Ready Actions

[KerlanRayne]

Say I have a Resilient Sphere up to buff and my opponent stands outside with a readied action to attack once I'm out. I then ready an attack and drop the sphere. Which attack goes off first? Would it go by Initiative? What if it was a tie?

KerlanRayne

 

[Fieari]

Haha! That's amusing... I just had nearly an IDENTICAL situation pop up a little while ago, but I asked on IRC, not here.

The answer is that the rules don't clearly define what to do. But here are some options:

A) Have the effects go off at the same time. This isn't exactly allowed for in the rules, but it can work. In my situation, it was a dragon readying a breath weapon, and a wizard with a disintegrate... so the wizard got toasted and the dragon turned to dust. Both happened at the same time.

B) Base it on who readied the action first. In my situation, it went like this--
Turn #1: Dragon does stuff. Wizard1 puts up wall of force, Wizard2 readies action for disintegrate. Turn #2: Dragon readies breath weapon to blast the wizards when the wall of force drops. Thus, Wizard goes first, then the dragon.

This seems to be more supported by the rules (though I can't quote said rules, since other people were giving the advice to me)... but doesn't make a whole lot of sense, in my opinion. I was ready slightly earlier, so I go first? Even if we've both been readying the move for minutes or hours on end?

C) Reroll initiative for this specific move. It's an easy way out... just shrug, roll again, and follow the results.

Hope this helps...

 

[dcollins]

Yes, I've dealt with the same issue in the past when two parties on opposite sides of a door both readied attacks as soon as the door was opened (with one guy opening the door to let his group's attacks through).

I re-rolled intiative in this case (that seems to be what initiative is for, anyway). It qualifies for the clause in DMG ch. 3, "Keeping Things Moving", that says, "...some turn of events could make it worthwhile to reroll initiative."

 

[Hypersmurf]

Say I have a Resilient Sphere up to buff and my opponent stands outside with a readied action to attack once I'm out. I then ready an attack and drop the sphere. Which attack goes off first?

In that specific example? His.

Dismissing the Resilient Sphere is a standard action, so you can't drop it and ready an attack in the same round.

If, on the other hand, the Resilient Sphere was controlled by your wizard ally, then you'd indeed have the problem of coincident Ready actions.

I'd be inclined to go with the rule for tied initiative - the character with the best modifier goes first, followed by a reroll in the case of identical modifiers.

-Hyp.

 

[jgsugden]

Say I have a Resilient Sphere up to buff and my opponent stands outside with a readied action to attack once I'm out. I then ready an attack and drop the sphere. Which attack goes off first? Would it go by Initiative? What if it was a tie?

KerlanRayne

Nitpick: Dismissing a spell is a standard action (PHB pg 176). You can't ready and dismiss at the same time. However, if you wait for the spell to end naturally while readying, you end up with a similar issue.

I handle it like this: If combat is otherwise not active (no offensive actions for 2 rounds or so), I reroll initiative. Once people break off, whether it is to retreat, cast defensive spells, etc ... they stop being combatants and are treated as new combatants when they return to the battle. If all combatants leave a battle this way, then the battle ends and a new battle begins when someone begins to attack or act hostile again.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Nitpick: Dismissing a spell is a standard action (PHB pg 176). You can't ready and dismiss at the same time.

Snap

-Hyp.

 

[dcollins]

Wondered about that... I was looking at 3.0 where it's not dismissable at will.