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what are valid triggers for Readied Actions? One of my players likes to mess with stances, and severely punish baddies for doing anything. To this, he will ready an action to attack the guy "if he moves at all". I thought this was to broad, so he suggested similarly vague terms until I specified he give me a type of action, such as a move action, an attack, casts a spell, etc.
His argument then was if it must be such a specified action, then he readies his action to trigger off when he speaks. Since speaking is a free action, and free actions can now be taken on an opponent's turn, he argues he can now take his readied action at any time.
What is the legal list of valid triggers? How specific must they be? Can a person self trigger them when he wants to interupt someone?
To this, he will ready an action to attack the guy "if he moves at all".
Why not allow it? If the enemy is already within reach, then the player has only hampered himself by being limited to a standard action. If the enemy was out of reach, then he began moving while still out of reach, wasting the player's action.
What is the legal list of valid triggers?
There isn't really a list.
How specific must they be?
The player must specify the conditions under which he will take the readied action.
Can a person self trigger them when he wants to interupt someone?
I don't see anything in the rules preventing it.
Is it causing problems in your game? Is it because you have to keep changing the initiative order, or some other reason?
GM fiat. So depending on the GM almost anything can go. There is no list.
But usually its something more specific than "when he speaks" or "when he moves at all". If PCs get snippy with me with something like that, I have the character speak immediately and the PC's standard/whatever action occurs immediately.
Once the condition is "locked", it cannot be changed until that PCs turn, unless you are a particularly forgiving GM.
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Cheese.
Your player is very much gaming the system. There is an intention with the Ready action, and that intention is that you sacrifice some of your turn in order to precisely time your response.
There isn't (to my knowledge) a list of specific triggers but as long as the players understand the intention of the rule, it isn't needed.
What I'd do is explain to your player what the intention is. If that doesn't cut it, tell him/her that their trigger event must be a reaction; they have to pick an event that happens external to themselves. If "I ready for when I feel like it" was good enough, the requirement to specify a condition wouldn't be present. You ready for an enemy to come through the door. You ready for an enemy to cast a spell, make an attack, move into range. You ready for someone invisible to become visible. You ready for something someone ELSE does, not your own lips flapping.
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Agreed, Anguish.
And that is the reason that Readied Actions happen before the triggering event resolves. Also, why a readied action may end up not happening. If the triggering event doesn't happen, neither does the readied action... and the initiative order does not change.
Example triggers:
- "I ready to shoot him with my musket if he starts casting a spell".
- "I ready to trip him if he tries to move away"
- "I ready to hit anything that comes up that ladder with my rapier"
You need to be specific with what the trigger is, and what the action is. All of the above should be valid in any game, because the action and the reaction are defined.
If he doesn't want to do that, he should be delaying... however, that does not "trigger", will happen AFTER the opponents action.
Note, that in the first example above, there must be a reasonable way to determine if the spell is being cast. A Silent, Still spell with no components may not trigger (perhaps unless a Spellcraft check is made?).
Note that on the 3rd selection... if a friend comes up the ladder, then you attack the friend.
To this, he will ready an action to attack the guy "if he moves at all".
How is this too broad ? I might ask for clarification though. Do you mean "move" as movement to a different square or do you mean "move" as in any physical movement down to and including raising an eyebrow ?
I've had characters demand surrender and ready an action to attack if the potential surrenderee does anything OTHER than speak or make surrender gestures such as dropping weapons or raising hands.
I've been in a party where a member had spring attack. I would position myself with my move action and then ready an action to make my attack triggered "when the spring attacker is in position to attack but before that attack is resolved". This way I could get flanking because at the moment of my attack, the spring attacker was threatening on the other side.
I thought this was to broad, so he suggested similarly vague terms until I specified he give me a type of action, such as a move action, an attack, casts a spell, etc."
I've readied an action to be triggered when the person of interest does any action other than delay before. That's not specific enough ?
I would not allow the readied action to happen on a character's own actions ie speaking. That is just dumb. On another note I suppose readying an attack is a way to deal with spring attacking foes?
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I don't see what the problem is here. Your player wouldn't be rules lawyering if you weren't. 'I ready to attack that guy if he moves a muscle with X' is perfectly reasonable and makes sense in both terms of flavor and mechanics.
Don't be a rules lawyer and your players won't be forced to rules lawyer you back to be able to play the game.
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I happen to agree with Anguish, but the general consensus here seems to be that it isn't really harming anything.
I suggest getting your player into the spirit of the game, and have him choose an opponent's action to which he can respond with his readied action. Everyone has fun.
This isn't MtG, you don't game the system in order to "interrupt your opponent's draw phase" or whatever, which seems to be a kind of metagaming I've seen since coming to Pathfinder.
"I ready to hit anything that comes up that ladder with my rapier" ......
Note that on the 3rd selection... if a friend comes up the ladder, then you attack the friend.
I disagree. "...you may take the readied action in response to that condition."
Emphasis mine. At the time of the triggering condition you may opt not to fire off your readied action.
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What about reading an action with a reach weapon to attack the enemy wizard "if he casts a spell or tries to move out of reach"?
Would that be a valid trigger??
Longer explanation in this thread . You are welcomed to comment ;D
What about reading an action with a reach weapon to attack the enemy wizard "if he casts a spell or tries to move out of reach"?
Would that be a valid trigger??Longer explanation in this thread . You are welcomed to comment ;D
I don't believe that the intent of Ready was to allow for multiple triggers, it's supposed to be an if->then situation.
Unfortunately, you could read it however you like, as it doesn't really go into the level of detail that it should have.