(PF) Questions About Delayed and Readied Actions

[Talakeal]

I have a couple of questions about delayed and readied actions:

When you ready an action, how specific do you have to be, and can you make decisions based on your enemies action? For example, if I say I will attack the first enemy to come through a door, do I have to declare what weapon I use before I see what comes through?

Can you take a move / free action and then ready a standard action? For example, move up to a doorway on your turn and then ready yourself to attack whomever comes through? What about a delayed action?

Can you take a move / free action as part of a readied or delayed action? For example there are two doors, and you ready an action to walk up to whichever one the enemy comes through and then attack them?

Thanks!

[grarrrg]

Delay Link (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/combat#TOC-Delay)
Readying Link (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/combat#TOC-Ready)

Delayed is pretty simple, basically when your turn comes around you say "I delay", you don't get to take any actions until you _actually_ take your turn:
"you take no action and then act normally on whatever initiative count you decide to act. When you delay, you voluntarily reduce your own initiative result for the rest of the combat."


When you ready an action, how specific do you have to be, and can you make decisions based on your enemies action? For example, if I say I will attack the first enemy to come through a door, do I have to declare what weapon I use before I see what comes through?

You can NOT make decisions after you have Readied an action, you are allowed to Ready a Single action. Once you have Readied an action you choices are "condition met > I use my action", or "Conditions not met > you lose your action".

As for having to "choose your weapon", that's a minor gray area, and it basically depends on how strict your DM is. Although in the majority of instances you'll probably only have 1 weapon that you'd use anyway.


Can you take a move / free action and then ready a standard action? For example, move up to a doorway on your turn and then ready yourself to attack whomever comes through?

Yes. Readying an action is always only a Standard action.


Can you take a move / free action as part of a readied? For example there are two doors, and you ready an action to walk up to whichever one the enemy comes through and then attack them?

No. During a Readied action you can ONLY take the specific action you decided upon previously.
You can make a 5ft.-step during a Readied, but only if you have not already moved that round.

[Fitz10019]

I believe it's also considered okay to ready a partial charge, as long as you haven't moved in that turn, because it's a standard action. But my point of reference is 3.5, not PF.