Question on readying an action.

[PsiKoTiK]

If a player wants to ready an attack action for "when the first monster comes through the door", this uses up their reaction for the turn (if I am reading this right). Do they also get a second attack action when the readied action is triggered ?

[Treegreen]

The reaction is used, but you are using a standard action as your reaction. The standard action in this case being your attack action. So, on their turn the player could use a bonus action, movement, or any ability that would grant them another attack action, but they have used their standard attack action in the reaction. They may also decide to ignore the trigger, and instead use their reaction to do something else (such as an opportunity attack) but they lose the readied action.


*Edit: In an attempt to be more clear:

A Ready Action creates a specific type of reaction that lets you do any action or a move as a reaction with a trigger that you define when it is not your turn. You basically 'give up' your action on your turn in order to do it when the condition is met later in the round.

[PsiKoTiK]

The reaction is used, but you are using a standard action as your reaction. The standard action in this case being your attack action. So, on their turn the player could use a bonus action, movement, or any ability that would grant them another attack action, but they have used their standard attack action in the reaction. They may also decide to ignore the trigger, and instead use their reaction to do something else (such as an opportunity attack) but they lose the readied action.

Thanks for the help, that cleared up my question perfectly!

[Baron28]

If the triggering event does not take place during the round, the readied action does not carry over to the next round, correct?

[Trenloe]

If the triggering event does not take place during the round, the readied action does not carry over to the next round, correct?
Yes. And this is also your one reaction for the round - so you wouldn't be able to take an attack of opportunity if you'd used (and triggered) a ready action for that round; and vice-versa if you use an attack of opportunity you'd lose any readied action (reaction) - unless you have an ability that gives multiple reactions per round (is there such an ability?).

[Baron28]

Yes. And this is also your one reaction for the round - so you wouldn't be able to take an attack of opportunity if you'd used (and triggered) a ready action for that round; and vice-versa if you use an attack of opportunity you'd lose any readied action (reaction) - unless you have an ability that gives multiple reactions per round (is there such an ability?).

So if you roll poorly for initiative and your turn comes after all of the creatures while in rounds (NOTE: In 5e they attack in packs, so all 5 orcs have same init, but the orc war chief will have his own init), readying an action is useless.

[Trenloe]

So if you roll poorly for initiative and your turn comes after all of the creatures while in rounds (NOTE: In 5e they attack in packs, so all 5 orcs have same init, but the orc war chief will have his own init), readying an action is useless.
It all depends what action you're readying. ;) When it finally gets to your poor init turn there might not be anything obvious to do - so readying an action in case more baddies appear might be a good idea (or some other reaction triggering event). It allows you to react to certain, pre-intended, stimuli (e.g. readying ac attack action to attack any enemies that come in range) - hence why readying an action uses up the reaction for the turn.

[PsiKoTiK]

Is there a built in effect or way to show who decided to ready an action in fg ?

[Trenloe]

No built in effect. Manually add it to the CT if you want to track it.

[Griogre]

One important thing to know about readying is that the PCs turn doesn't change, it simply allows the PC to go on another creatures turn with the ready is triggered. Since the readied action happens on another creatures turn them means the PC can't use bonus actions or multiple attacks.

[dj-wedge]

Personally I allow held actions to persist through the end of round until just before the players next initiative. It's a house rule, but I dislike "rounds" as strict structure, anyway.

In fact in previous years when we had individual weapon speeds (and initiative was "lower is better"), we would start the combat at 0. Everyone rolls their initiative and adds their weapon speed to the number. I start counting upward and people go when we hit their initiative. After their turn, they roll another initiative and add it and the weapon speed to where we currently are. There is never a "new round", we just keep counting upward until the combat is done. For characters with multiple attacks per round, we simply cut their rolled initiative in half and they still only attacked once each action.

This method did very well in simulating the significant attack speed differences of weapons. The guy with the dagger would attack multiple times before that 2-handed greatsword came around again.

I have been considering putting some time into converting 5e (adding weapon speeds back in) to allow for this method, but FG would not really support it. So I would have to save such conversion for the actual table top (but I don't run one of those right now, so it continues to be a wish).

Wedgie

[Treegreen]

As an aside:

"As a DM, I would allow the caster to use his or her action on a subsequent turn to keep the spell ready. — Jeremy Crawford (@JeremyECrawford) September 12, 2014"

Also, being low on the initiative order isn't necessarily a problem. For example, a Rogue could ready an attack for when a creature moves into range with another PC. The attack would then go off and they'd get to use their sneak attack bonus.