It says it extends your reach by 5 ft. until the end of your turn. Is this natural reach or weapon reach, like a polearm? For example, if I use this wielding a greatsword, does that mean I can attack opponents at 10 ft. away, but not adjacent? Or do I threaten all within 10 ft? The type of reach given is unclear.
It says it extends your reach by 5 ft. until the end of your turn. Is this natural reach or weapon reach, like a polearm? For example, if I use this wielding a greatsword, does that mean I can attack opponents at 10 ft. away, but not adjacent? Or do I threaten all within 10 ft? The type of reach given is unclear.
Natural reach, but note that it's only until the end of your turn, so you wouldn't really be threatening the area except while you're attacking on your own turn.
Although by that definition too, you could (assuming you win initiative) announce your lunge, hold your action, take AoO against foes within reach, and then go to town on your new modified initiative action.
Wouldn't allow it. Can't begin your turn and then delay it.
I would allow someone to declare a readied action along the lines of "When x is five to ten feet from me, I want to five foot step towards him, use lunge and attack." But not to announce things and then delay initiative.
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Lunge (Combat)
You can strike foes that would normally be out of reach.
Prerequisites: Base attack bonus +6.
Benefit: You can increase the reach of your melee attacks by 5 feet until the end of your turn by taking a –2 penalty to your AC until your next turn. You must decide to use this ability before any attacks are made.
Nowhere does it say that you cannot choose to delay your actions.
You are correct however, in that I was wrong to say "hold" or "delay" and that I should have used "readied".
Delay
By choosing to delay, you take no action and then act normally on whatever initiative count you decide to act. When you delay, you voluntarily reduce your own initiative result for the rest of the combat. When your new, lower initiative count comes up later in the same round, you can act normally. You can specify this new initiative result or just wait until some time later in the round and act then, thus fixing your new initiative count at that point.
You never get back the time you spend waiting to see what's going to happen. You also can't interrupt anyone else's action (as you can with a readied action).
Initiative Consequences of Delaying: Your initiative result becomes the count on which you took the delayed action. If you come to your next action and have not yet performed an action, you don't get to take a delayed action (though you can delay again).
If you take a delayed 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.
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.
Note that the readied action is an extra action you take "after your turn is over". The end of your turn still occurs at the normal time. The readied action is taken out-of-turn, not as part of your turn.
By RAW, you wouldn't get the benefit of Lunge even for your readied action.