I have seen a similar question like this pop-up, but more in the sense of "When the enemy gets in range, I ready bonus action Hex and I use my Action to attack them." (Which doesn't work if I remember correctly)
But what I'm wondering, is if you can just READY a bonus action, like Echo Knight's Manifest Echo teleport to switch places with their echo on the trigger of an enemy attacking.
Could that work? Or is readying an action literally only readying a main Attack/Spell. I'm relatively new to this and I know there are a bunch of nuances in this game, so I appreciate any help provided.
There's no holding or delaying in 5E. You can Ready an action, but that's more restricted than the aforementioned options and also doesn't let you ready bonus actions (you can only ready an action or move, and doing so takes your reaction). Personally I'd let you ready a bonus action instead of an action as well, but not both, and that'd be a houserule (unless I'm very much mistaken).
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Well, I meant Ready a bonus action. Cause essentially that is what you are doing.
Regardless, so it seems that the example provided for the Echo Knight wouldn't work, correct? Since the ability says that you can swap places by using a bonus action.
Regardless, so it seems that the example provided for the Echo Knight wouldn't work, correct? Since the ability says that you can swap places by using a bonus action.
That's correct, going by the rules.
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Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
Well, I meant Ready a bonus action. Cause essentially that is what you are doing.
Regardless, so it seems that the example provided for the Echo Knight wouldn't work, correct? Since the ability says that you can swap places by using a bonus action.
Correct. You can only Ready an action or "moving up to your speed", literally nothing else (so nothing that requires a bonus action can be readied). The only noteworthy exception I can think of to bring up is that anything that isn't any sort of action at all can, by definition, be built into your Readied action, so you could e.g. Ready an action to stab someone with a knife and then drop the knife (both the stab and the drop would be part of the same Readied action). It's a downside to bonus action only abilities that they can't be Readied.
I see no problem with allowing someone to, as an Action, 'ready their bonus action'.
This is a downgrade of what the player can do per round, they are using up their reaction, action and bonus action to gain the ability just a Bonus Action at a certain time.
Normally you could do take a b.a, do your move, then ready your action.
I see no problem with allowing someone to, as an Action, 'ready their bonus action'.
This is a downgrade of what the player can do per round, they are using up their reaction, action and bonus action to gain the ability just a Bonus Action at a certain time.
Normally you could do take a b.a, do your move, then ready your action.
This would allow two bonus actions unless you further modified Ready: on their turn the player could move, bonus action, ready a bonus action, then consume their reaction to perform the second bonus action. Under the stock rules, you can't do a bonus action twice.
Wouldn't the same rules apply like a normal Action? You have one Action, you Ready it. You don't take an Action, the ready an Action.
On your turn you have a free item interaction, a move, an action, and a bonus action. One of the legal actions you take is the Ready action, which then has rules text for what it does (preps some other action or a move to happen in response to a trigger). Allowing the Ready action to work on bonus actions, without any other rules changes, would therefore, almost by definition, let you use an Action to perform a Bonus Action, getting you up to 2 Bonus Actions (you'd also need to consume your Reaction to do it, as that is how Ready works).
But again, the rules state you can only use one bonus action at a time, much like one action at a time.
So, you wouldn't be able to Bonus Action, then Ready Bonus Action, because that would be like using 2 Bonus Actions on the same turn.
Instead, you just Ready your Bonus Action (only one per the rules) and on the trigger, you use it.
Basically, just substituting your Ready Action for Ready Bonus Action, but you still only get 1.
The readied action happens out of turn. It's not like part 2 of your turn happening when the trigger goes off, your turn is over after you move+ready+bonus action'ed. That limitation of one bonus action per turn wouldn't apply anymore.
I'd still - as a houserule - let you ready a bonus action but you wouldn't get to take one on your turn then (which I should've specified earlier, my bad).
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But again, the rules state you can only use one bonus action at a time, much like one action at a time.
So, you wouldn't be able to Bonus Action, then Ready Bonus Action, because that would be like using 2 Bonus Actions on the same turn.
Instead, you just Ready your Bonus Action (only one per the rules) and on the trigger, you use it.
Basically, just substituting your Ready Action for Ready Bonus Action, but you still only get 1.
I'm not sure which of these rules is confusing you - possibly more than one - so I'll cover all of them:
It's not material how many bonus actions you can use at a time - we're talking about how many you can perform in a round. There are no actual rules limiting this, only that you can only take one bonus action on your turn. Readied Actions don't happen on your turn, so this limit does not apply to them.
You could take a Bonus Action and then Ready Bonus Action if the only rules change is that you can Ready Bonus Action, because Ready Bonus Action would be an action. Once your trigger came up, which would be after your turn ended, you would take the second Bonus Action, and since you're now on someone else's turn, the limit of 1 Bonus Action per turn would not apply.
For clarity, the limit is not 1 bonus action per turn, it's limit 1 on your turn - in theory, if you had a way to Ready multiple bonus actions, you could then take all of them during the same Reaction.
That's why allowing Ready Bonus Action would increase the number of Bonus Actions you can take per round from 1 to 2. You would still be obeying the 1/turn limit, because the whole point of the Ready action is doing things outside of your turn. I think the rule you want to exist is both that you can Ready Bonus Action and that doing so consumes both your Action and your Bonus Action, rather like the Battle Master Maneuver "Commander's Strike" but moreso.
I have seen a similar question like this pop-up, but more in the sense of "When the enemy gets in range, I ready bonus action Hex and I use my Action to attack them." (Which doesn't work if I remember correctly)
But what I'm wondering, is if you can just READY a bonus action, like Echo Knight's Manifest Echo teleport to switch places with their echo on the trigger of an enemy attacking.
Could that work? Or is readying an action literally only readying a main Attack/Spell. I'm relatively new to this and I know there are a bunch of nuances in this game, so I appreciate any help provided.
Thank you.
Edit: Term change
There's no holding or delaying in 5E. You can Ready an action, but that's more restricted than the aforementioned options and also doesn't let you ready bonus actions (you can only ready an action or move, and doing so takes your reaction). Personally I'd let you ready a bonus action instead of an action as well, but not both, and that'd be a houserule (unless I'm very much mistaken).
Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
Well, I meant Ready a bonus action. Cause essentially that is what you are doing.
Regardless, so it seems that the example provided for the Echo Knight wouldn't work, correct? Since the ability says that you can swap places by using a bonus action.
That's correct, going by the rules.
Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
Correct. You can only Ready an action or "moving up to your speed", literally nothing else (so nothing that requires a bonus action can be readied). The only noteworthy exception I can think of to bring up is that anything that isn't any sort of action at all can, by definition, be built into your Readied action, so you could e.g. Ready an action to stab someone with a knife and then drop the knife (both the stab and the drop would be part of the same Readied action). It's a downside to bonus action only abilities that they can't be Readied.
I see no problem with allowing someone to, as an Action, 'ready their bonus action'.
This is a downgrade of what the player can do per round, they are using up their reaction, action and bonus action to gain the ability just a Bonus Action at a certain time.
Normally you could do take a b.a, do your move, then ready your action.
This would allow two bonus actions unless you further modified Ready: on their turn the player could move, bonus action, ready a bonus action, then consume their reaction to perform the second bonus action. Under the stock rules, you can't do a bonus action twice.
Wouldn't the same rules apply like a normal Action? You have one Action, you Ready it.
You don't take an Action, then ready an Action.
On your turn you have a free item interaction, a move, an action, and a bonus action. One of the legal actions you take is the Ready action, which then has rules text for what it does (preps some other action or a move to happen in response to a trigger). Allowing the Ready action to work on bonus actions, without any other rules changes, would therefore, almost by definition, let you use an Action to perform a Bonus Action, getting you up to 2 Bonus Actions (you'd also need to consume your Reaction to do it, as that is how Ready works).
But again, the rules state you can only use one bonus action at a time, much like one action at a time.
So, you wouldn't be able to Bonus Action, then Ready Bonus Action, because that would be like using 2 Bonus Actions on the same turn.
Instead, you just Ready your Bonus Action (only one per the rules) and on the trigger, you use it.
Basically, just substituting your Ready Action for Ready Bonus Action, but you still only get 1.
The readied action happens out of turn. It's not like part 2 of your turn happening when the trigger goes off, your turn is over after you move+ready+bonus action'ed. That limitation of one bonus action per turn wouldn't apply anymore.
I'd still - as a houserule - let you ready a bonus action but you wouldn't get to take one on your turn then (which I should've specified earlier, my bad).
Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
I'm not sure which of these rules is confusing you - possibly more than one - so I'll cover all of them:
That's why allowing Ready Bonus Action would increase the number of Bonus Actions you can take per round from 1 to 2. You would still be obeying the 1/turn limit, because the whole point of the Ready action is doing things outside of your turn. I think the rule you want to exist is both that you can Ready Bonus Action and that doing so consumes both your Action and your Bonus Action, rather like the Battle Master Maneuver "Commander's Strike" but moreso.
Well, it is, since you're only allowed to make bonus actions on your turn.