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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 6609683" data-attributes="member: 1210">Here is a scenario to illustrate for you. The pcs are in a dungeon in which the inhabitants live near each other but don't back each other up- a not-atypical set up for a dungeon, frankly. Every combat, nearby enemies are alerted, which then all ready actions to attack intruders on sight and stay keyed up for quite a while- hours, probably. So every nearby monster has a readied action for intruders.But it gets worse. Every pc readies an action to attack whatever's in the room when the one guy without a readied action throws the door open. So suddenly, everyone in the combat has a readied action. Is this all simultaneous? Who goes in what order? You can sort that all out, of course, or rule how you like on it, but what's the point? Either you're just saying "Everyone roll for initiative" anyway, or it's all simultaneous and there's no first strike opportunity for anyone- and often, taking out one or more enemies before they can act is a huge part of pc success. When it gets to this ridiculous extreme- and there is absolutely no reason why it shouldn't if you allow readied actions off of initiative in the first place- it becomes self-defeating.Here are another couple of instances, which I mentioned upthread- constructs and undead. Smoo said:...which is true for most golems and for select undead. (It's hard to argue that a vampire or ghoul moves especially slowly.) But so what? The whole point of a readied action is to trump initiative. Golems on guard don't get bored, don't need to rest, and can essentially ready an action indefinitely- and they don't need to shamble on over anywhere if they stand by the door they're guarding. Undead are similar; no need to rest, and in some cases, they're bound to follow their master's instructions. "Be ready to attack any intruders that come through that arch!" Suddenly every undead guard ever absolutely ought to have a readied attack at all times. So should every golem ever. Why wouldn't you order it to, if it's on guard duty? No, I think it's better to stick to surprise and initiative, and in some cases to grant advantage on initiative. Obviously, YMMV, but I think the can of worms goes deep. "Ready" is a combat action, used when the group is acting on initiative, and I think it's a bad move to allow it outside of combat. It's possible that this is a playstyle thing- I don't claim to be objectively correct here, just to have a strong opinion that has held since 3e.</blockquote>

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