Readying vs. Reach ?

[The Souljourner]

Well, the situation came up. The party is average 11th-lvl, and their resources were reaching their limits. Flying spells were exhausted and one fighter was left with no means of flying to reach an air elemental type creature with 15-ft reach

Umm.... two things:

First, why did they continue adventuring with such low resources? The wizard and cleric (or their equivalents) in the party should have put up a heck of a fight when they realized they were getting low on spells, and everyone else wanted to continue to push on. There is such a thing as "let's stop here for the night so I can get my spells back".

Second - why not run away until you can get to a spot with more favorable conditions? Were they fighting on a huge featureless plain, or what? Run under some cover where the air elemental can't fly 20' off the ground, and force it to come after you.

You don't have to be able to fly to fight things that have flight, unless you're in very unfavorable conditions.

-The Souljourner

 

[Voadam]

Can a character ready an attack against a monster's reach attack? For example, against a flying monster with 15-ft reach that cannot otherwise be attacked due to the distance. If an attack can be readied, should there be a penalty to the attack roll due to the fact that the creature's entire body cannot be reached, only the claw/bite/whatever that was attacking?

Think of it this way, "I hold my action readying for if the tentacles lash out at me and enter my threatened space, if they do I swing at one."

That seems eminently reasonable to me.

Otherwise you are ruling that the creature hits you with a body part without coming within five feet of you. This is silly because part of the creature comes into contact with you.

 

[andargor]

From what I am reading, the only possible way with be to ready a sunder. So it's not a straight attack, there are AoOs and opposed rolls involved.

What happens when you sunder a natural weapon?

Andargor

 

[Wolffenjugend]

Umm.... two things:

First, why did they continue adventuring with such low resources?
Second - why not run away until you can get to a spot with more favorable conditions? -The Souljourner

I'm not going to rehash the entire 10-month campaign to justify this encounter. Suffice it to say, the party knew what they were getting into and this was the climactic battle of the campaign. Stopping to rest wasn't an option. Flying resources had been expended (others were flying, but the fighter was out of luck). Also, we aren't playing the Forsaken Realms so everyone's not carrying a dozen potions of flying (or whatever).

My question was a specific one, I'm not interested in people's opinions of why/how the encounter took place. But thanks to all those who contributed (especially Hyp).