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

[Ruin Explorer]

Of course I fell asleep with all this on my mind. LOL The Where's Waldo contest was the only reasonable thing I could come up with, which requires multiple combatants readying to accomplish the same task. "When she flips the page, I try to find Waldo first."

That does seem to be about the only possible application lol. It would have to be a combat with initiative rolled whilst this was happening lol though otherwise you wouldn't need to take the Ready action, you'd just tell the DM.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

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'm surprised this wasn't obvious from the description in the PHB - it's pretty unclear but it does give the example of "when the goblin moves next to me" as a trigger, that could obviously equally be "when the goblin gets within 10' of me".

Just as an aside, a class/subclass who could use Ready as a Bonus Action would be pretty powerful. Doubt it'll ever happen though.

 

[Ovinomancer]

RE: DASH on ready

Folks, I have no idea why this is an argument. Readying a Dash is pointless -- there's no need for it and it does nothing. Instead, just Ready to move -- the Ready action already allows you to 'ready' a move of up to your speed when you use the action, so you don't need to do anything to get more move. It's built in. Readying a Dash does nothing, just ready to move and you've have movement up to your speed.

Also, recall that you don't need to specify anything more than your intended readied action. "I will attack if something enters my reach" is a trigger, at which time you can set the particulars of your action -- attack your friend Bob, if you want. Same with movement, "I ready a move if anything approaches me," lets you move up to your speed in movement (not any remaining move from your turn, which is over and done, but a brand new up to your move) however you want.

 

[Mort]

Of course I fell asleep with all this on my mind. LOL The Where's Waldo contest was the only reasonable thing I could come up with, which requires multiple combatants readying to accomplish the same task. "When she flips the page, I try to find Waldo first."

EDIT: You know, perfectly reasonable in the midst of combat.

And now I have to design a scenario that makes the players find Waldo....


To the death!

 

[Plaguescarred]

No.

Explain the mechanics. That's just vague nonsense. Explain what it is you're Ready-ing and what you're going to roll and how it couldn't have happened earlier.

It's literally the definition of the Search action! The DM would determined what need to be rolled, as described in the mechanic of the action (Wisdom or Intelligence). What you're searching exactly is not important in the context could be anything, the exemple was just to show that you could benefit from doing so under certain circumstances.

Again, Ready action is not a trap, where it's measured against the potential return benefit of other actions. It's an option, usually taken when you cannot act on your turn but could later when certain circumstances happen. It's often even the best option available to you to take.

 

[billd91]

EDIT: Found some more relevant Sage Advice to consider.

Question: "So how does that work? Each dash is a move action or is it just you may move again?"
Answer: "On your turn, you can move. Dash increases how far you can move on a particular turn."
Place that in context with...
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."

That leads me to the conclusion that if you take the Ready action to Dash, nothing happens when you take your reaction because your reaction takes place on another combatant's turn.

Here's the problem. Notice that 0 ft + 30 ft = 30 ft. So if nothing happens, where'd that 30 ft come from? If nothing happened and you got no movement off your turn, it would be 0 ft + 30 ft = 0 ft. Your conclusion doesn't account for that. Nor does it account for the question that I pointed out that you left off - where Jeremy confirms that Readying a Dash action is like Readying a move. If nothing happened, that wouldn't be true.
So if you're not omitting those things to "fool" me, why are they omitted from your conclusion?

 

[Plaguescarred]

Of course I fell asleep with all this on my mind. LOL The Where's Waldo contest was the only reasonable thing I could come up with, which requires multiple combatants readying to accomplish the same task. "When she flips the page, I try to find Waldo first."

EDIT: You know, perfectly reasonable in the midst of combat.

Searching for hidden creature in combat would be most probable.

The reason you'd Ready such a search would be because circumstances prevent you from doing so on your turn, having to wait until something happen. Could be when a curtain drop, a spell concealing your view ends, something you're onto move into a location, when halfling hide behind its bigger ally etc...

 

[mrpopstar]

Here's the problem. Notice that 0 ft + 30 ft = 30 ft. So if nothing happens, where'd that 30 ft come from? If nothing happened and you got no movement off your turn, it would be 0 ft + 30 ft = 0 ft. Your conclusion doesn't account for that. Nor does it account for the question that I pointed out that you left off - where Jeremy confirms that Readying a Dash action is like Readying a move. If nothing happened, that wouldn't be true.
So if you're not omitting those things to "fool" me, why are they omitted from your conclusion?

If you search for "Dash" in the Sage Advice repository you'll find 10 pages of tweet topics addressing Dash.

 

[ECMO3]

Of course!


I just think that the benefits aren't what they seem to be.

• If I take the Ready action to Hide when I take my reaction, my location is still known. If the environment changes such that circumstances become appropriate for hiding, I'm still benefiting from being unseen. All I've done is waste my reaction for the round. EDIT: Helpful if you're gaming the initiative order in specific cases, perhaps.
• If I have enough player knowledge to know that an ally will benefit if I take the Ready action to Help, why wouldn't I just take the Help action? Either way the benefit lasts until the start of my next turn, so all I've done is waste my reaction for the round.
• Taking the Ready action to Search is the worst trap of all! (This is a joke). We all know you can't find Waldo any quicker if you ready to search when the page is turned! Hehe

You don't have movement on someone else's turn, therefore taking the Ready action to Dash doesn't do what you understand it to do.

RAW hide means unseen and unheard, it does not mean they can't figure out where you are. It is reasonable to believe they know where you are if they assume that you have not moved (a reasonable assumption). This is really no different than if you duck behind a curtain and take the hide action. Most people are going to assume you are behind the curtain. If you don't take the hide action they know you are behind the curtain.

If they decide to shoot an arrow - if you are unseen but not hidden they shoot it at YOU with disadvantage. If you are hidden they shoot it at the area they think you are and that is with disadvantageif you are there (which you are). So it is the same from that point of view.

There are two differences - first if you did not take the hide action they would know (as a point of fact) that you were there because you are not hidden (presumably they can hear your breathing). Not much mechanical difference there. The second is unless they use the search action you will start your turn hidden and this is a big deal as you can generally move without making another stealth check (as long as you remain obscured) and can use that action for something else. So doing it as a reaction puts you ahead in terms of action economy instead of waiting tohide on your turn.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

It's literally the definition of the Search action! The DM would determined what need to be rolled, as described in the mechanic of the action (Wisdom or Intelligence). What you're searching exactly is not important in the context could be anything, the exemple was just to show that you could benefit from doing so under certain circumstances.

That's my point.

It's vague nonsense.

You need to give a specific example of when this would actually apply in an actual D&D game. The context is everything. It's completely wrong to say it doesn't matter.

Searching for hidden creature in combat would be most probable.

You can't move, you know that right? So you could likely only search squares next to you with Investigation, unless the DM was feeling pretty generous. So that massively limits the application. Perception-based uses might be broader but you still need to provide mechanical explanations, not just vague scenarios.

It's often even the best option available to you to take.

No.

If you're "often" finding that to be the case, you're probably pretty confused about 5E's rules and are unlikely to be running Ready correctly, I would suggest. Either that your DM is running a lot of truly bizarre scenarios.