D&D 5E Take the Ready action.

[MarkB]

Sorta. Ready let you choose to move up to your speed in response to a trigger. So you can move, and Ready to move up to your speed as an action.

Exactly. Regardless of which interpretation is correct, there would never be a need to Ready a Dash action, because at best it would allow you to do exactly the same thing you'd be able to do if you Ready to move.

 

[mrpopstar]

Ugh, I'm confused.
I've always thought of Move and Dash as completely separate things, meaning a character can Move up to their speed on their turn, and then Ready a Dash action to reposition himself up to their speed away upon a trigger.

"I move toward the wizard (Move 30). If he starts casting a spell, I'll dive behind those boulders over there for cover (Ready a Dash 30)."

Is this not a proper usage of Ready?

Taking the Dash action doesn’t let you move, “it just lets you move more” (quoting Crawford) when you do.

To succeed in your scenario above, you would move up to your speed ("I move towards the wizard.") and take the Ready action to move up to your speed when you take your reaction ("If he starts casting a spell, I'll dive behind the boulders over there for cover.").

 

[Charlaquin]

Exactly. Regardless of which interpretation is correct, there would never be a need to Ready a Dash action, because at best it would allow you to do exactly the same thing you'd be able to do if you Ready to move.

Leave it to ENworld to argue for over a hundred posts about something that makes literally no gameplay difference

 

[mrpopstar]

Given what we've covered so far...

• You plausibly benefit by taking the Ready action to Attack, Cast a Spell, or Use An Object.
• You can’t benefit by taking the Ready action to Dash or Disengage.
• You don’t benefit by taking the Ready action to Dodge or Help.
• You possibly benefit by taking the Ready action to Hide or Search.

Edit: You plausibly benefit from taking the Ready action to move up to your speed as well, of course.

 

[Reynard]

FWIW Jeremy Crawford discussed Reactions, Delay and also Ready action during a Dragon Talk Podcast (15:00+) and he speficially mention that, since reactions happen immediatly after their triggers finishes, if you carefully formulate your trigger, you could for exemple say "when a creature START moving" and as soon as it resolve starting moving, you could react.

Joe Manganiello on Acting D&D | Dungeons & Dragons

dnd.wizards.com

I love it when even the designers know they have to weasel the rule because they wrote it weird.

 

[Charlaquin]

I love it when even the designers know they have to weasel the rule because they wrote it weird.

Jeremy seems to answer a lot of rules questions as noncommittally as possible.

 

[Oofta]

I think that's a benefit though! If Readying was a clear-cut advantageous strategy, then it would be more useful than just taking your action. And it shouldn't be! Its use comes out of those weird edge cases when you want something out of the narrative but the timing is off.

I'm saying that's a perk, not a trap.

I mean, I can only tell you what is true at my table.

Illusion spells have caused debates. Portents have caused debates. Hiding has caused debates.

Readying is cut and dry.

Surprise is cut and dry.

I am honestly surprised they are areas of debate at all!

I'm also surprised how often this comes up, especially no matter how many times it's explained. That, and I don't really hit this in real life with new players and only occasionally the first time with people who played previous versions.

Is ready as good as doing something useful on your turn? No. It's not meant to be. Is it a good idea on a regular basis? Again, no. But I do find that combat runs smoother now with readied actions, especially if you have The Analyzer (tm) in your group who feels like they need to optimize every single round. So now we get buzz words like "it's not transparent" or "it's a trap"*

As far as surprise, it's not hard. I think it's actually kind of elegant how you can have more than one side of the equation surprised depending on the situation.

Ah well, it's the internet.

*I always hear General Ackbar when I hear that.

EDIT: fix formatting.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Surprise is cut and dry.

I am honestly surprised they are areas of debate at all!

Sigh lol.

Literally every single person I've ever seen suggest Surprise was "cut and dried" or "obvious" didn't actually follow the RAW on Surprise lol. You're probably the exception but in the huge reddit thread on this loads of people made that claim, only to realize or have it revealed to them that they were fundamentally misunderstanding the actual RAW, in most cases running Surprise a lot more straightforwardly than the rules.

So now we get buzz words like "it's not transparent" or "it's a trap"

That's just an unhelpful thing to say. Neither of those are "buzz words" (look it up), and "not transparent" isn't even arguable - that's a correct and unarguable description of the PHB description of Ready.

 

[Oofta]

Sigh lol.

Literally every single person I've ever seen suggest Surprise was "cut and dried" or "obvious" didn't actually follow the RAW on Surprise lol. You're probably the exception but in the huge reddit thread on this loads of people made that claim, only to realize or have it revealed to them that they were fundamentally misunderstanding the actual RAW, in most cases running Surprise a lot more straightforwardly than the rules.

That's just an unhelpful thing to say. Neither of those are "buzz words" (look it up), and "not transparent" isn't even arguable - that's a correct and unarguable description of the PHB description of Ready.

Right, care to explain how only you know how surprise works?

Because it's not hard. If you're surprised you can't do anything until after the end of your first turn. It's not hard.

As long as you don't bring in rules from previous editions it's not confusing to anyone I've ever played with.

I have no idea what "not transparent" even means

 

[Reynard]

Right, care to explain how only you know how surprise works?

Because it's not hard. If you're surprised you can't do anything until after the end of your first turn. It's not hard.

As long as you don't bring in rules from previous editions it's not confusing to anyone I've ever played with.

I have no idea what "not transparent" even means

Yeah, in 5E it is super straight forward.