Can any of you rules gurus out there give me some help with these questions from a player in a play by post game? Thanks so much!
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A large part of Jack's design calls for him to be making a lot of use [perhaps even abuse :-)] of the quickdraw feat so that he can seamlessly switch back and forth between ranged attacks using thrown weapons and melee combat. Part of that tactic will be that more often than not before a fight begins (and even sometimes during a fight) Jack will not have a weapon "ready". He will simply be waiting to see what tactical situation arises and using quickdraw to get whatever weapon he thinks will work best into action. With that sort of scenario in mind I have two questions for the GM.
a) So Jack is standing there with no "ready" weapon waiting to see what develops, and a bad guy runs past him. Can Jack make an attack of opportunity using quickdraw to get a melee weapon out and pound the bad guy with? Or does Jack need to have had the weapon "ready" beforehand? Regardless, once Jack does have the weapon out, he would have to wait until it was his turn to take a move action to sheath it again if that's what he wanted to do.
b) What about readied actions? Could Jack "ready" an "action" to quickdraw (free action) and then throw a chakram (standard action) at somebody? Or would he have to have the chakram out and "ready" in his hand before he could "ready" the standard action to throw it?
Jack cannot make an AoO. AoOs happen BEFORE the action that provoked them, and at that point, you didnt have a weapon drawn, sorry.
Also, RAW, you can only ready a standard action. Free actions can only be done on your turn, unless it explicitly says otherwise.
It's a great concept, and isnt really overpowered. Talk to your GM and see if a compromise can be reached, but atm, what you want to do isnt rules legal
This FAQ Entry is not for this specific situation, but there it states you can use your free action to reload a weapon as part of your attack, so you can do multiple AoO.
So now that we have a precedent of using a free action outside of your own turn (but as part of an actual attack, not just anytime), it's not really a stretch to extend it to "draw thrown weapons as a free action as part of your attack".
So:
a) Well, normally the problem here is that without Improved Unarmed Strike or a drawn weapon you don't threaten anything at all and therefore can't do AoO. However if you have Quick Draw, and you go by above interpretation, then it makes sense that you threaten as long as you have a quickdraw-able weapon ready to quickdraw. But this may be more RAI right now and less RAW, so you should definitely check with your GM.
b) Yes, I would say he can do that, reasoning see above.
So now that we have a precedent of using a free action outside of your own turn, it's not really a stretch to extend it to "draw thrown weapons as a free action as part of your attack".
Actually it is quite a stretch. The faq entry was for that specific feat that for the specific situation so the feat could work for those who get more than 1 AoO a round.
On the ready angle, when you ready, you ready a single action. The rules specifically call out it takes your up your whole Ready to perform a free 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."
Part of that tactic will be that more often than not before a fight begins (and even sometimes during a fight) Jack will not have a weapon "ready". He will simply be waiting to see what tactical situation arises and using quickdraw to get whatever weapon he thinks will work best into action.
By RAW, no on both counts.
What is he actually trying to do, though? Why not keep his melee weapon out and ready, then quickdraw throwing weapons with his other hand during his turn?
If he has a two-handed weapon, he could use it normally, then on his turn if he wants to throw, just let go with one hand, throw with the other, then re-grip.
If he has a light shield or buckler, transfer melee weapon to that hand, throw, transfer back.
If he really wants to have his hands free when it's not his turn, he could get a gauntlet or spiked gauntlet. Now he threatens, and can take AoOs, but still use his hands for whatever bizarre juggling thing he's got.
This kind of turned into advice, I guess. But I'm curious what he's trying to do with the character.
Jack cannot make an AoO. AoOs happen BEFORE the action that provoked them, and at that point, you didnt have a weapon drawn, sorry.
Also, RAW, you can only ready a standard action. Free actions can only be done on your turn, unless it explicitly says otherwise.
It's a great concept, and isnt really overpowered. Talk to your GM and see if a compromise can be reached, but atm, what you want to do isnt rules legal
Just to nitpick, isn't it that you can do a free action on someone else's turn, but it's swift actions that you can only do on yours? I thought I read that, recently.
Not the case. The often argued logic behind this on the forums is that speaking is specifically called out as a free action that can be done when it isnt your turn, and they wouldnt have had to make that distinction if it could be done simply by being a free action.
You're thinking immediate action and swift action.
That makes sense.