[3.5] Question on Readied Actions

[DragonKnight]

Question that puzzles me, since it's never really discussed completely in depth.

Say an enemy is in a room, readying an action to attack/cast a spell on the first person to walk in the room.

The party is walking in the room, the first one readying an action to attack the first person they see.

How exactly would this be resolved in a 'fair' manner?

[Grail]

Readied actions can only be used in combat. As combat hasn't started yet, no readied action. This would come down to a surprise round possibility.

[Zonasiy]

Since walking into a room is an action, I would say the enemy's readied action goes off first.

[DragonKnight]

I only ask because readied actions have caused some tension in our group, I'm planning to start up my own campaign soon and want to avoid that tension by having sufficient data to back up my reasoning. I'm trying to avoid the 'I'm the DM, I'm right' situation if possible.

[Zonasiy]

Actually, if it's out of combat, that's what spot checks and initiative are for.

[Thurbane]

I've always thought that disallowing readied actions out of combat to be a tad silly, but I can see why that's the RAW - it would be fairly open to abuse.

Maybe allow the DMs discretionary "+2 to any roll" bonus to Initiative if a creature is "readied" out of combat to ambush somone as they enter the room.

[ericgrau]

Readying an action is a standard action. The readied action occurs immediately before the triggering action and causes you to hold your other actions until you reach the trigger or give up. So if two creatures ready an action there is a stalemate as both wait forever while the other doesn't trigger their readied action.

So if you walked into the room that means you can't have a readied action prepared. But the monster can. I mean you could move and then ready an action, but then you would have already trigged the monster's readied action with the move. And readying an action after that would be pointless when you could just attack instead.

He'd have to know you're coming, though, just as a matter of common sense. How long can he hold up his casting-hands ready to gesture or his bow pulled back and ready to fire without getting cramps? How long can he stare with full attention?

[Clementx]

Readying mechanically only happens in combat. Waiting vigilantly to attack is not the ready action- its an ambush. And there is already a mechanic for that- the surprise round. If an enemy is primed for violence when you walk in, you grant the surprise round (which oddly enough is also a standard action) to it, pending Spot/Listen checks if applicable. If the enemy was loafing around and the PC was walking in with bow drawn, the reverse may occur.

[Fax Celestis]

"Readying a spell for someone to come into the room" is called a "surprise round".

[ericgrau]

Readying mechanically only happens in combat. Waiting vigilantly to attack is not the ready action- its an ambush. And there is already a mechanic for that- the surprise round. If an enemy is primed for violence when you walk in, you grant the surprise round (which oddly enough is also a standard action) to it, pending Spot/Listen checks if applicable. If the enemy was loafing around and the PC was walking in with bow drawn, the reverse may occur.

I find this implausible since many/all the other combat actions can be done outside of "combat" and many "non-combat" actions are described with move/standard/full-round actions and other shared terms. Plus I think of "readied" as bow drawn, aimed and arrow pulled back, weapon raised and poised to hit a specific target, spell component drawn and hands held in the primary position of the gesturing, etc. IMO, if the PC says "I shoot the first monster that comes" I'd ask "through which door?" [/IMO] As for letting the PC move or perform any other action while readying an action, that's completely out of the question.

However, treating it like an ambush may be a simpler and better way to think about it and handle things when both parties know about and are approaching the other cautiously. But note that, like I said before, when both sides don't know something else is coming right now (95% of all encounters), you cannot ready an action.