RigaMortus
Explorer
A situation came up in last night's campaign where it was difficult to determine the order in which readied actions were to go off...
The initiative order was as such:
My initiative = 21
Kobold initiative = 18
Party Member 1 initiative = 12
Party Member 2 initiative = 11
Party Member 3 initiative = 10
Now here is the situation... Party member 3 had a cloth rag in which the Deeper Darkness spell was cast on it. The plan was for him to keep the Deeper Darkness cloth exposed so nobody was able to see. Then we would all "Ready" an action to attack when he put the cloth away, thus making it light again. We ruled that it would be a MEA to put the cloth away, then another MEA if he wanted to take it back out again.
So the plan worked at first... Everyone "Readied" their action so that once the light appeared, they would attack whatever kobolds were visible, then party member 3 would pull the cloth back out so the kobolds could not attack... After the first time it worked, the kobolds caught on and they too readied an action for the "coming of the light".
Since everyone's readied action went off, the new initiative was like so:
My initiative = 11
Kobold initiative = 18
Party Member 1 initiative = 11
Party Member 2 initiative = 11
Party Member 3 initiative = 10
Now round two... Everything goes light again... However, the kobolds were ready too, and thus the dilemna. Who goes first in the initiative chain? You could argue the kobolds go first because they had the higher initiative, but then again their new initiative would be an 11. I argued that I should go first since I had a higher Dex then the kobolds. Or do we go at the same time? If we go at the same time, what happens if I kill a kobold that would have normally hit me? Would he still hit me, or would that negate his attack?
Most importantly, is this even a legal representation of how "Ready" works? It seemed like a good plan at the time, and I could see from a non-roundbased combat situation where it would work. But technically the Ready would have to go off before the action that triggers it, which means before it goes light again. Then you have a paradox, because how would we know it is going to become light until it really is?
The initiative order was as such:
My initiative = 21
Kobold initiative = 18
Party Member 1 initiative = 12
Party Member 2 initiative = 11
Party Member 3 initiative = 10
Now here is the situation... Party member 3 had a cloth rag in which the Deeper Darkness spell was cast on it. The plan was for him to keep the Deeper Darkness cloth exposed so nobody was able to see. Then we would all "Ready" an action to attack when he put the cloth away, thus making it light again. We ruled that it would be a MEA to put the cloth away, then another MEA if he wanted to take it back out again.
So the plan worked at first... Everyone "Readied" their action so that once the light appeared, they would attack whatever kobolds were visible, then party member 3 would pull the cloth back out so the kobolds could not attack... After the first time it worked, the kobolds caught on and they too readied an action for the "coming of the light".
Since everyone's readied action went off, the new initiative was like so:
My initiative = 11
Kobold initiative = 18
Party Member 1 initiative = 11
Party Member 2 initiative = 11
Party Member 3 initiative = 10
Now round two... Everything goes light again... However, the kobolds were ready too, and thus the dilemna. Who goes first in the initiative chain? You could argue the kobolds go first because they had the higher initiative, but then again their new initiative would be an 11. I argued that I should go first since I had a higher Dex then the kobolds. Or do we go at the same time? If we go at the same time, what happens if I kill a kobold that would have normally hit me? Would he still hit me, or would that negate his attack?
Most importantly, is this even a legal representation of how "Ready" works? It seemed like a good plan at the time, and I could see from a non-roundbased combat situation where it would work. But technically the Ready would have to go off before the action that triggers it, which means before it goes light again. Then you have a paradox, because how would we know it is going to become light until it really is?