Can anyone explain Point Blank Shot, or does it need no rationale?

[Kirth Gersen]

Just put a caveat in the rules that when commoners delay their actions like that, there's a 1-second lag between the trigger and the action. Then you can only pass the cannonball 6 times, max (assuming the guys after you in line don't fail their initiative, in which case it gets passed to them before they're ready and they lose the chance to grab it). And with the bow, since everyone is delaying until they get it, their action for the round is picking up the bow (picking up and shooting it would be 2 actions, which you can't do when you delay).

[DrDeth]

Desna's Avatar wrote:

The feat Point Blank Shot is a little odd.

You know, in Chess, the Knight moves in a crooked manner, whilst real medieval knights often charged in a straight line.

I am in need of convincing as to a rationale for leaving the rule as it currently is.

[Gauss]

Kirth Gersen, Delay is not Ready. Delay allows you your total actions. Ready allows only a single action.

While I do like your caveat (houserule) it might pose issues in regular play. :)

- Gauss

[Kirth Gersen]

Gauss wrote:

Kirth Gersen, Delay is not Ready. Delay allows you your total actions. Ready allows only a single action.

Meh. I rewrote all of those rules when I was doing my homebrew. Sometimes I forget just how clunky they actually are.

So, if they're Delaying, do they need to beat the guy they're delaying for in initiative? Or can anyone just delay anytime? If so, why ready an action when you can delay?

[Orthos]

Kirth Gersen wrote:

So, if they're Delaying, do they need to beat the guy they're delaying for in initiative? Or can anyone just delay anytime? If so, why ready an action when you can delay?

Readied action happens as soon as the trigger comes up. Good for when you don't know when your action is going to be workable, and have said action decided in advance, but can't do it on your turn for some reason - it'd be tactically poor, you can't reach the target, etc.

Delay just says "I go after this guy instead". Good for if you don't have a specific action in mind, or don't want "at the earliest opportunity".

[Kirth Gersen]

So -- another question, if I may? -- if you can ready an action that happens as soon as it's triggered, why is there a Strike Back feat? EDIT: Never mind, I see there's a whole thread asking that same question.

Spoiler:

In my game, you can hold any action at will, and spend an attack of opportunity to complete it as an immediate action. Since picking up the bow and shooting it would be two different actions, the archers in question would all need Combat Reflexes, at minimum. And when two people try to pre-emptively act with held actions, that forces another initiative check, so it's still almost certain that one of the archers would drop the ball and flub the pickup.

[Gauss]

Readied actions go off before the action that initiated them. In this way you can stop a spellcaster from casting by shooting him, silencing him, etc. You force him to burn his declared action.

When you Delay you cannot go before someone else's action. You can announce that you are acting any time when it is not someone else's turn.

- Gauss

[Craig Frankum]

Is anyone missing the Point Blank of PBS? It in of itself means close range. If someone wishes to specialize with a specific ranged weapon, be a fighter and the Weapon Focus/Specialization feat tree. Then your ranged PBS is only slightly better than whichever weapon you focused and specialized on.