Readying and reactions

[TomParker]

I encountered a ruling during a game at PaizoCon that isn't the way that I've ever run things and wanted to see if I'm reading the rules incorrectly.

Ready wrote:

You prepare to use an action that will occur outside your turn. Choose a single action or free action you can use, and designate a trigger. Your turn then ends. If the trigger you designated occurs before the start of your next turn, you can use the chosen action as a reaction (provided you still meet the requirements to use it). You can’t Ready a free action that already has a trigger.

I've always read this as spending two actions to gain a reaction you can use under narrowly-defined circumstances. Another GM interpreted this as spending two actions to create a new trigger, i.e., the readied action would use up the reaction the player normally gets every round.

That seems like a stiff cost to me—now I'm not only spending two actions, I'm also using my reaction. That's an especially high cost for classes like Fighter or Champion.

How do you all typically run it? Does ready grant you a reaction, or does it grant you a new trigger for which you can use your one reaction?

[Nefreet]

TomParker wrote:

the readied action would use up the reaction the player normally gets every round.

^ This is how it works, for the reasons you quoted.

If you have more than one Reaction, like a Champion's extra Shield Block, then you can perform your Readied Action and your Extra Action, but by default, most characters only get one Reaction.

[thenobledrake]

The costs and restrictions of readying an action are deliberately high so that it is not a clear superior choice in the majority of situations to Ready rather than take other actions on your turn.

For the most basic example: if you could Ready to attack an enemy when they enter your reach, but didn't have to spend your normal reaction to make the attack, the comparison against instead using a Stride to get next to your intended target and Strike on your turn would be non-existent as you'd make your opponent spend actions moving instead of attacking by readying and there'd be effectively no cost or downside to you for doing so.

[TomParker]

thenobledrake wrote:

The costs and restrictions of readying an action are deliberately high so that it is not a clear superior choice in the majority of situations to Ready rather than take other actions on your turn.

Well, consider my mind blown. But it does make total sense. I'm okay with being wrong.

[The Raven Black]

I always saw this implemented as you create a new trigger. Not you get an additional reaction (which high-level feats allow for some specific reactions).

[Aw3som3-117]

Yep, the key words here are in the quoted text: "If the trigger... you can use the chosen action as a reaction" This means that you are using the resource called "reaction" to use the action outside of your turn. There are some abilities that grant additional reactions, but they're all very explicit in their wording, and no such wording about giving another reaction is present in the ready action. It is certainly a costly action to have to take, but I've seen times where it's more useful than delaying before.