Readying Tide of Iron

[Al'Kelhar]

Also, also, pretty much nullifies his Combat Challenge power since he can only take one immediate action per round. If he's always readying an action, then he's always got his immediate action consumed by his own standard action.

Yep, I'd decided that I was happy to accept that as a consequence of negating one enemy's attacks every round, but since I can't do that, readying just ain't such a good general tactic (although of course there will be specific circumstances where it will be useful).

Cheers, Al'Kelhar

 

[S'mon]

You could, however, ready the action based on an opponent moving adjacent to you, which could screw over his attack.

Yup. +1

 

[Unwise]

I can't remember exactly, but I think power-strike is a free action. Is that right?

If so, could an axe-wielding slayer ready a basic attack for when somebody moves next to them, then hit the guy and knock him prone, thus giving him -4 to his attack. That is not bad for something that could be done 4 times an encounter.

 

[Obryn]

I can't remember exactly, but I think power-strike is a free action. Is that right?

If so, could an axe-wielding slayer ready a basic attack for when somebody moves next to them, then hit the guy and knock him prone, thus giving him -4 to his attack. That is not bad for something that could be done 4 times an encounter.

Yes, but he's giving up his standard actions for that.

It's a losing strategy; eventually the monsters will just leave him alone.

-O

 

[Colmarr]

You could technically ready Tide of Iron to attack "the first enemy who ends their move adjacent to me". That phrasing would mean that their move has finished before your attack, but that your attack goes off before theirs.

It just begs for the DM to screw with you though, and in my personal opinion it's a really dicky way to play the game.

 

[mneme]

[MENTION=83164]Golm[/MENTION]arr I think it's fine, frankly, but intelligent enemies who can see you should have a good idea that you're readied, and more or less for what. So it should serve as a useful mechanism for dealing with situations or preventing an enemy from doing certain actions, rather than necessarilly a cheesy method of rendering an enemy helpless.

If you're going to complain about ready cheese, it should be attempts to avoid OAs with them -- which -is- a problem, as it's clearly optimal when dealing with enemies that otherwise can control an area with threatening reach. But this isn't really a player problem so much as it is a problem with the rules.

 

[mneme]

Also, frankly, how can you tell that an enemy has ended their move? You can trigger on an enemy moving next to you, but not on mechanical actions you can't detect. The same way you can't really ready an action for "when Enemy A begins their turn" but can ready for "when Enemy A takes an action."