Invisibility vs Readied Actions

[SushiX0]

Something we have had a couple of times but never could get a straight answer for. One of our PC is invisible and is trying to to sneak up next to another PC nex? to an NPC, they seen him go invisible and was technically hostile/aggressive. Both the PC and NPC fail their perception checks to see the invisible PC as he approaches them. So the non-invisible PC takes a readied action to strike at the other PC should he come visible. After two round the invisible PC attempts to cut off the hand of a dead body that the second PC is carrying, the corpse had a ring on that he needed for a mercenary contract. The non-invisible PC was also contracted to retrieve the body for a reason we never found out. Now the issue we ran into was would cutting off the hand of a corpse reveal the first PC and by doing so would the second PC get his readied action to strike as he is taking the hand. What the group decided on was to allow the first PC to sever the hand but he took a massive blow from the second PC in the process. If more information is required I can add more as needed.

[Hendelbolaf]

That is a confusing scenario. I am never a fan of player characters working against each other as it never seems to go well at the table when someone is hurt, dies, etc.

If the character holding the dead body readied an action, as soon as the invisible character made his swing, the readied action would occur. Since the character is in possession of the body, then I would rule that any attack made on the body is the same as making an attack on the character or his possessions. So, yes, he does become visible once he severs, or attempts to sever the hand, and the character holding the body gets a readied action.

Does that help?

[SushiX0]

Yeah a bit, would have been better if we diddn't have a Paladin, a Hellknight, an Evil Gunslinger, and two Assassins probably.

[Maezer]

Did you ask a question? I think you handed it correctly. Attempting to sunder a possessed object (cut hand off the held corpse) should break invisibility.

If you wanted to side with the thiefa bit, I might be tempted to say carrying a corpse (to the point where it is considered an attended object, and thus have some protection from invisible thievery) takes two hands and would prevent wielding a weapon at the same time unless they threaten some other way (monk or natural weapons) not dependent on arms.

I tend to think retrieving the ring should have been a sleight of hand check or a steal combat maneuver but clearly they player had more thug like intentions.

[Gauss]

Trying to sunder a piece of equipment someone is carrying is probably considered a hostile act. Since both PCs were not (at the time) acting friendly then it would be two adversaries + hostile act = loss of invisibility.

It sounds like you did things right regarding invisibility.

Next: The readied action happens before the cutting of the hand. While it may seem strange the readied action occurs first with the sunder attempt occurring second those are the rules.

Sequence:
Player A declares attack against corpse and becomes visible.
Player B's readied action goes off.
Player B rolls attack (and damage) against A.
Player A continues rolling his combat maneuver (sunder) against the corpse vs Player B's CMD.

- Gauss

[Kazaan]

Wait, let me see if I got this straight:

Round 1: Sneaky Steve goes invis. Repo Man Robert readies an action to attack if Steve shows up again.

Round 2: Nothing pertinent happens. Robert's turn comes up agains without triggering his readied action, but he doesn't spend another standard for a new readied action.

Round 3: Steve tries to cut off the hand, turning visible; does he trigger the readied action?

The point is moot because if Steve is turning visible 2 rounds after Robert readied his action to attack, and Robert didn't renew his readied action in the intervening round, the readied action is expired and cannot come into play. This would only work if Steve tried to get the hand between the time Robert readied the action in round 1 and when Robert's turn came around again in round 2. Otherwise, Robert needs to spend a standard action each turn to renew his readied action.

[Gauss]

Kazaan, Im sure that the OP didn't give us every little action. The intent is pretty clear (to me at least) that "Repo Man Robert" maintained his readied action round to round.

- Gauss