, because Bob's action triggers both Tim's and Xaxos' actions. In this case, I would not require a separate initiative roll - the 'roll' has been determined by the rules of Ready (just before Bob's initiative). So rather, I'd use the rule for resolving a tie - not highest Dexterity modifier, but rather highest Initiative modifier. Only in the case where Tim and Xaxos have identical Initiative modifiers would I require a roll-off.

-Hyp.

 

[Lord Zardoz]

yeah, I screwed up the question. I will edit it.

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