Rhino charge to position your charge

[Smitty.The.Smith]

Lets say I have an 8th level Warrior with the Rhino Charge feat. Can this warrior move into a good charging position and then ready a charge to be used "now" so, in effect, he does a zig-zag charge? If not, why not?

Rhino Charge
Benefit: You may ready a charge, though you may only move up to your speed on the charge.

Normal: Charging is a full-round action and allows you to move twice your speed.

[avr]

It may be a zig-zag charge 'in effect' but by the actual actions taken the warrior takes a move action, then a standard action to ready a charge, then the charge - which last must be in a straight line. The charge itself does not zig-zag so yes you can do this.

Though if you want to turn during a charge there are ways of doing exactly that, e.g. equipment trick (boots) + combat reflexes.

[Thunder_TBT]

What this feat lets you do is move 10 feet back and charge again it lets you get lanceing damage every round

[avr]

Thunder_TBT wrote:

What this feat lets you do is move 10 feet back and charge again it lets you get lanceing damage every round

Ride-by attack has allowed that since D&D 3.0.

[Smitty.The.Smith]

avr wrote:

Though if you want to turn during a charge there are ways of doing exactly that, e.g. equipment trick (boots) + combat reflexes.

As it happens the 8th level character in question is actually an animal companion (Wolf) or I'd probably use the equipment trick.

[Smitty.The.Smith]

So, do I need to wait or react to something before I use the standard action to charge? It seems that I can, in effect, move into position and charge with the Rhino Charge feat but my friends are telling me I must wait for something to happen or it's not a "condition". There doesn't seem to be RAW as to what kind of conditions are valid.

[Melkiador]

Readied actions are written as if they can only trigger out of your turn. But it's unclear if that's an intended limitation. At the worst, you can trigger the charge for when the next character acts. Which would make your charge happen before anyone else does anything, which is kind of like being on your turn.

[ShieldLawrence]

Have the animal companion ready for your verbal command to charge. Animal companion moves and readies, you tell them to attack X target, they attack X target.

If it's a PC, best to ready for the next person's action or the next enemy's attack. Gets a little trickier as every GM has a preference for how picky a "Ready" needs to be.