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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ziggy" data-source="post: 367924" data-attributes="member: 148">Thanks for the feedback guys. As I indicated in my first post, I'm aware of the downside of ready actions outside combat, in particular the problem with everybody readying. I still think that the advantages outweight the disadvantages, but I guess only playtesting will show how my group uses it. Zaruthustran: I agree that someone always must win initiative, what I don't like is the lack of ready actions (and flatfootedness) of those who lose. There is a world of difference between how fast you react when you expect combat, and when something happens out of the blue. Remember that someone will always be first when several people ready action as well, and thus your example from The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly (excellent film btw) could have been written as:Everybody knows combat will start. Both ready on the other to draw. As both have readied on the same action, the one with the highest initiative will go first, thus Blondie wins. And the Hands example is pretty interesting. If you continue playing, you are into combat rounds, and the defender will always win (by the rules) with a ready action. If you are in the first round, it's decided by initiative. What this suggests is:<ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">The system behaves differently in the first round of Hands than in the latter. This is not a Good Idea, as no such difference can be found in the real encounter. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">The combat system of D&D3E is not a good idea for modeling these kind of tests. I would have used opposed Dex checks instead. [/list=1] Elder-Basilisk: Hmm, I see that someone has tried it, and that it didn't work for you. I guess yoyu didn't put the limitation suggested by Ki Ryn in there (no action on the first round unless your ready action triggers), do you think that it would have changed the picture ? And your idea of rerolling initiative after the action that triggers combat is really good, I'm so stealing it for the "kicking down the door" situations. Did you rule that people without initiative was flatfooted (e.g. no AoO) or not ? And finally, there is a world of difference between a partial action and a full round action in the first round. If you win surprise (or ready) you can just attack, not move and attack. Thus if you stand close to someone you can cut them down, but you can not run full move (or charge double) and cut them down.  This is in line with the Arthur example, I'm pretty sure that the guy with the sword wasn't 30 or 60 feet away from the guy he wanted to kill. .Ziggy</li> </ol></blockquote>

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