NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Arial Black" data-source="post: 6771847" data-attributes="member: 6799649">The Ready action allows you to set an observable trigger, and a response to that trigger.The trigger can be something like, "If the warlock shoots a beam of eldritch blast at my friend...", and the response could be something like, "...I shoot an arrow at him".If the warlock has multiple beams, and all beams are simultaneous, then all of the beams will resolve before the arrow is shot, because the response cannot stop the trigger from resolving (unless otherwise specified).If the warlock has multiple beams, and each beam is shot consecutively, then the first beam (an observable, discrete event) will resolve then trigger the arrow response. If the arrow kills the warlock, then the subsequent beams never get used because there is no live warlock to choose targets.If the response, instead of being "...I shoot an arrow at him", were "...I dispel eldritch blast", what happens?If the beams are simultaneous, then the magic of eldritch blast has come and gone before the dispel even starts. There is nothing for the dispel to target.But if the beams are consecutive then the first beam resolves, and this triggers the dispel, which means that the rest of the beams don't get used because the spell itself has gone. If the beams are consecutive then eldritch blast lasts long enough to shoot every beam. We don't need to know how many seconds it lasts, only that it must last until the final beam has been shot.But isn't eldritch blast an instantaneous spell? Well, it has been argued in this thread that the word 'instantaneous' no longer has any connection to the word in real life! It has been argued that the only meaning of 'instantaneous' in the game is the *ahem* 'definition' of the word in the Spellcasting chapter of the 5E PHB, on p203 under Duration.But what does it actually say?Instantaneous spells aren't made of 'magic stuff' that is immune to being dispelled. They cannot be dispelled because the magic has already come and gone before it can be targeted with dispel magic.If the beams of eldritch blast were consecutive then the spell could be dispelled by a readied dispel magic after the first beam resolves, because the spell must exist until the final beam is resolved. The rules say that an instantaneous spell like eldritch blast cannot be dispelled because its magic exists only for an instant. Therefore, the beams cannot be consecutive, therefore the beams must be simultaneous.</blockquote>

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