Ready action and what counts as a round

[GriffinRider]

Hello all, I've got a question and as usual I apologize in advance if it's already been addressed here.

It boils down to this: Can a character who rolls a low initiative (goes late in the round) take the Ready action on his or her turn in preparation for a trigger that happens in the next round? Is a round from the top of the order to the bottom, or is it from a character's turn to their next turn? or both? If it's one or the other, which is it for the Ready action? Let me describe a scenario:

Let's say I've got rogue A, troll, and cleric B, in that order of initiative. The troll is 50 feet away, and rogue A and cleric B are standing close together. In the first round rogue A does nothing, because the troll is too far away. The troll advances 30 feet on it's turn, leaving it with 20 feet to go. Cleric B readies an action to attack the troll if it comes within 5 feet of him. Round ends. Next round, rogue A readies an action to attack the troll if it comes within 5 feet, giving up his other actions and movement. Troll moves twenty feet up to both rogue A and cleric B, triggering both of their ready actions. Rogue A attacks (whether he hits or misses doesn't matter for this example), using his reaction for the round, and he's done. Cleric B attacks, using his reaction. Troll attacks three times. It's now cleric B's turn in the initiative order, so he can take his action and movement. Round ends.

Is this roughly accurate? If so it seems like the character with the higher initiative gets the short end of the stick. However, if a character can't take the ready action expecting it to "carry over" into the next round, isn't that also rife with ridiculous possibilities? I'm thinking of Lancelot in the Holy Grail, running towards the guards without getting closer and then suddenly being right on top of them without them being able to do anything.

Just wondering if I'm missing something here?

[BurgerBeast]

Yeah, that’s how I run it. It may not be RAW, but it’s how I play.

...because I play with the variant (variant or homebrew?) rule of rolling initiative every round. A “round” is therefore of variable length, starting and ending with your turns. So, if you ready your action at the end of Round 1, then win initiative on Round 2, you blew it. Same with single round spell effects. But it can go the other way, too. You could use the shield spell and then lose initiative, and effectively get two rounds out of it.



Let's say I've got rogue A, troll, and cleric B, in that order of initiative. The troll is 50 feet away, and rogue A and cleric B are standing close together. In the first round rogue A does nothing, because the troll is too far away.

Why not:
(1) attack from range
(2) move forward and ready an attack
(3) bonus action dash and attack


The troll advances 30 feet on it's turn, leaving it with 20 feet to go.

Why not double move?


Cleric B readies an action to attack the troll if it comes within 5 feet of him.

Why not move and attack since he’s 20 feet away. Grant advantage to the rogue.

Or cast a cantrip from range and kite

[Zhorn]

Is there a particular measurement that requires counting in rounds?

I know rounds are a good measurement for the DM to use as a tool, and for the length of spell effects saying the duration is '10 rounds' is just as valid as '1 minute', but I'm wondering if there's a mechanic that needs it for a rules understanding?

As far as I understand it, most abilities and effects tend to revolve around the start/end of a creatures turn, or have a reliance on the availability of a reaction, so one's position on the overall initiative count shouldn't matter, only their relative position to others in the turn order. ie; the turn of the creature at the end of the round in relation to the creature at the start of a round is pretty much the same as the turn of the creature of the creature at the start of the round in relation to the creature coming second in that round.
With this perspective it's less important whether you are first or last in a round, but the relative distance between your turn and theirs. For a single turn you get the most benefit out of being before your opponent (they cannot take a turn if you kill them during your's), but for multiple turn being immediately after your opponent (assuming there are other turns in between) gives the greater advantage of any effects you can impart being present during multiple turns.

Now from your post; I take it the questions would be where the 'reset' is for each round? To that I say their isn't one. readied actions and reactions (held or available) are not reset till the start of your next turn, so from that perspective a full round for the individual is taken from the start of one turn through to the start of the next turn. As long as you are not holding levelled spell as a held action (which would expend the slot when it is readied), declaring "I continue to hold my attack" is valid. So in your scenario; rogue A (assuming they don't have a ranged attack) would start holding an attack as a readied action on their first turn, and if the trigger doesn't occur for a full round, as the beginning of their second turn they opt to do something else with their action/reaction or declare "I continue to hold my attack".

[Cry Havoc]

Of course you can. Says so in the PHB under the Ready action:

''Sometimes you want to get the jump on a foe or wait for a particular circumstance before you act. To do so, you can take the Ready action on your turn, which lets you act using your reaction before the start of your next turn.''

On your Turn you take the Ready action. You remain ready till the start of your next Turn the following Round.

[RSP]

A round is both the time between the start of one character’s turn to start of that same character’s next turn; and also, the time between the start of the highest initiative character’s turn and the end of the lowest initiative character’s turn.

[Millstone85]

A round is both the time between the start of one character’s turn to start of that same character’s next turn; and also, the time between the start of the highest initiative character’s turn and the end of the lowest initiative character’s turn.For the latter, I would have said the time between the start of the highest initiative character’s turn and the start of that same character's next turn.

But I believe the repeat of initiative order is the only expression of it. All other rules refer to the former.

[RSP]

For the latter, I would have said the time between the start of the highest initiative character’s turn and the start of that same character's next turn.


I phrased it the way I did to show that a round is self-contained: such as “the first round of combat.” The description isn’t reliant on their being a second round of combat.

There is no difference in play from describing it either way, but your description relies upon the start of the next round (the start of the turn of the highest initiative character) to end the previous. My description was intentionally making each round as it’s own complete unit.

[da newt]

On a related note, if you ready an attack and your class/level grants you multi-attack (fighter 5 for ex), when the trigger to attack happens can you attack twice (with multi-attack) or only once?

[nickl_2000]

On a related note, if you ready an attack and your class/level grants you multi-attack (fighter 5 for ex), when the trigger to attack happens can you attack twice (with multi-attack) or only once?

You only attack once, this one is pretty clear. In the Extra Attack feature for each class it says
"Beginning at 5th level, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn."

See in bold where it says "on your turn"


It gets a little more ugly when a monster (or moon druid) with multi-attack is doing it though, I don't know that answer

[GriffinRider]

Yes, since the Ready action sort of uses "reaction" as it's function you can only get one attack with it even if you have multiple attacks otherwise. I would think that counts for monsters with Multi-attack. Just like an OA, you only have enough time to fire off one swing, quick spell, or whatever, but not your full arsenal. I was mostly wondering about the fairness (or lack thereof) of the slower character being able to get what amounts to an OA on a foe that is entering his or her space, instead of leaving it, and then getting the rest of their actions when their turn in the initiative comes around, while the quicker character either misses out on their actions and movement entirely or at best gives them up for a single action (or move, or object interaction, etc) when the trigger occurs after their initiative. That was a run-on sentence.

BurgerBeast - I know my example is full of "why-nots?"; the rogue could have used a ranged weapon, or advanced on the troll; the troll could have used the Dash action to close faster, etc. It was late and I was just trying to quickly construct a scenario that illustrated the point. That example isn't even what happened in the game (which would take a while to describe) but it is the very stripped-down version. For what it's worth I know how silly some of the choices seem.




Of course you can. Says so in the PHB under the Ready action:

''Sometimes you want to get the jump on a foe or wait for a particular circumstance before you act. To do so, you can take the Ready action on your turn, which lets you act using your reaction before the start of your next turn.''

On your Turn you take the Ready action. You remain ready till the start of your next Turn the following Round.

Thanks for that. For some reason I focused on the wording in the PHB that says "...you can take the Ready action on your turn so you can act later in the round using your reaction" which almost makes it seem like it has to be later in the same round.

[Cry Havoc]

Thanks for that.

No worries.

Your turn always happens at the same time each round (readying just grants you a special reaction; it doesnt change your place in the round).

In your example, yeah the Cleric could attack as a reaction on R2 and then take his turn later that same round.

It doesnt prejudice the Rogue though. He's had 2 whole turns of action already. He did nothing on turn one and then readied turn 2. That's his choice. Plus; he goes next (after the cleric, first on Round 3). The Cleric has only had 1 turn to date.

It works just fine as is, and is designed to avoid 'delay actions' and changing place in the intitiative order as many (many) abilities are keyed off the words 'at the start/ end of your turn'.

If you're surprised, you still get a turn (though you cant move or take actions). This is not just semantics; this is important for many game effects (for example if you're under an effect that forces or allows you a save at the start/ end of your turn etc).

[BeefGood]

Let's say I've got rogue A, troll, and cleric B, in that order of initiative. The troll is 50 feet away, and rogue A and cleric B are standing close together. In the first round rogue A does nothing, because the troll is too far away. The troll advances 30 feet on it's turn, leaving it with 20 feet to go. Cleric B readies an action to attack the troll if it comes within 5 feet of him. Round ends. Next round, rogue A readies an action to attack the troll if it comes within 5 feet, giving up his other actions and movement. Troll moves twenty feet up to both rogue A and cleric B, triggering both of their ready actions. Rogue A attacks (whether he hits or misses doesn't matter for this example), using his reaction for the round, and he's done. Cleric B attacks, using his reaction. Troll attacks three times. It's now cleric B's turn in the initiative order, so he can take his action and movement. Round ends.


Can Cleric B now use a reaction? Seems like he should be able to do so, because the reaction that he used earlier in this round was a carryover from the previous round.

[Tanarii]

Thanks for that. For some reason I focused on the wording in the PHB that says "...you can take the Ready action on your turn so you can act later in the round using your reaction" which almost makes it seem like it has to be later in the same round.
They changed it in the errata to "which lets you act using your reaction before the start of your next turn.”

https://media.wizards.com/2020/dnd/downloads/PH-Errata.pdf

You must have an old edition PHB.

[Darc_Vader]

Can Cleric B now use a reaction? Seems like he should be able to do so, because the reaction that he used earlier in this round was a carryover from the previous round.

Yes. I don’t have the exact text in front of right now, but you refresh your reaction at the beginning of your turn.