Using Ready to get out of the way ?

[RigaMortus]

I think you can declare "I move when the dragon come within 30ft from me." Then the dragon charges, come close to you, they you move. I think the charge fails. I am not sure if the dragon stops at there, or goes to the original destination, or can choose either of them. As a DM, I will say that the dragon foes to the original destination.

I'm not sure you can get so specific in a Ready Action. It's one thing to Ready against a charge (whether that charging NPC is coming from 40 feet away or 10 feet away), but I don't think you can specify and pinpoint exactly when the ready goes off. In the middle of battle, I think it would be very hard to measure off when a charging opponent is exactly 30 feet from you.

 

[DarkMaster]

Braveheart[/i]. "Hold... hoooo-old... now!"
-Hyp.

One of my best cinematic moment !!!

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

From the SRD
Then, any time before your next action, you may take the readied action in response to that condition. The action occurs just before the action that triggers it. If the triggered action is part of another character’s activities, you interrupt the other character. Assuming he is still capable of doing so, he continues his actions once you complete your readied action. Your initiative result changes.

The way I see it, this means that once the charge begins, you perform your action. Things are happening essentially simultaneously. The opponent cannot react to what you do, run away, set a weapon etc. because they were not prepared for your action. You react to the opponent because you gave up your initiative to prepare to react to a specific situation. So the way I see it is that you are not standing there with a spear set or on the balls of your feet leaning to the side for a full six seconds waiting for the opponent to charge, you are waiting for the opponent to charge and as he does, you set the weapon, or dive out of the way. Because things are happening so fast at that point, actions cannot be changed.

 

[RigaMortus]

So how specific can you get with a Ready action? Can you state:

1) I ready a bow shot if I see the evil Wizard begin to cast a spell.
2) I ready a bow shot if I see the evil Wizard begin to cast an offensive spell.
3) I ready a bow shot if I see the evil Wizard begin to cast Meteor Swarm.
4) I ready a bow shot if I see the evil Wizard begin to cast Meteor Swarm, blink twice, and flare his nostrils.

Note: Assuming one has Spellcraft and can figure out the difference between spells.

Just wondering how intricate you can get with the Ready...

 

[Enkhidu]

[aside]

One of the things I've noticed come up in this thread a lot is how different people deal with declaring actions.

In our games (and I suppose that this is an outgrowth of the use of mini's) we've always played that everything happens "on the fly." An example using the initial poster's question:

A PC in is standing 30' away from an ogre in hide armor who the PC has already seen charge and whomp another PC. She therefore readies an action to move if the ogre moves within 15' of her. On the ogre's initiative, he turns out to be predictable and moves quickly toward the PC, looking like he's going to smash her. When he gets 15' away from the PC, her readied action interrupts the ogres movement and she moves away quickly at a 90' angle for one full movement of 30'. At this point, the ogre still has 5' left in normal movement. At this point, the ogre could change direction, change targets, or do anything that only required another 5' of movement and a standard action. Likely, he will simply use a double move to pursue her.

At our table this is something that happens a lot, and we feel it is a viable tactic. Using readied actions to buy time is something that works, and we've always thought fit into the rules as is.

Are we alone int this, or do y'all do something similar?

[/aside]

 

[two]

No, I think such readied actions (movements, etc.) are entirely within the rules, and our group has used them on occasion.

I never understood why people got so upset about this; it's not like "readying an action" gives you a huge advantage; you are simply delaying until something happens, plus, if it never happens, you have wasted your time. Big deal.

If a PC wants to move away from an enemy at the last moment, i.e. "ready action to move 30' away when an enemy attacks me" I'd allow it. It's perfectly legal, well-formed, and the rules cover it. The enemey might or might not get an AOO, depend on if the PC tumbles or not. But what's not legal about it? And how is it in any way unbalancing the game?

"Polearm twinks" as they say, can have fun with readied actions, on occasion. Let them. Who uses polearms, anyway? Jeez, let them have their moment in the sun, or everyone will walk around with *YAWN* greatswords.

 

[Rashak Mani]

Are we alone int this, or do y'all do something similar?

I have never seen this in any of our groups... in retrospect I don't know why. I suppose its not always obvious who will be the next "victim". Sounds like good tactics anyway.

 

[Felix]

How bout this to combat Polearm twinks:

Ready an action to 5' step in and attack when the Polearm twink attacks me.

Polearm guy steps forward, targets his attack, swings *ready action goes off* and finishes his swing but the square he targeted is no longer occupied. He used his MEA to close the distance, and his Standard action to attack. So his round is finished, yeah?

Then the guy again readies an action to 5' step and attack when polearm twink attacks. Viscious cycle ensues.

This would result in the polearm twink backing up and taking a defensive posture. (which is what polearm guys should be doing anyways.) It takes him out of the combat and neutralizez his twinkishness. Neh?

 

[Hypersmurf]

A PC in is standing 30' away from an ogre in hide armor who the PC has already seen charge and whomp another PC. She therefore readies an action to move if the ogre moves within 15' of her. On the ogre's initiative, he turns out to be predictable and moves quickly toward the PC, looking like he's going to smash her. When he gets 15' away from the PC, her readied action interrupts the ogres movement and she moves away quickly at a 90' angle for one full movement of 30'. At this point, the ogre still has 5' left in normal movement. At this point, the ogre could change direction, change targets, or do anything that only required another 5' of movement and a standard action. Likely, he will simply use a double move to pursue her.

That's fine, as long as the ogre was taking a Move action, and it was the Move action that was interrupted.

If he were taking a Charge action, then he can't change his mind and follow - Charge is a Full Round action, so he doesn't have a standard action left (even if he's only moved 25 feet), and he has to move in a straight line, so he can't change direction.

If he were taking a Run action, again, it's a Full Round action and it must be in a straight line.

If he moved 25 feet, came in reach, and attacked, triggering the opponent's "if I'm attacked" Ready action, then he's completed his Move action (even though he's only moved 25 feet), unless he's Spring Attacking. He can't move those last 5 feet of his speed after the Readied action completes, because he'd already started another action.

-Hyp.

 

[Enkhidu]

That's fine, as long as the ogre was taking a Move action, and it was the Move action that was interrupted.

If he were taking a Charge action, then he can't change his mind and follow - Charge is a Full Round action, so he doesn't have a standard action left (even if he's only moved 25 feet), and he has to move in a straight line, so he can't change direction.

If he were taking a Run action, again, it's a Full Round action and it must be in a straight line.

If he moved 25 feet, came in reach, and attacked, triggering the opponent's "if I'm attacked" Ready action, then he's completed his Move action (even though he's only moved 25 feet), unless he's Spring Attacking. He can't move those last 5 feet of his speed after the Readied action completes, because he'd already started another action.

-Hyp.

I just realized why you think that's different than I do - at our table a run doesn't become a "Run" unless he moves over 2 times his movement in a straight line. Until he does that, its a double move. And a charge doesn't become a "Charge" until he moves up to 2 times his movement and attacks. In effect, we don't use action declarations.

In other words, we define actions based on up-to-the-minute outcome rather than stated intent. For the most part, it works, and seems to create no more problems than most other people's interpretations of the rules.