Readying actions and responding to readied actions [3.5]

[supermonkeyjoe]

Readying an action can be awesome, but just how awesome can it be?

From the SRD:

Readying an Action

You can ready a standard action, a move action, or a free action. To do so, specify the action you will take and the conditions under which you will take it. 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. For the rest of the encounter, your initiative result is the count on which you took the readied action, and you act immediately ahead of the character whose action triggered your readied action.

You can take a 5-foot step as part of your readied action, but only if you don’t otherwise move any distance during the round.


Say you know a dude with a reach weapon (one that doesn't threaten his adjacent squares) is going to uber-charge you for many times your HP in damage. Can you ready an action to make a 5' step towards him and slap him in the face as soon as he's within 10', thus making him unable to hit you?

could you ready an action to cast dimension door/dimension slide as soon as an enemy attacks you, I assume this would provoke an AoO but would the attack actually take place or could the attacker then choose not to attack?

Say an enemy with a 30' movement moves 10' towards you and ends up close enough to attack, you've readied an action to move/teleport 20' away as soon as he is in attacking range and do so. Can the enemy "finish" his move action and use the remaining 20' of his movement to catch up to you or must he use another move action to do so?

[Cyrion]

If your readied action doesn't actually interfere with your opponent's action, I'd give the opponent the option of completing the original action or trying to change it as a response to what you've done. For instance, if your opponent was planning on moving 30 ft. before you teleported out of the way, your teleport hasn't changed anything, and he could still finish the 30 ft. movement. Some of it would be on a case-by-case basis depending on the level of commitment the original action required.

[supermonkeyjoe]

If your readied action doesn't actually interfere with your opponent's action, I'd give the opponent the option of completing the original action or trying to change it as a response to what you've done. For instance, if your opponent was planning on moving 30 ft. before you teleported out of the way, your teleport hasn't changed anything, and he could still finish the 30 ft. movement. Some of it would be on a case-by-case basis depending on the level of commitment the original action required.

So if your opponent was charging (a full round action) and you readied an action to move their attack would fail.

I can't find anything in the rules about changing move actions after they're declared though, if you move 15' with the intent of going down a corridor, then find it occupied by a dragon, can you move back again? is movement declared on a square by square basis or as a whole action?

[Fitz10019]

So if your opponent was charging (a full round action) and you readied an action to move their attack would fail.
Yes.


...if you move 15' with the intent of going down a corridor, then find it occupied by a dragon, can you move back again? is movement declared on a square by square basis or as a whole action?
Yes, square by square, with options changing based on new information, unless it's a committed action like charging.

[Curmudgeon]

I can't find anything in the rules about changing move actions after they're declared though, if you move 15' with the intent of going down a corridor, then find it occupied by a dragon, can you move back again? is movement declared on a square by square basis or as a whole action?
That's because, with a very few exceptions, D&D doesn't use declarations for actions. Each player is free to have their character move and act as they like, as long as there's at least one legal D&D action for them to take. If a player moves their character one square that could be a 5' adjustment, the start of a move action, or something else like a withdraw full-round action. They only have to declare what specific D&D action it is when that choice matters (such as a 5' step wouldn't provoke attacks of opportunity when a move action would).

You can't find rules about what happens after someone declares an action because there aren't rules for declaring actions generally.