[3.5] Synchronicity and Readied Actions. How to rule?

[Feint's End]

Ok after reading through Readied Actions once more for an upcoming game (planning on using synchronicity abuses) I realized that the wording makes it a bit hard for me to understand how exactly readied actions work or are supposed to work.

So here are my problems with readied actions (I looked at the wizards forum but the explanations I found there are plain false or I'm looking at the wrong rules)
-Taking a readied actions basically takes no action at all (according to the forum it does take an immediate action but by RAW it states nowhere that it does so) ... you just trigger an earlier prepared action

-Readying an action shifts your iniative to the point where you use the action. Do you get your fullround immediately after you used your action? I don't think so ... but if it isn't like this then you loose a whole round of actions (at least in some cases) and that makes readying terrible in a lot of situations and often inferior to just shifting initiative. (Though I think that is RAW)

-Readying makes it possible to dodge attacks .... yes it does ... Why? Look:
1. your round ... use Standardactions to ready attack against anyone moving up to 5ft around you
2. event occurs .. you attack the enemy and take a five foot step before the enemy attacks making it impossible for said to attack you (at least if he doesn't have reach)
The whole wording on readying actions makes me kinda angry I have to admit :smallannoyed:

Am I missing any rules? How would you rule it? Thanks in advance

[Crake]

Readying an action isn't a non-action, it's a standard action which allows you to specify a condition upon which either a move, or standard action will trigger. As part of the action you can also perform a free action (such as 5 foot stepping, as long as you didn't move during your own turn). Your action triggers BEFORE the trigger resolves, thus if your trigger is someone attacking you, then you can act, then the person who triggered it resumes their turn.

As to whether the whole 5 foot step back and avoid the attack thing works or not, the way my group has always played is that if an enemy moves in and tries to attack you, then you 5 foot step back, they can opt to continue their move action then attack you anyway. That said, we also don't move the initiative order around with readied actions because we're lazy.

[Feint's End]

yeah you are right ... readying the action takes a standardaction but taking it doesn't require any action ... it just works as either standard, movement oder swift action. Therefor you can take an immediate action and a readied action in the same turn .... I just wanted to make that clear.

Well by RAW the thingy works but it might be reasonable to disallow it .. though since readying already sucks so bad in a lot of situations it might even be RAI?

thanks for the input anyways ... I'm still looking for a way to make the whole thing work :/.

What do the giants around here think on this topic? Might it be a reasonable houserule to remove the shifted initiative? How to you handle the whole thing?