5 foot step against a readied action

[Blakmane]

Seems like there has been some misinterpretation here. This was the exact scenario:

1) Me, standing next to a Cleric. Cleric 5 foot steps away, not provoking an AOO.

2) I use step up to move 5ft towards him.

3) Cleric continues to move away, provoking the AOO, so that he can cast normally.

4) I call the DM out on this, saying 'hey, you can't move after a 5ft step'

5) DM says: 'No, it's not a 5 foot step anymore. You get your AOO from before.'

The action has been resolved. Within reason, a player (or DM) can't suddenly decide to retcon previous actions because, in hindsight, they were poor decisions.

To be clear, in my case, the DM could definitely retcon his '... and starts casting' because there's an action in the middle there that he could respond to (my stepping up). He could've just hit me with his mace instead if he wanted to, for instance. But he didn't, and that's not what I'm talking about here at all.

Hope that clears things up.

[Gauss]

Blakmane, you are correct, the GM cannot turn a 5' step into a move action because of something you did.

- Gauss

[Akerlof]

Gauss wrote:

Drakkiel: While I realize you were saying 'for you as GM' the order is clear. 5'step (and step up) occur first. THEN the declaration that the wizard is casting a spell (and the decision to cast defensively) occur.

As I posted earlier, people combine them for simplicity sake but they really are sequential actions.

- Gauss

I'd probably use a "took your hand off the chesspiece" type rule, or something like "if you don't give someone a chance to react between the different statements, I'll treat them as happening simultaneously." So if I say "I 5 foot step and cast," I'd lock into those actions. If I said "I 5 foot step..." and you don't Step Up, then I would cast without worrying about you AoOing, or if you responded that you used Step Up, then I would decide to cast or cast defensively, or do pretty much anything other than move again.

Though as I GM I would enforce that much more strictly on myself than my players, but a lot of the people I play with self-enforce that type of rule even when they're playing PCs.