Can I ready the Help action in combat?

[Armok]

I might be blind but I've been looking for something to go one way or another on this, and for the life of me I can't find anything. So I figured if anybody knows the rules well enough to say for certain it's gonna be you guys!

Let's say I have a familiar. Could I ready, say, the Plane Shift spell, and then have my Familiar ready the Help action, and when something gets in close my familiar would help to give me advantage on the melee spell attack for plane shift against the hostile creature?

[bendking]

I mean, it's an action, so yeah.

[RulesJD]

I might be blind but I've been looking for something to go one way or another on this, and for the life of me I can't find anything. So I figured if anybody knows the rules well enough to say for certain it's gonna be you guys!

Let's say I have a familiar. Could I ready, say, the Plane Shift spell, and then have my Familiar ready the Help action, and when something gets in close my familiar would help to give me advantage on the melee spell attack for plane shift against the hostile creature?

You can definitely do that.

But why not just have it take the Help action immediately? Are you worried about another ally attacking it before your turn?

[Lunali]

You can definitely do that.

But why not just have it take the Help action immediately? Are you worried about another ally attacking it before your turn?

Because the help action has to be taken while within 5 feet of the target.

I wouldn't recommend readying Plane Shift though, gambling a 7th+ level slot on an enemy moving closer on their next turn and you not losing concentration in the mean time is a risky gamble.

[NaughtyTiger]

But why not just have it take the Help action immediately? (edited)Because the help action has to be taken while within 5 feet of the target.

I don't understand how readying it helps in this case (or any case). you can't move during the readied help, so if you aren't within 5ft during your turn, you won't be within 5ft during your reaction.

[tieren]

I don't understand how readying it helps in this case (or any case). you can't move during the readied help, so if you aren't within 5ft during your turn, you won't be within 5ft during your reaction.

Suppose you were fighting a fiend that primarily uses a brutal melee attack and you believed it was about to rush up and kill you. You could ready the spell with a trigger of "when the fiend moves to withing 5 feet of me" then when it rushes up you can send it straight to hell without it getting the chance to attack you.

Its still pretty risky.

[Solunaris]

I don't understand how readying it helps in this case (or any case). you can't move during the readied help, so if you aren't within 5ft during your turn, you won't be within 5ft during your reaction.

Because in order for the Help Action to grant Advantage on an Attack Roll the creature using the Help Action must be within 5ft of the Target of the Attack Roll.

[Zuras]

Because in order for the Help Action to grant Advantage on an Attack Roll the creature using the Help Action must be within 5ft of the Target of the Attack Roll.

No. The Help action must be taken when you are within 5’ of the target, but there is nothing in the rules that requires you stay within 5’ after taking the help action for it to grant advantage.

[Solunaris]

No. The Help action must be taken when you are within 5’ of the target, but there is nothing in the rules that requires you stay within 5’ after taking the help action for it to grant advantage.

That is basically what I meant, even if it's not what I said since I assumed we were talking in the context of why we would ready the help action instead of just using it. For instance, if there are multiple enemies that might approach the caster and the caster has set himself to ready a touch range spell for when one of them rushes him and set their familiar to use the Help action right before the spell goes off.

But you are right, you could use the Help action and then retreat directly afterward although I doubt that'd be a good idea for a familiar or particularly useful in the context of this thread.

[Zuras]

That is basically what I meant, even if it's not what I said since I assumed we were talking in the context of why we would ready the help action instead of just using it. For instance, if there are multiple enemies that might approach the caster and the caster has set himself to ready a touch range spell for when one of them rushes him and set their familiar to use the Help action right before the spell goes off.

But you are right, you could use the Help action and then retreat directly afterward although I doubt that'd be a good idea for a familiar or particularly useful in the context of this thread.


Understood. I just wanted to be clear that the OP doesn’t need to have the familiar Help as a reaction unless the player either hasn’t decided on a target already or doesn’t want the familiar adjacent to the enemy till the last possible instant. Otherwise they can just Help, then fly away.