Readying an Action

[Prophet2b]

I have a question about readied actions. I've been trying to figure out the books according to "the spirit of the rules" as opposed to "the letter of the rule" but this one has me stumped.

On page 291 of the PHB, it says regarding readying actions, "Choose the specific action you are readying (what attack you plan to use, for example) as well as your intended target."

The other day, we were doing a practice combat session. Three kobold dragonshields advanced and waited for the PC's to approach. The PC fighter then said, "I ready an action to attack the first of them that comes within range of my weapon."

Is that valid? I let it slide, because we weren't sure... In 3e, I know it's a valid readied action. And it certainly makes sense.

All of the examples given on page 291, though, are incredibly specific. "I attack monster x if y happens with z power."

Maybe this is just nitpicking. Maybe it doesn't matter. And I'll probably let my players be about as vague as you were allowed to be in 3e (unless someone on here can point out any good reason why this would be incredibly broken in 4e, which I can't really see).

I'm mostly just curious as to how others interpreted readied actions. How specific do you think the player has to be when readying an action?

 

[Eldorian]

From reading it, I'd say the fighter must pick which power to use when reading, but when it says pick the target, it's vague enough to allow "first hostile to enter range" as a target. It doesn't say, for example, pick your specific target.

 

[Surgoshan]

He'd have to ready a specific power, yeah, but a kobold coming within range would be a valid trigger; movement can trigger.

It says to pick an intended target, but I would interpret that as being vague enough to allow "first to come close to me" rather than "when THAT kobold comes close to me". That would just hamstring the ability to ready actions.