Stand and Charge

[0-hr]

And now from the "told ya so" department, the Sage has responded to an email I sent out last week (sage in bold):

Could a character stand up from being prone, and then do a partial charge and attack?

The FAQ says you can tumble during a charge, so you ought to be able to get up and charge.


This is assuming no Haste or such. The problem is that, by the rules, it looks like you can't do this unless you ready the charge action. In other words it looks like you could do this:

- stand up
- ready an action to charge the orc as soon as he does something
- wait for orc
- charge the orc and attack

but you cannot do this:

- stand up
- charge the orc and attack

Yes you can, see first answer.

(Honestly, I think that he's wrong by the letter of the rules, but since he agreed with my position I figured I'd post it )

 

[Artoomis]

Man, I hate it when the Sage gets the rules wrong.

Tumble is a not an action, it's something done during a move. Standing up is a Move-Equivalent Action.

It's obvious, that, by the rules, the fact that you can tumble during a charge has absolutely nothing to do with taking a Move-Equivalent Action and then charging.

The Sage seems to indicate that this might be an okay house rule - fine, go for it. The rules are extremely clear in this case.

If you want to take a Move-Equivalent Action and Charge, you can ONLY:

Take the MEA
Ready an Action
Partial Charge when the conditions are met.

Whether or not you think that's stupid, that is the way the core rules work.

 

[kreynolds]

Could a character stand up from being prone, and then do a partial charge and attack?

The FAQ says you can tumble during a charge, so you ought to be able to get up and charge.

Wow. Even I gotta wonder what the hell he was thinking.

 

[KarinsDad]

Wow. Even I gotta wonder what the hell he was thinking.

I wonder more what the hell he was smoking.

More and more, he seems to be getting "reasonable rules" confused with "core rules". There's a subtle, but distinct difference.

 

[Mr.Binx]

You could stand up and ready a partial charge against the orc as soon as "any increment of time passes". As soon as less than a nano-second of time passes (almost instantly) you may take your specified action since your specified conditions have been met. Nowehere does it say that you cannot specify such triggering criteria for a readied action. It just states that criteria must be stated to trigger the readied action. Since the criteria is already in effect, then you would be able to take the action immediately.

PHB p.134 Readying an Action: "..specify the partial action you will take and the conditions under which you will take it. Then, any time before your next action, you may take the readied partial action in response to those conditions."

...

There's no need to change the rules when you can always make them work for you.

 

[Artoomis]

There's no need to change the rules when you can always make them work for you.

I think I can restate that more accurately:

There's no need to change the rules when you can always twist them around to make them work for you, regardless of obvious orginal intent.

 

[Mr.Binx]

I think I can restate that more accurately:

There's no need to change the rules when you can always twist them around to make them work for you, regardless of obvious orginal intent.

Yeah, I wonder how many lawyers play this game. Anyhoo, a good GM won't let you get away with cheesey stuff like this. I would probably go ahead and let my players make a tumble check (DC 15 -armor mods) to attempt a partial charge in this instance. Failure causing the character to move the charge movement, lose the attack, and end up prone in front of the opponent ("Your dwarf tries to do a daring summersault charge but ends up landing on his face rather than his feet!"). It's always a good idea to avoid saying "no" and at least give the player someway to attempt a feasible action.

 

[KarinsDad]

You could stand up and ready a partial charge against the orc as soon as "any increment of time passes". As soon as less than a nano-second of time passes (almost instantly) you may take your specified action since your specified conditions have been met. Nowehere does it say that you cannot specify such triggering criteria for a readied action.

Actually, near the beginning of the DMG (don't have it with me), there is a section on reasonable conditions for a readied action.

It is more of a guideline section as opposed to a rules section, but it does exist.

 

[Artoomis]

Actually, near the beginning of the DMG (don't have it with me), there is a section on reasonable conditions for a readied action.

It is more of a guideline section as opposed to a rules section, but it does exist.

Indeed it is in there. It's kind of unfortunate that they chose not to put that in the SRD (or, if they did, I don't know where).

 

[Mr.Binx]

Actually, near the beginning of the DMG (don't have it with me), there is a section on reasonable conditions for a readied action.

Readied actions are further detailed on p.64 of the DMG. It does not list any reasonable conditions, however it does list wisdom DCs for aborting readied actions and also states that the DM shouldn't let a player be to specific about triggering conditions. I flipped through a couple pages and double-checked the index to see if maybe I missed something but I'm not seeing any regards to reasonable conditions. Maybe you saw this list on a quick reference sheet/screen?