The Mechanics of Readied Actions

[superkurt13]

A tricky situation recently came up that I wanted to get some clarification on concerning readied actions. The first part of my question deal with when a readied action occurrs in relation to the action which triggers it. The SRD says of readied actions:

"you may take the readied action in response to that condition. The action occurs just before the action that triggers it"

How is this possible. For instance, I am a barbarian standing in front of a door and I know my opponent is on the other side of it. I ready an action to charge him as soon as the door opens. According to the definition my readied action (the charge) would take place before the action that triggered it (the door opening). But how could I charge in if I begin my action before the door is opened?

The other part of my question deals with recognizing the trigger of a readied action. The SRD says:

"You can ready an attack against a spellcaster with the trigger “if she starts casting a spell.”"

What if I am a spellcaster fighting an archer. The archer readies an attack with the trigger to fire as soon as he sees me start casting a spell. Lets say the spell I am about to cast has no verbal, somatic or material components, nor does it produce any kind of visible affect. Would the archer be able to fire his arrow? I would have to think no since there is no way he even knows a spell has been cast so how can he?

 

[Infiniti2000]

But how could I charge in if I begin my action before the door is opened?

You can't, so you have to adjust your interpretation slightly. You can't act before the condition. The wording says you interrupt the action, so go with that. Sure, you can ignore that this rule seemingly creates a paradox, so you'll have to do your best to interpret it such that it doesn't.

What if I am a spellcaster fighting an archer. The archer readies an attack with the trigger to fire as soon as he sees me start casting a spell. Lets say the spell I am about to cast has no verbal, somatic or material components, nor does it produce any kind of visible affect. Would the archer be able to fire his arrow? I would have to think no since there is no way he even knows a spell has been cast so how can he?

This has nothing to do with readying of course and purely with whether one can identify someone else casting a spell or using a spell-like ability or whatever. Outside of Spellcraft there are no rules on whether you can tell if someone else is doing something in particular. For instance, do you know that the archer is readying?

 

[Stalker0]

Change "charge as soon as the door opens" to "charge when the door finishes opening" and the logic makes more sense. You charge before the door finishes completely opening, but after its open enough to move inside.

For the spellcaster/archer argument, the person readying an action has to be able to notice the triggers for the readied action or they can't take it. If I ready an action to fire when someone comes into the room, and an invisible person comes in, I'm not going to fire. If I cannot tell a spell is being cast (which means no components at all) then I would not allow a readied action to take place.

 

[Whimsical]

Athough casting a spell with no components (or casting a spell-like ability) may lack the normal cues needed to identify spellcasting, the act does provoke an attack of opportunity. I would infer that such casting would be noticable to anyone as the caster dropping their guard for a moment, since anyone can take an AoO if they were threatening the caster.

 

[Stalker0]

Athough casting a spell with no components (or casting a spell-like ability) may lack the normal cues needed to identify spellcasting, the act does provoke an attack of opportunity. I would infer that such casting would be noticable to anyone as the caster dropping their guard for a moment, since anyone can take an AoO if they were threatening the caster.

This really depends on your interpretation of AOOs...are they:

1) Whoa, is that guy dropping his guard? Alright, I swing!!
OR
2) Alright I got 3 enemies on me, I'm swinging to keep them at bay. One is dropping his guard, and I get through his defenses and make an attack roll.

One version requires no active perception on your part, you are a master adventuruer, of course your swinging at the bad guys The other requires you actually see an opening in an opponents defenses.

 

[shilsen]

This really depends on your interpretation of AOOs...are they:

1) Whoa, is that guy dropping his guard? Alright, I swing!!
OR
2) Alright I got 3 enemies on me, I'm swinging to keep them at bay. One is dropping his guard, and I get through his defenses and make an attack roll.

One version requires no active perception on your part, you are a master adventuruer, of course your swinging at the bad guys The other requires you actually see an opening in an opponents defenses.

Considering that you don't have to be attacking an enemy in the same round to get an AoO, have to choose to take an AoO when the opportunity comes up, and can't take AoOs against enemies with total concealment against you (even if you just executed a full attack on them), it's a little hard to argue that it requires no active perception on your part.