Ready action to Brandish Holy Symbol vs Vampire

[wolfvahn]

Say I ready for the vampire to come within 5 feet of me.

```Weaknesses: Vampires cannot tolerate the strong odor of garlic and will not enter an area laced with it. Similarly, they recoil from mirrors or strongly presented holy symbols. These things don’t harm the vampire—they merely keep it at bay. A recoiling vampire must stay at least 5 feet away from the mirror or holy symbol and cannot touch or make melee attacks against that creature. Holding a vampire at bay takes a standard action. After 1 round, a vampire can overcome its revulsion of the object and function normally each round it makes a DC 25 Will save.```

The vampire charges me and I brandish my holy symbol at him during its round. What happens?

[DungeonmasterCal]

I'd allow it.

[MrCharisma]

Yeah this would be like a character with reach tripping a charging enemy. The charging enemy is tripped and can't complete its action, so the action is lost.

In this case the charging vampire can't complete its action, so the action is lost.

Well done, you've mastered the readied action (this is exactly what they're for).

If you waited till the vampire was actually within 5 feet it probably couldn't step back (the charge rules don't allow it) but it wouldn't be able to attack you for a round.

[blahpers]

Works great, just as MrCharisma describes it. A fine example of rules matching theme to a T--the standard action interrupts the vampire's charge and ruins its turn.