Ready action FAQ?

[Grog]

Has anyone written a FAQ for the ready action? While the PHB is clear as to what types of actions you can ready, it seems very vague as to what conditions you can set for your actions to go off.

For example, I know I could ready an action to shoot the first enemy I see with a bow.

Could I ready an action to shoot the first wizard I see with a bow?

Could I ready an action to shoot the first human wizard I see with a bow?

Could I ready an action to shoot the first human wizard wearing a green shirt I see with a bow?

How specific can I get with the conditions?

Also, can you only ready an action after initative is rolled? For example, say I'm in a room, and I know someone will be coming through the door at some point in the future. I ready an action to shoot the first person I see as soon as the door opens. Would my action go off right after the door opened, before initative was rolled?

 

[Jaxom]

I guess the more specific your descrition is for the ready action the less chance you have of taking the action on the wrong opponent. If you went as far as to mention the wizard dressed like... I would require a spot check at a DC determined by how many targets your looking at and any cover the targets may have.

As for the readying an action to shoot someone coming through a door, I would allow it as long as that's all you were doing in the room, and when someone did step in I'd give you a free partial (surprise round) action. If you're searching the room as well then I'd require Listen and Spot checks (modified by wether or not you're expecting someone to come through that door) to avoid surprise and then go straight into the surprise round.

 

[dkilgo]

The more in depth the description of the trigger of your readied action, the less likely your DM could counter on the fly.

 

[Zad]

Has anyone written a FAQ for the ready action?

Not that I've ever seen.

For example, I know I could ready an action to shoot the first enemy I see with a bow.

Yes

Could I ready an action to shoot the first wizard I see with a bow?

How do you know that's a wizard? If all wizards in your campaign wear pointy hats, then sure. If a guy walks through in armor, ok he's probably not a wizard. I would say the key here is recognition, and that's not something the system will deal with. That's up to your DM, so no FAQ can help.

Could I ready an action to shoot the first human wizard I see with a bow?

See above. Assuming you can recognize him as a wizard, and you're reasonably close, then sure.

Could I ready an action to shoot the first human wizard wearing a green shirt I see with a bow?

Seems silly, but I can't see why not.

How specific can I get with the conditions?

I don't think this is a "rules" issue that can be answered by FAQ - it's up to your DM and the circumstances.

Also, can you only ready an action after initative is rolled?

Readying an action is an action itself. Therefore you must have an action, therefore you must have already rolled initiative.

For example, say I'm in a room, and I know someone will be coming through the door at some point in the future. I ready an action to shoot the first person I see as soon as the door opens. Would my action go off right after the door opened, before initative was rolled?

It's called "the surprise round".

Person walks in, and assuming they didn't know you're there, you're in surprise round. You can act, they can't. Then you move to normal combat.

 

[0-hr]

It's important to NOT start combat rounds until the appropriate time; ie. when someone is within one action of being able to damage or effect an enemy and both sides have a chance to perceive the opponents. Otherwise the game mechanics get really wonky (especially with regards to ready actions).

Anyway, you can't ready before you roll initiative, and you can't roll initiative until the other side has a chance to roll as well.

 

[Lucius Foxhound]

We've struggled with this as well. You can't ready an action out of combat. So technically, readied actions cannot take place during a surprise round... since you would have had to ready that action before combat began.

My head hurts...

 

[jlhorner1974]

Expanding on what Ki Ryn said, remember that readying an action itself a standard action, so you cannot ready an action in the surprise round (since you only get a partial action in the surprise round). You have to wait until your turn in the first normal round of combat in order to ready an action.

If combat has not yet begun, you cannot assure that you will act before someone else unless you can surprise them. Initiative and readying are meaningless outside of combat, as Ki Ryn is hinting at. Initiative means "when combat begins or two people want to do something at the same time, what order do they act in?". If combat has not begun, initiative is meaningless. Surprise is the one exception to the timing/order rules. If you are not in combat, time is not usually measured in rounds, so the whole readying mechanic doesn't work so well. If it did, everyone would be allowed to "ready an attack against the first monster I see" for hours and completely trump the initiative system altogether. (Try to figure out who goes first in THAT case without rolling initiative.)

As an aside, look at the rules about initiative in the DMG though. If a fight is going on and new participants enter, it is up to the DM to decide if the existing group becomes aware of the other first, or vice versa.

IIRC, if the new group is aware first, they all go before the existing group in initiative order (each of them goes in order of their Dex scores). If the existing group is aware of the new group first, the new group all goes last in the initiative order (again, in order of their Dex scores). If both groups notice each other about the same time, the new group rolls initiative and each member gets inserted into the initiative order, according to their roll.

I don't have the DMG in front of me, so please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[Artoomis]

Expanding on what Ki Ryn said, remember that readying an action itself a standard action, so you cannot ready an action in the surprise round (since you only get a partial action in the surprise round). You have to wait until your turn in the first normal round of combat in order to ready an action...

Not true. You may ready an action as a partial action - but you don't get to move as well, as you would with a standard action.

 

[Pielorinho]

Readied actions can get really wonky. I can't think of the Big Evil example I came up with in the rules forum a few months ago, but I remember that it was Big and Evil, and basically demonstrated that sometimes a readied action must go off slightly after the triggering event, instead of before it. This is a matter of DM common sense and should be used when necessary.

In the case of the "shoot the first person through the door," you're correc tthat his can't be a readied action if y'all are not in initiative order. However, if Bob knows that you're in the room, but he doesn't know that you've got an arrow pointed at the door (or a spell aimed at the door, or that you're standing by the door with your sword raised), I'd give you a surprise round against him. This is in spite of the fact that he knows he'll encounter you on entering the room: he just doesn't realize how quickly he'll encounter you.

If, on the other hand, he's prepared for an immediate attack, you won't get a surprise round. This represents his throwing the door open and stepping to the side to avoid your arrow, or his dashing sideways through the door, or something like that.

Daniel

 

[Grog]

Okay, consider this example. Thag and Thog are two orcs defending a room in a dungeon. They know the PCs are coming. There's no door to this room - the hallway just opens into it. Thag stands right by the entrance (where he can't be seen from the hallway) and readies an action to hit the first PC through with his greataxe. Thog stands a ways back from the entrance, in a straight line so he can see down the hallway, and readies an action to fire his longbow at the first target he sees.

The party comes down the hallway. They see Thog and he sees them at about the same time. Thog's readied action goes off and he shoots the lead PC.

Then, the PCs roll initative to determine the order they go on. Thag doesn't roll initative because he still has his readied action. And Thog doesn't roll because his action just went off, so he can't go again until all the PCs have gone. Is this right?

Say the lead fighter wins initative, and he decides to charge Thog. As soon as he enters the room, Thag's readied action goes off and he hits the fighter with his greataxe. The fighter is still charging, so Thag gets an AoO on him as he leaves the threatened square right in front of the entrance, and he hits him with his greataxe again. If he survives, the fighter can then complete his charge against Thog.

And then, the rest of the party knows about Thag, no one has any more readied actions, and so combat would proceed normally.

Is that how things would work, given the above example?