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<blockquote data-quote="Shiroiken" data-source="post: 7352708" data-attributes="member: 6775477">It seems likely that the focus of a readied action should be fairly obvious. In your example, both would be staring at the door, the fighter would likely have an arrow knocked and drawn, and the cleric would have his holy symbol out or his hands in a particular position (assuming S or M components). The trigger may not be obvious, but might be discernible with an Insight check (a common &quot;readied&quot; 3E action was to shoot a caster when the cast a spell, potentially disrupting it).I don't know of any official ruling on spells cast and held for a Ready Reaction. Nothing in the PHB that I saw says you lose the energy at the start of your turn, so as a DM, I would allow the spell to remain Readied (taking up the next turn's action as needed) so long as the caster maintains concentration. Prior editions, IIRC, did cause you to lose the spell though, so other DMs may rule differently. As far as ready outside of combat, there is nothing in the book that says you cannot, therefore it's a DM's call. IMO, readied attacks and spells can be problematic, because it creates combat outside of initiative (which shouldn't happen in 5E). The easy solution I use is that you can ready anything, but if the trigger would normally cause initiative to be rolled (e.g. a hostile creature moves into view), you gain surprise instead, assuming the target doesn't realize you are there. If they are already aware of you (or any potential threat) before causing the trigger, then initiative is rolled as normal.Edit: Ninja'd by @Prakriti on the readied action out of combat.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Shiroiken, post: 7352708, member: 6775477"] It seems likely that the focus of a readied action should be fairly obvious. In your example, both would be staring at the door, the fighter would likely have an arrow knocked and drawn, and the cleric would have his holy symbol out or his hands in a particular position (assuming S or M components). The trigger may not be obvious, but might be discernible with an Insight check (a common "readied" 3E action was to shoot a caster when the cast a spell, potentially disrupting it). I don't know of any official ruling on spells cast and held for a Ready Reaction. Nothing in the PHB that I saw says you lose the energy at the start of your turn, so as a DM, I would allow the spell to remain Readied (taking up the next turn's action as needed) so long as the caster maintains concentration. Prior editions, IIRC, did cause you to lose the spell though, so other DMs may rule differently. As far as ready outside of combat, there is nothing in the book that says you cannot, therefore it's a DM's call. IMO, readied attacks and spells can be problematic, because it creates combat outside of initiative (which shouldn't happen in 5E). The easy solution I use is that you can ready anything, but if the trigger would normally cause initiative to be rolled (e.g. a hostile creature moves into view), you gain surprise instead, assuming the target doesn't realize you are there. If they are already aware of you (or any potential threat) before causing the trigger, then initiative is rolled as normal. Edit: Ninja'd by @[B]Prakriti [/B]on the readied action out of combat. [/QUOTE]

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