Clarification on held actions

[alanek2002]

A few times in the campaign I am playing in, both our group, and a group of enemies were all holding full attacks/spells while diplomatic banter was traded. Is there anything special for this, or is it just initiative order when it falls to combat? And does holding an action make you no longer flat-footed? Thanks.

[Serpentine]

Are you talking about preparing an action? If so, each action held should be accompanied by a very specific trigger: "I will cast this spell if that guard goes to draw his sword", "I draw my sword and attack that caster the moment my boss takes an aggressive action", etc. Thus the action order would be in the order in which they are triggered: The boss gives an order to attack, the guard draws his sword to attack the caster, and then the caster blasts the guard. Then, once all the prepared actions have been triggered, you go into initiative order.
I don't know whether there's a RAW reading on this, but I'd say no one's flat-footed because of how much attention they must be paying to the situation, and that the prepared actions supersede any surprise round anyway.

[Diarmuid]

While the banter was going on, had initiative actually been rolled yet? If not, then there is no such thing as "holding your action". You are flat-footed until your first initiative comes up (or other exemptive situations).

Think of it like an old west shootout. Both guys standing there know the other guy is gonna try and shoot them dead, just not exactly when. They may jaw at one another for a while insulting their mothers and whatnot, but until one of them actually does anything intiative hasnt been rolled.

In that case, the guy who pulls first is either going to get a surprise round and be able to draw his weapon (and maybe fire if he has quick draw), or the other guy might make an opposed spot check and then they're just down to initiative. In the case of no quick draw the other guy may actually shoot first as his initiative is higher and he can draw + shoot before the other guy's turn comes up.

[Zherog]

Also of note: you can't ready a full attack, only a standard action. (Barring tricks that allow you to get a full attack as a standard action, of course.)

[Seharvepernfan]

If both people are aware of each other, then there are no readied actions until after initiative is rolled. If one is aware and the other isn't, the aware one can take a surprise roud. Also, it's not a "held" action, it's "readied" or "delayed", which are different from each other.

Tome of Battle has rules for staredowns.

So, basically: initiative, then readied actions.