Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 9760399" data-attributes="member: 42582">Doesn't it?<a href="https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/dnd/br-2024/rules-glossary#ReadyAction" target="_blank">Ready says</a>:You take the Ready action to wait for a particular circumstance before you act. To do so, you take this action on your turn, which lets you act by taking a Reaction before the start of your next turn. 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 zombie 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. When you Ready a spell, you cast it as normal (expending any resources used to cast it) but hold its energy, which you release with your Reaction when the trigger occurs. To be readied, a spell must have a casting time of an action, and holding on to the spell’s magic requires Concentration, which you can maintain up to the start of your next turn. If your Concentration is broken, the spell dissipates without taking effect.Reading the first three paragraphs, here is what I see:*This action - the Ready action - lets you (i) wait and thereby (ii) take a Reaction. [1st para] *The Reaction is triggered by circumstances that you decide on. [2nd para, 1st sentence] *What you will do when the trigger occurs is chosen by you when you wait, not when you respond. [2nd para, 2nd sentence] *When the trigger occurs, you get a choice whether or not to take your Reaction. [3rd para] *If you choose to take your reaction, then you take an action, or your move, in response to that trigger. [2nd para, 2nd sentence] - So the thing that you do in response to your trigger might be both a Reaction and an action.So far, two relevant things have been established: that the thing you do when the trigger occurs might be an action; and thus that a reaction can, sometimes, also be an action.The final paragraph on readying a spell introduces additional rules and complications around that particular choice;*You can only ready a spell with a casting time of 1 action. [2nd sentence] *You cast the spell as normal. [1st sentence] *You hold the spell's energy, which requires concentration. [1st and 2nd sentences] *When the trigger occurs, you release the spell's energy - that is, the spell takes effect. [1st sentence]Now, casting a spell is clearly not movement. It is an action. So, when does the readied action occur? The normal rule is that the readied action occurs in response to the trigger - thus why there is an action that is also a reaction.But the special rules for readying a spell tell us that the spell is cast as normal - so it seems that the readied action occurs when the ready action is performed. And what is the action used to cast a spell with a casting time of 1 Action? It is the Magic action (as per the rules for <a href="https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/dnd/br-2024/spells#CastingTime" target="_blank">Casting Times</a>).I don't think the argument I've just presented is knock-down: interpretive arguments rarely are. But I think my argument follows the standard canons of interpretation: I have given every word and phrase in the rules some work to do; I have interpreted the rules for Readying in their overall context, which includes the rule for Casting Times; and I have preserved rather than contradicted the implication generated by the general rules for Readying, that as well as the Ready action itself, and the Reaction, there is another action that occurs - the readied action.Whereas the alternative interpretation (i) is not fully consistent with the rules for Casting Times, as it requires treating the failure of those rules to mention the Ready action as a gap rather than a deliberate and meaningful omissions, and (ii) generates a departure from the general rules for readying an action, as it does not identify an action that is performed in addition to the Ready action itself, and the Reaction.This is why I tend to agree with [USER=7034611]@mamba[/USER].</blockquote>

Verification