Rules on turn fey or fiend holding an attack

[Ya boy J-roc]

So in my game last night I had a chain devil hold his attack for any player that comes into his reach. The party paladin casts 'turn the faithless' and the chain devil failed his save. Then the party monk moves into that 10 foot range, does all of his attacks and takes the held attack from the chain devil. The monk is arguing that since the chain devil was turned before he made his attack he should be cowering and therefore unable to use his held attack. I do not think he is correct, if the spell made the creatures use their reaction to flee they would loose the held attack and run on the paladin's turn. But since the turning effect should occur on the creatures next turn in combat I ruled that it should get to use their held attack. Where would you stand on this issue?

[Man_Over_Game]

I think this would be better placed in the 5e section. If you click on the triangle to the left of your post, you can "report" the problem to the mods, ask them to move it, and they'll do so.

As for my personal response, here's the information about Turn the Faithless:


Turn the Faithless. You can use your Channel Divinity to utter ancient words that are painful for fey and fiends to hear. As an action, you present your holy symbol, and each fey or fiend within 30 feet of you that can hear you must make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, the creature is turned for 1 minute or until it takes damage.

As to what Turned means:

A turned creature must spend its turns trying to move as far away from you as it can, and it can't willingly move to a space within 30 feet of you. It also can't take reactions. For its action, it can use only the Dash action or try to escape from an effect that prevents it from moving. If there's nowhere to move, the creature can use the Dodge action.

Readying/Holding your action requires you to spend your Reaction to activate.

The fleeing part takes place on the monster's turn, but the Reaction-loss takes place immediately.

The players were right.

But even if they weren't, what's the problem with letting it happen that way, anyway? It would have been much cooler to let it happen, and it's a niche effect that the Paladin would likely not see come up very often. Try to make sure that players feel rewarded for their niche abilities, rather than always trying to create a difficult challenge. Every other fight is going to be a challenge, but why should the one they're specialized for be?

[redwizard007]

A previous poster showed how you were wrong by RAW, but I'd like to show you an additional way to work this kind of thing out at the table. Think of the game as a movie...

*The paladin steps forward brandishing his holy symbol and uttering ancient words of power*
*The devil recoils in horror, dropping all thought of violence in haste to flee.*
*A brave monk steps forward and sends a flurry of attacks at the panicked devil.*
OR
*A brave monk steps forward, somehow jarring the devil into action...*

The second option isn't ENTIRELY unreasonable if the monk somehow did inadvertently break the effect, but then continuing the turn effect after the devil's attack just kills immersion.

The reality is that once the devil is turned, it should be turned. Yes, it lost it's action, just like it would have done had the players all pulled out bows and attacked from range. You goofed. It happens. Learn from it and move on.