Readying vs. a Blink spell

[shilsen]

Assume you have a PC fighting an enemy benefiting from a Blink spell. Should one allow any of the following?

1) On his turn, the PC readies an attack or a spell for when the enemy blinks "in", thus negating the 50% miss chance against Blink. Since the enemy presumably blinks in and out rapidly during a 6 second period, the attack occurs on the PC's turn.

2) On his turn, the PC readies an attack or a spell for when the enemy makes an attack. If the enemy makes the attack successfully (i.e. not failing the 20% miss chance), he is present on the Material Plane at that moment and the PC's attack/spell has no miss chance. If the enemy fails to make the attack, he is still ethereal at that moment and the PC's attack/spell automatically misses.

Opinions?

 

[Infiniti2000]

No on both. But, if you do allow it, you'll have to allow the same thing for the blinking character.

 

[Cheiromancer]

What Infinit2000 said.

But if you allow this rule to apply to blinking characters, then there is no more 20% miss chance, and you have made the spell a little more powerful. Which I don't think is your intent.

I'd just say that the blinking is too fast and unpredictable for its defensive benefits to be overcome by readied actions.

 

[TheGogmagog]

I might allow the second choice, not to ignore the miss chance, but to reduce it to 20%. This would mean waiting to get hit in order to attack back. Which doesn't seem like a wise choice.

This would also produce no benefit to the blinking character.

 

[Stalker0]

The reason you shouldn't allow it, is you do not blink on a schedule, its completely random, and often very quick....like half a second quick. So even if you can time it to where the guy reappears, there's no way of telling if he'll still be there when your swinging, hence the miss chance.

 

[shilsen]

Sounds like we have a consensus, or at least very close to it. Thanks for the opinions, folks.

 

[ARandomGod]

Sounds like we have a consensus, or at least very close to it. Thanks for the opinions, folks.

Yea, you absolutely shouldn't allow it. It's not the way it's supposed to work mechanically, and if you want 'reason' instead of 'mechanics', then note that the blink is totally random, and it's just as likely to blink away from the readied action as it is to remain in place for the length of time to be hit by a not readied action.

 

[shilsen]

Okay, here's a related question. Suppose you have a blinker who's about to cast a spell and a PC who has a readied action for when the blinker casts the spell. When the blinker is in the process of casting and the readied action triggers, do you:

a) Give the person with the readied action the usual 50% miss chance, and if he successfully makes it, then check to see whether he hits, what the results are, etc.

b) Check to see whether the blinker is material or not (20% chance of being ethereal) at the moment of casting. If the blinker is material, then the readied action has no miss chance. And if the blinker is not material, the readied action automatically misses.

 

[Stalker0]

First I would run the attack as normal for blink, with the miss chance and all. Then I would do the chance that the spell is cast as you go ethereal, which automatically botches certain spells.

 

[ARandomGod]

Okay, here's a related question. Suppose you have a blinker who's about to cast a spell and a PC who has a readied action for when the blinker casts the spell. When the blinker is in the process of casting and the readied action triggers, do you:

a) Give the person with the readied action the usual 50% miss chance, and if he successfully makes it, then check to see whether he hits, what the results are, etc.

b) Check to see whether the blinker is material or not (20% chance of being ethereal) at the moment of casting. If the blinker is material, then the readied action has no miss chance. And if the blinker is not material, the readied action automatically misses.

Oooh. good question. I'd chose option a). This is supposed to be a simple game, blink is already on the edge of complexity for it. Don't forget to also give the person casting the spell his 20% miss chance.

Option B... that is perilously close to still allowing some negation of the spell. You get a 50% miss chance to hit someone with the spell active, unless they can either strike etherial or see invisible... then and only then is it 50%.