Targeting a readied action.

[Yora]

When you ready an attack or a spell, do you have to specify the target? It could very well be that your intended target is out of the action by the time the trigger occures.
Is the action lost, or are you free to chose which enemy or object to target when the action is triggered?

[Man_Over_Game]

When you ready an attack or a spell, do you have to specify the target? It could very well be that your intended target is out of the action by the time the trigger occures.
Is the action lost, or are you free to chose which enemy or object to target when the action is triggered?

There's a lot of ambiguity and a lot of debate over this.

But I think the intent is, if you make the trigger broad (I attack once an enemy gets within 30 feet of me) then you choose the target. If the target is specified with the Ready (I attack the mage as soon as he makes a move) then the target is already chosen by the time the trigger occurs.

Personally, I just let people choose the target, at the time of the trigger, period. Unless you're some jackhole Rogue that's abusing Readied Sneak Attacks or something, a Ready Action incentivizes tactics over power. At my table, that's a good thing, and I try not to punish good things.