D&D 5E (2014) Take the Ready action.

[mrpopstar]

Yes, on your turn. You can’t move when it isn’t your turn, except with the Ready action.

I've been misquoted! Hah.
I believe you meant to respond to Overgeeked.

Dash says "current" turn not player turn:

"When you take the Dash action, you gain extra movement for the current turn. The increase equals your speed ...."

So if you ready a dash action, you take the dash action whenever the trigger happens and get extra movement on that turn when it is triggered. So you can move up to your speed on your turn and ready an action to dash and then move your speed on the turn the trigger event takes place as well.

On a typical character this is going to be up to 30 feet on your turn and up to 30 feet on the turn the trigger event happens. What you can't do is save any movement from your turn. So if you move 10 feet and then ready dash, you can still only move 30 feet when the trigger happens.

I could see using this to lure someone towards you and then moving away before they get to you, thereby wasting their movement.

During a round, each participant in a battle takes a turn. The turn referenced under Dash is the current turn, therefore your turn.

This is strictly not true. The environmental conditions can change between your turn and the readied action. A real common one is it is my turn and my player is in plain sight but someone is going to cast darkness, fog cloud or cast invisiblity on me.

Also for a lightfoot halfling using naturally stealthy - ready an action to hide as soon as a medium sized creature walks in front of him breaking line of sight (this does not work for non-halflings).

These are great examples! Thank you!

Hiya!


Well that's 'cause yer doin' it wrong, young feller!

Basically, yeah, you're over thinking it. You are approaching it all from the mindset of a wargamer playing in a tournament. This is D&D...a roleplaying game...with the Pirates Code used to decide the specifics. (re: "The code is more like what you'd call guidelines, than actual rules...").

In stead of trying to think of the "action" first, then adapt it to the situation, do it the other way; think of the situation first, then adapt the action to fit it. You'll find running a game much more free-flowing, surprising and fun (well, at least I do!).

In other words...
Don't do this: "I'm going to use the Ready action to...", then try and adjust the situation to fit the Ready action.
Instead, Do this: "I'm going to do this...", then adjust the Ready action to fit the situation.

I was literally giving myself the "return to the narrative" talk while thinking this through. LOL
Honestly, I've just never given the Ready action its due reconsideration in light of 5e and I was shocked at how same-subtle-different it was compared to 3e. I've probably adjudicated incorrectly a million times in the past 6ish years!

Yes, and it’s explicit. You can ready a dash and use it to move when the reaction is triggered.

It explicitly says otherwise...

Question: "If you ready the Dash Action, can you then move up to twice you speed in reaction to the trigger?"
Answer: "Dash gives you extra movement. Off your turn, you have no movement. E.g., 0 ft. + 30 ft. = 30 ft., not 60 ft."
Follow-up question: "So do you actually move as part of the dash action? Or does dashing just allow you to move more?"
Answer: "It just lets you move more."

 

[Asisreo]

No, that’s what I’m saying, to mrpopstar.

That works to allow you to move 3x speed total in one round, but it doesn’t allow you to move 2x your speed outside of your turn, since Dash only doubles your movement for the current turn when you use it.

Correct.

I see. Apologies.

 

[Reynard]

Yes, and it’s explicit. You can ready a dash and use it to move when the reaction is triggered.

It explicitly says it is a distinction without a difference. You are still only moving 30 ft at the trigger.

I guess the important part is you can move on your turn, then ready a dash to move again. What you can't do is ready to move twice your movement.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

From a transparency POV, its a failure. Not only do they not say its a poor choice in most scenarios, the reason why its a poor choice is either in a completely different chapter of the book (readying a spell) or hidden behind easily dismissed jargon. "What do you mean I can't use extra attack? Wait, only one attack?! This is bogus, why would I ever do this?"

Yes, exactly, I agree. It's fine design in terms of achieving the power-related goal, terrible transparency and clarity in terms of how it functions. And that is almost word-for-word the response I hear about once every 3-5 sessions lol.

 

[Plaguescarred]

The Ready action is not a trap, it's an option to react later. It's generally useful when you cannot perform the action now but rather later when time or circumstances allow it. For exemple;

• Readying to Hide when a guard leave its post and can't see you anymore.
• Readying to Help when an ally does something in order to assist.
• Readying to Search for when someone or something get's in or out of view.

 

[Plaguescarred]

• You could technically benefit by taking the Ready action to Dodge, but why would you wait before you act?

You could want to Dodge only when a creature attack you not to appear to be on the defensive before it does and trigger hostilities during parlay for exemple.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

The Ready action is not a trap, it's an option to react later. It's generally useful when you cannot perform the action now but rather later when time or circumstances allow it. For exemple;

• Readying to Hide when a guard leave its post and can't see you anymore.
• Readying to Help when an ally does something in order to assist.
• Readying to Search for when someone or something get's in or out of view.

It absolutely is a trap because it isn't explained properly.

This is particularly bad because it's completely different to the functionality of previous editions, and a lot of the functions require multiple levels of extrapolation to work out. I mean, let's be real, if you put 20 DMs and players of D&D in a room, odds are, I (or many posters here) would be the person with the best grasp on the 5E rules there. And I and many others didn't work out that the completely unstated intention was that you can only make one attack.

Readying to Help is almost never valid, and the fact that you list it suggests you don't understand what's going on here as much as you think you do.

Readying to Hide doesn't make sense in the situation you've described because Initiative would not have been rolled, so you don't need to use the Ready action.

I'm not even sure what you mean by "Readying to Search", you're going to need to explain that one.

You could want to Dodge only when a creature attack you not to appear to be on the defensive before it does and trigger hostilities during parlay for exemple.

This has been addressed. You don't have to be dancing around to Dodge. If you aren't attacked you can be standing completely still whilst technically "Dodging".

 

[Reynard]

One complication that I haven't seen mentioned is that Readied actions occur after the trigger is complete, which makes some kinds of readied action hard to pull off or require some mental or linguistic gymnastics to get there. The most obvious is readying the Help action. You can't help someone with something after they are done doing it.

"I ready to Help Bob versus the ogre" doesn't actually work. Just use your action to Help.Bob on your turn.

"I ready a movement in case the goblin gets next to me" is fine but you are still going to take an opportunity attack if you leave the goblin's reach.

Then there's the corner cases. "I ready to Hide when the wizard casts fog cloud." What happens if the fog cloud is countered during the casting?

Overall I think 90% of readied actions i see at the table are some variation of "I attack the first enemy I see (ranged)" or "I attack the first enemy that comes into my reach (melee)."

Another aspect in actual play: Do you, as GM, tell your players if an enemy has readied an action? I usually don't unless it is glaringly obvious. I just pass their turn and maybe describe their attention going somewhere specific if appropriate.

 

[Reynard]

You could want to Dodge only when a creature attack you not to appear to be on the defensive before it does and trigger hostilities during parlay for exemple.

It would be too late. The triggered action finishes first.

 

[Plaguescarred]

@Ruin Explorer You can hide outside combat. You roll initiative only in combat. Why you think Readying to Help is almost never valid i'm curious?