Ready Action: The Aftermath

[Three_Haligonians]

So I was thinking about readied actions,

Pg. 160 of the PHB tells me that, if my readied action is triggered by another character's turn, I interrupt them. Then after I am done, he can continue assuming that my action has not made him incapable of doing so.

But what if I have? How much of -his- turn can I mess with? Somethings seem straightforward;

Ranger readies to shoot Wizard if he casts. Wizard does, takes an arrow in the eye and now must make a Concentration check to keep casting. If he fails, what else can he do that round? Is a "wasted action" a kind of action? If Wizard was casting magic missile (or any other standard action spell) and looses it to the Ranger, it stands to reason that his standard action is lost, but he still has a move available.. right? What if it was a full-round casting time, or a one round casting time, does Wizard B lose his whole turn?

What about this one? Rogue and Barbarian start combat 30ft apart. Rogue readies an action, "If Barbarian charges me, once he moves 5ft in I close 25ft." Rogue then gets lucky because Barbarian does charge - what happens to the rest of Barbarian's turn? He can no longer charge because he cannot cover the requisite 10ft of distance, but he's already started because he moved 5ft. Can he change his action? or is his turn lost?

Last example. Fighter A squares off against Fighter B. A readies an action, "If B attacks, I will trip him." B attacks, so A trips and wins. From what I can gather, the attack will still be made by B, just now it has the -4 for being prone. If B used the standard action "attack" then he could use his move to stand up again right. If he used the full-attack action, he could still decide to give up the rest of his attacks to stand up, or he could continue them all (each with the -4). Am I right on these options? Lastly, what if Fighter A readied "If B attacks twice, I will trip him." How many options would Fighter B have then (again, assuming a successful trip attempt).

Whew, I sure hope I was clear enough there

J from Three Haligonians

 

[mvincent]

What if it was a full-round casting time, or a one round casting time, does Wizard B lose his whole turn?

Precedence seems to indicate that only a standard action is lost. The caster can use the remaining part of his turn.

what happens to the rest of Barbarian's turn?

It appears that only the equivalent of a move action was interrupted here. The barbarian should still have the rest of his move action and a standard action remaining (or he could even continue with the charge if another target met the conditions). The AC penalty for charging would apply when the barbarian was interrupted, but likely not afterwards (unless the barbarian managed to continue a charge).

This sort of "chargus interruptus" is common when charging someone with a reach, trip weapon.

Fighter A squares off against Fighter B. A readies an action, "If B attacks, I will trip him." B attacks, so A trips and wins. From what I can gather, the attack will still be made by B

No, fighter B can decide what he wishes to do. He still has the rest of his turn remaining (i.e. the attack effectively never occured if it was preempted by the trip).

 

[Vegepygmy]

FWIW, here are my answers:

Ranger readies to shoot Wizard if he casts.

Standard action is lost, wizard still has a move action available. If it's a full or one-round casting time, wizard loses the rest of his turn (except for a possible 5-foot step).

Rogue readies an action, "If Barbarian charges me, once he moves 5ft in I close 25ft."

Barbarian began a charge and was interrupted, charging is a full-round action, so Barbarian's turn is over.

A readies an action, "If B attacks, I will trip him."

B can make his attack (at -4) or not, but either way, he "uses up" his standard action. He has a move action remaining, which he can use to stand up if he wants. If A declared a full attack, he still has the option of giving up the rest of his attacks and taking a move action instead. If B attacks twice and A interrupts on the second attack, B can make his second attack (at -4) or not, but either way, he "uses up" his full-round action.