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

[Plaguescarred]

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

You"re right but depending what the trigger exactly is the reaction could kick off before being attacked. Something such as Readying to Dodge when a creature draw his weapon or move on you would let you Dodge before it end up attacking you.

 

[BookTenTiger]

I still don't understand why they removed the Delay choice from prior editions. Why would getting a higher initiative count be a punishment sometimes? At the time they said Ready would cover most situations, but it really doesn't.

If I remember correctly, the choice to remove Delay was to cut in half the amount of choices a player had to make on their turn.

For example, in 5e a player will still choose between attacking, casting a spell, dashing, disengaging, drinking a potion, etc. But they don't have to weigh the pros and cons of doing a big list of things NOW or that same big list of things LATER.

It kind of forces everyone to deal with what's in front of them, rather than sitting around and seeing if things get better.

 

[BookTenTiger]

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

Something to keep in mind is that the rules don't state the trigger has to be an Action:

First, you decide what perceivable circumstance will trigger your reaction. Then, you choose the action you will take in response to that trigger, or you choose to move up to your speed in response to it. Examples include "If the cultist steps on the trapdoor, I'll pull the lever that opens it," and "If the goblin steps next to me, I move away."

When the trigger occurs, you can either take your reaction right after the trigger finishes or ignore the trigger.

The "trigger" can be all kinds of things: movement, words, the ending of an effect.

For example, the Rogue in my game will Ready an attack, triggered by an ally moving adjacent to an enemy. This gives the Rogue an opportunity for Sneak Attack.

Or the Warlock in my game really loved Darkness. So a lot of characters will Ready attacks or spells for when Darkness or another obscuring effect drops.

Also you could ready an attack for after another character (or familiar) uses the Help action to give you advantage.

Or if you tell an enemy to surrender, you could ready an attack or spell for if they refuse.

In my games I've seen really creative uses that help players play more strategically.

 

[Reynard]

Something to keep in mind is that the rules don't state the trigger has to be an Action:



The "trigger" can be all kinds of things: movement, words, the ending of an effect.

For example, the Rogue in my game will Ready an attack, triggered by an ally moving adjacent to an enemy. This gives the Rogue an opportunity for Sneak Attack.

Or the Warlock in my game really loved Darkness. So a lot of characters will Ready attacks or spells for when Darkness or another obscuring effect drops.

Also you could ready an attack for after another character (or familiar) uses the Help action to give you advantage.

Or if you tell an enemy to surrender, you could ready an attack or spell for if they refuse.

In my games I've seen really creative uses that help players play more strategically.

Most of those are pretty straight forward uses of Ready. The surrender thing is weird, though: what does "refusing" look like in the form of a readied action trigger? Ostensibly you made the demand on your turn and readied and attack if they refuse. So on their turn they flee. Does that count? Or they ready their own attack and say, "No, you surrender!" Does that count. It can get fuzzy. (But that's what GMs are for and why white room theory discussions are never sufficient.)

 

[Plaguescarred]

I still don't understand why they removed the Delay choice from prior editions. Why would getting a higher initiative count be a punishment sometimes? At the time they said Ready would cover most situations, but it really doesn't.

I dont know if you ever saw it, WoTC have explained some of the reasons why in a Sage Advice

Spoiler: Sage Advice

Can you delay your turn and take it later in the round?

Spoiler: Sage Advice

No. When it’s your turn, either you do something or you don’t. If you don’t want to do anything, consider taking the Dodge action so that you’ll, at least, have some extra protection. If you want to wait to act in response to something, take the Ready action, which lets you take part of your turn later. For a variety of reasons, we didn’t include the option to delay your turn:

• Your turn involves several decisions, including where to move and what action to take. If you could delay your turn, your decision-making would possibly become slower, since you would have to consider whether you wanted to take your turn at all. Multiply that extra analysis by the number of characters and monsters in a combat, and you have the potential for many slowdowns in play.
• The ability to delay your turn can make initiative meaningless, as characters and monsters bounce around in the initiative order. If combatants can change their place in the initiative order at will, why use initiative at all? On top of that, changing initiative can easily turn into an unwelcome chore, especially for the DM, who might have to change the initiative list over and over during a fight.
• Being able to delay your turn can let you wreak havoc on the durations of spells and other effects, particularly any of them that last until your next turn. Simply by changing when your turn happens, you could change the length of certain spells. The way to guard against such abuse would be to create a set of additional rules that would limit your ability to change durations. The net effect? More complexity would be added to the game, and with more complexity, there is greater potential for slower play.

Two of our goals for combat were for it to be speedy and for initiative to matter. We didn’t want to start every combat by rolling initiative and then undermine turn order with a delay option. Moreover, we felt that toying with initiative wasn’t where the focus should be in battle. Instead, the dramatic actions of the combatants should be the focus, with turns that happen as quickly as possible.

 

[BookTenTiger]

Most of those are pretty straight forward uses of Ready. The surrender thing is weird, though: what does "refusing" look like in the form of a readied action trigger? Ostensibly you made the demand on your turn and readied and attack if they refuse. So on their turn they flee. Does that count? Or they ready their own attack and say, "No, you surrender!" Does that count. It can get fuzzy. (But that's what GMs are for and why white room theory discussions are never sufficient.)

If I, as a DM, were unclear on the trigger, I'd just ask the player. "Does this trigger your Readied action?"

I like that Ready is "fuzzy" because it opens up more possibilities for the players than just an explicit list of what they can ready.

 

[ECMO3]

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

I disagree with that and based on sage advice, so does Jeremy crawford.

The "current turn" is the turn in which the action is taken. If you ready dash you take the "ready action" on your turn and take the "dash action" as a reaction on the turn when when the triggering event happens. This means if the trigger event happens on another turn other than your own you get that movement on that other turn because that is the "current" turn when the dash action is taken.

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."

The wording is particular, Dash gives you extra movement equal to your "speed", it does not double your movement as some people think. Your speed is a statistic on your character sheet, it does not change turn to turn unless there is some effect changing it (grappled, haste, bladesong etc).

The example is you quoted is correct. It lets you move your speed on whatever turn the dash action is taken: 0 (movement normally allowed on another turn)+30(additional movement granted from dash)=30 (total movement on that turn). It is also as it states NOT 60 feet, it is only 30 feet.

It is also important to note you have to use your reaction to take the dash action, so you can't combine this with something else like the scout subclass feature that also requires a reaction to get movement.

 

[Plaguescarred]

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

Devote your attention to finding something.

 

[Plaguescarred]

If you take dash as a ready action you get to move your speed on whatever turn it triggers.

JC's tweet would not answer "It just lets you move more." if it was the case, but "Yes".

 

[billd91]

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.

The point is: you’re moving. That’s what readying a Dash gets you, which can be useful if you’ve spent your move allowance for the round and then want to Ready the option to move more If some condition comes up.