Readied Action + Partial Charge?


Rules Questions


Charge:
Charging is a special full-round action that allows you to move up to twice your speed and attack during the action. Charging, however, carries tight restrictions on how you can move.

Movement During a Charge: You must move before your attack, not after. You must move at least 10 feet (2 squares) and may move up to double your speed directly toward the designated opponent. If you move a distance equal to your speed or less, you can also draw a weapon during a charge attack if your base attack bonus is at least +1.

You must have a clear path toward the opponent, and nothing can hinder your movement (such as difficult terrain or obstacles). You must move to the closest space from which you can attack the opponent. If this space is occupied or otherwise blocked, you can't charge. If any line from your starting space to the ending space passes through a square that blocks movement, slows movement, or contains a creature (even an ally), you can't charge. Helpless creatures don't stop a charge.

If you don't have line of sight to the opponent at the start of your turn, you can't charge that opponent.

You can't take a 5-foot step in the same round as a charge.

If you are able to take only a standard action on your turn, you can still charge, but you are only allowed to move up to your speed (instead of up to double your speed) and you cannot draw a weapon unless you possess the Quick Draw feat. You can't use this option unless you are restricted to taking only a standard action on your turn.

Attacking on a Charge: After moving, you may make a single melee attack. You get a +2 bonus on the attack roll and take a –2 penalty to your AC until the start of your next turn.

A charging character gets a +2 bonus on combat maneuver attack rolls made to bull rush an opponent.

Even if you have extra attacks, such as from having a high enough base attack bonus or from using multiple weapons, you only get to make one attack during a charge.

Lances and Charge Attacks: A lance deals double damage if employed by a mounted character in a charge.

Weapons Readied against a Charge: Spears, tridents, and other weapons with the brace feature deal double damage when readied (set) and used against a charging character.

Ready:
The ready action lets you prepare to take an action later, after your turn is over but before your next one has begun. Readying is a standard action. It does not provoke an attack of opportunity (though the action that you ready might do so).

Readying an Action: You can ready a standard action, a move action, a swift action, or a free action. To do so, specify the action you will take and the conditions under which you will take it. Then, anytime before your next action, you may take the readied action in response to that condition. The action occurs just before the action that triggers it. If the triggered action is part of another character's activities, you interrupt the other character. Assuming he is still capable of doing so, he continues his actions once you complete your readied action. Your initiative result changes. For the rest of the encounter, your initiative result is the count on which you took the readied action, and you act immediately ahead of the character whose action triggered your readied action.

You can take a 5-foot step as part of your readied action, but only if you don't otherwise move any distance during the round.

Initiative Consequences of Readying: Your initiative result becomes the count on which you took the readied action. If you come to your next action and have not yet performed your readied action, you don't get to take the readied action (though you can ready the same action again). If you take your readied action in the next round, before your regular turn comes up, your initiative count rises to that new point in the order of battle, and you do not get your regular action that round.

Distracting Spellcasters: You can ready an attack against a spellcaster with the trigger “if she starts casting a spell.” If you damage the spellcaster, she may lose the spell she was trying to cast (as determined by her Spellcraft check result).

Readying to Counterspell: You may ready a counterspell against a spellcaster (often with the trigger “if she starts casting a spell”). In this case, when the spellcaster starts a spell, you get a chance to identify it with a Spellcraft check (DC 15 + spell level). If you do, and if you can cast that same spell (and are able to cast it and have it prepared, if you prepare spells), you can cast the spell as a counterspell and automatically ruin the other spellcaster's spell. Counterspelling works even if one spell is divine and the other arcane.

A spellcaster can use dispel magic to counterspell another spellcaster, but it doesn't always work.

Readying a Weapon against a Charge: You can ready weapons with the brace feature, setting them to receive charges. A readied weapon of this type deals double damage if you score a hit with it against a charging character.

So help me understand this. Because you can only take a 5-foot step during a Readied Action you CANNOT do a Partial Charge, correct?


No you can ready a partial charge. The line you bolded doesn't say you can ONLY take a 5-foot step, just that you can take a 5 foot step with said action IF you don't take any other movement. A partial charge is up to your movement and a single attack, thus you can't eek out an extra 5 feet on top of that. You can ready, for example readying a 5 foot along with an attack when a caster tries to 5-foot away to cast, and I believe that's what that line speaks to.


Second. You can ready a partial charge.


I agree with the above.

Also, If you play with 3.5 resources, PHBII has a feat that allows you to ready a counter charge, so that if an enemy charges, you charge him in response, called cometary collission.


harmor wrote:

Charging is a special full-round action

You can't use this option unless you are restricted to taking only a standard action on your turn.
You can ready a standard action, a move action, a swift action, or a free action.

you cannot ready a charge because it is a full-round action

even when using the partial charge clause it is still a full round action that you are allowed to do when you are restricted to a standard action

Grand Lodge

there's a feat, "rhino charge" IIRC, that allow to ready a partial charge.

The Exchange Owner - D20 Hobbies

1 person marked this as a favorite.

You can not ready a charge unless you have the Rhino Charge feat.

Pretty sure Rhino Charge feat didn’t exist 7 years ago when this thread was created.

Silver Crusade

Pretty much, yeah.


It was another era, when D&D material was readily accepted, not least because there was much less PF material printed at the time.


Yep, can't ready a partial charge thanks to the existence of Rhino Charge....well sort of. You can only ever make a partial charge if you are restricted (on your turn) to only being able to take a standard action. Which means if you could take a full round action you can't make a partial charge in the first place.

So the only time you could ready a partial charge (before the existence of Rhino Charge) was if you could only take a standard action (relatively rare sort of effect). With the existence of Rhino Charge it does restrict it to a very rare circumstance. Personally, it's rare enough that I Give players the feat for free if/when they meet the requirements.


You can only partially charge when the thread is partially dead. Over 7 years dead in this case.


That is because the thread is staggered.

Staggered wrote:
A staggered creature may take a single move action or standard action each round (but not both, nor can he take full-round actions). A staggered creature can still take free, swift, and immediate actions. A creature with nonlethal damage exactly equal to its current hit points gains the staggered condition.

Since the thread is restricted to a single standard action, it can do a partial charge.

/cevah

Community / Forums / Pathfinder / Pathfinder First Edition / Rules Questions / Readied Action + Partial Charge? All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in.
Recent threads in Rules Questions