Is there a difference between "Readying a Weapon against a Charge" and "Readying an attack when enemy gets in range"
Specific example: I have a brace weapon, let's say a long spear. Mounted enemy is 25' away. I want to attack when they get within reach. If they charge I want to do double damage.
A) Do I have to ready to receive a charge (2x damage on a hit) ~~OR~~ ready an attack (1x damage on a hit)?
B) Can I ready an attack and if they are charging do 2x damage ~~AND~~ if they are not charging do 1x damage on a hit?
At the time GM ruled I had to ready one or the other. The enemy is going to see me ready an action. Then it was a guessing game as to what they would do once they saw me ready. It didn't feel right to me.
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.
Brace: If you use a readied action to set a brace weapon against a charge, you deal double damage on a successful hit against a charging character (see Combat).
You have to choose to either brace against the charge (which allows you to deal double damage), or ready a normal attack (which only allows you to deal regular damage).
The weapon only deals additional damage when it's specifically positioned to receive a charge.
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.
Unfortunately even though that says, "the specific action and the conditions under which you will take it," it is still very vague. Which places the interpretation of the ready action specifically under GM fiat. Were I the GM, if you wanted to ready an attack when they get in range, with the caveat that it be a braced weapon attack should they be charging. I'd let you do it. I mean, you're burning a standard action there to be able to protect yourself.
It sounds like you need to specify either to attack or brace, mutually exclusively.
Readying does not specify criteria for stating your action and its conditions, but I think that a simple sentence should suffice, no extra fancy conditionals/clauses. But that doesn't seem to be required, so perhaps something like, "when an enemy enters my threatened area, I attack if the enemy is simply running at me, or brace my spear if the enemy is charging" could potentially work by RAW.
One could instead try to construct a phrase like "when an enemy enters my threatened area, I attempt to perforate it with my spear," and a generous or amused GM could allow it. But that's because I haven't seen this happen often. If it really did happen reallyoften, I might have a different view.
Otherwise, I reckon the best you can do is brace if the opponent obviously can't get to you without charging, or just ready a normal attack if they could either charge or run/hustle/whatever-normal-movement-in-combat-is-called. It does make a little sense that, if an enemy is within a single move action to get to you, you have time either to attack or to brace, but not enough time to wait and see whether it's a charge or regular attack.
Edit: No, on second thought, it did kind of make sense (the latter paragraph), but 1) a seasoned warrior should be able to do it, and 2) the combat system as a whole violates physics (turn-based, but rounds happen at the same time -- sometimes there's a conflict).
There's a more general question here. When a PC (or an NPC, for that matter) readies an action, how much information does the other side receive?
I'd say you should just have to ready to attack someone that comes within reach. Readying against a charge is way too specific. And if you brce your spear for receiving a charge and the guy just walks up...you should still be able to stab him normally. It's not like it takes much effort to do a normal attack from that sort of stance.
*sigh*
As for info the other side receives, I would try to give as little as possible. Just the fact they had their turn and did nothing or moved and did nothing is usually a give away already. No need to make readied actions totally useless by freely revealing the info. I would like if there was some sort of "Martial Lore" type skill like in 3E's Tome of Battle, where you could make a skill check to determine if a foe is readying an action and the parameters. Perhaps use sense motive...
Allowing the "readied" action to be "brace against charge" does allow for the iconic scene of the warrior waiting until the last minute to set his/her weapon against a charging opponent. I think the movie "Pathfinder" was the most recent example I can remember (against a bear, IIRC).
By RAW, however, I agree that it can't be done. I'd probably allow it, however.
@StreamoftheSky: Profession: Soldier make a convenient substitute for that sort of roll (as well as making the skill more useful). I also allow the skill to be used to "evaluate" the quality of opposing troops.
