Looking for clarification if this is a valid action that could come up during combat.
Setup: In the game, I'm running, the party will be attacked by Giant Eagles. Not all the characters have decent range weapons and I can see them wanting to take the Ready action with the trigger "When the eagles attack me I want to take my attack action." the thought is that since the eagles are close enough to attack the player will be close enough to use their sword. Now I know I cannot do, dive bomb actions with the eagle as I would incur an attack of opportunity.
Question: With a creature that has flying can a player take the Ready Action to attack just before the creature comes within striking distance?
Looking for clarification if this is a valid action that could come up during combat.
Setup: In the game, I'm running, the party will be attacked by Giant Eagles. Not all the characters have decent range weapons and I can see them wanting to take the Ready action with the trigger "When the eagles attack me I want to take my attack action." the thought is that since the eagles are close enough to attack the player will be close enough to use their sword. Now I know I cannot do, dive bomb actions with the eagle as I would incur an attack of opportunity.
Question: With a creature that has flying can a player take the Ready Action to attack just before the creature comes within striking distance?
Yes, but they'll need a reach weapon (i.e. not a sword) for that to be useful against the eagles, since the striking distance of the eagles is 5 feet. Ready Action happens just after the trigger. If they don't have reach weapons, they should ready an action to attack when the eagles get to within 5 feet, not 10. Either way, they'll be able to swing before the eagle does - although, if they do this, they'll use up their reaction, so they won't be able to take opportunity attacks, and the eagles will know that, since they're intelligence 8 (probably the same intelligence as at least one party member).
Also, remember readied actions are off-turn, so abilities that are on-turn only - like Bugbear or Astral Self Monk reach, or Extra Attack - won't work when Readied.
Again, to emphasize, you're fielding flying creatures as smart as relatively stupid adventurers - unless they're magically compelled, they should engage in intelligent tactics, like grappling their foe, carrying them up high, and dropping them, like how seagulls hunt clams. Tasha's has the rules in it for if an eagle drops a player onto a player (e.g. if a PC wants to catch the falling PC to soften the blow).
I never mentioned out of reach. I assumed by the actions available to the eagles are when they attack with their beak and claws which would put them within the five-foot range for the player to attack with a ready action.
I never mentioned out of reach. I assumed by the actions available to the eagles are when they attack with their beak and claws which would put them within the five-foot range for the player to attack with a ready action.
Readied Actions is one of the more poorly understood and abused concepts in the game.
A Readied Action must be a very precise condition. You seem to have nailed that down.
What people miss is that a Readied Action is Movement OR Object Interaction OR a single Attack (multiple attacks are not an option, even if the player has that option). There is no combination allowed.
Now, in your case, the player should NOT Ready an Action, if the Eagles are going to attack within 5 feet and plan on strafing runs, hence leaving the players' range and thereby provoking an Opportunity attack, which is a Reaction, just like a Readied Action, and a player only gets one per turn. If the player says "I am will ready an Action to attack when the Eagle gets within 5 feet of me", they are sacrificing their movement, and any other potential options that turn. It would be better to use their turn "normally", and then use their Reaction on the Opportunity Attack.
This is even more of an important issue if a player has multiple options for the Reaction, say from Sentinel Feat, Protection Fighting Style, or Rogue's Uncanny Dodge.
I never mentioned out of reach. I assumed by the actions available to the eagles are when they attack with their beak and claws which would put them within the five-foot range for the player to attack with a ready action.
But your question says "before the creature comes within striking distance." In other words "not within reach."
You can move and ready - you don't have to give up movement to ready. You also don't have to ready only a single attack - you generally ready an Attack action. Extra Attack doesn't work when readied due to its rules text, not the Ready rules text. An example way to make multiple attacks with a Readied action is a druid wild shaped into a giant scorpion Readying multiattack - you can Ready any action, and multiattack lacks the wording EA does to stop it from working when Readied.
I never mentioned out of reach. I assumed by the actions available to the eagles are when they attack with their beak and claws which would put them within the five-foot range for the player to attack with a ready action.
Readied Actions is one of the more poorly understood and abused concepts in the game.
A Readied Action must be a very precise condition. You seem to have nailed that down.
What people miss is that a Readied Action is Movement OR Object Interaction OR a single Attack (multiple attacks are not an option, even if the player has that option). There is no combination allowed.
Now, in your case, the player should NOT Ready an Action, if the Eagles are going to attack within 5 feet and plan on strafing runs, hence leaving the players' range and thereby provoking an Opportunity attack, which is a Reaction, just like a Readied Action, and a player only gets one per turn. If the player says "I am will ready an Action to attack when the Eagle gets within 5 feet of me", they are sacrificing their movement, and any other potential options that turn. It would be better to use their turn "normally", and then use their Reaction on the Opportunity Attack.
This is even more of an important issue if a player has multiple options for the Reaction, say from Sentinel Feat, Protection Fighting Style, or Rogue's Uncanny Dodge.
If you use the Ready action for your turn’s action, you can still move your speed on your turn. You can also use a bonus action if the conditions are met.
You can move and ready - you don't have to give up movement to ready. You also don't have to ready only a single attack - you generally ready an Attack action. Extra Attack doesn't work when readied due to its rules text, not the Ready rules text. An example way to make multiple attacks with a Readied action is a druid wild shaped into a giant scorpion Readying multiattack - you can Ready any action, and multiattack lacks the wording EA does to stop it from working when Readied.
I am glad we agree on only one attack per Readied Action. We may have gone different routes to get there, but yes, only one swing of a weapon, for a Readied Action.
And I should make myself more clear.
On your turn, you can Move and Ready an Action aka specify a course of action and trigger for a potential Reaction. But no, you cannot Move AND Attack within the Readied Action itself.
Fighter’s turn (let’s say it’s sword and board): I ready my action to attack the eagle when it gets in range.
Eagle’s turn: Comes at the fighter. When the eagle is five feet away (one square), the fighter attacks (only one time, no matter the level of the fighter) then the eagle does. Eagle keeps moving, but since the fighter used its reaction with to make the readies attack, it gets no OA.
Its going to be up to you how much of a stickler you want to be about how the fighter words the trigger. If the fighter says, when they attack me, I’ll attack the eagle, then the eagle can fly right past the fighter, and attack the character next to the fighter, but the trigger won’t go off, and the fighter will just be standing there. So you might want to make things clear with your players to avoid frustration.
Also Vince makes a good point saying it doesn’t make a lot of sense for fighter to ready an action, since they will only get one sword swing no matter what, and they can just take the OA ( the exception would be if the eagle has fly by attack and wouldn’t draw an OA). About the only time it would make sense is if the eagle is about to die, so the fighter can try to kill it before it attacks him. Though in that case, the eagle would probably just fly away. And if you really want to have fun, eagles are smart enough to just ignore that silly fighter with a sword who can’t really hurt them, and focus on people who are hurting him, like casters and people with bows.
Do giant eagles have fly by? Why wouldn’t you just take the dodge action and use Opportunity attacks? or perhaps ready a grapple attempt?
No, no fly-by attack. Plus no reason why the player would not take dodge action.
No reason not to use the Dodge Action, however being that its an Action you would only get such if you used it for your action that turn before the attack came. Or had an ability that give such. Same with Grapple, if you can move and jump at their height on your turn, then you could easily grapple and bring them back to earth, just a matter of your DM asking for the relevant Athletic, or Acrobatics for that bit of flourish, check to do the jump if they are out of your 5ft reach but still within range of your jump.
Do giant eagles have fly by? Why wouldn’t you just take the dodge action and use Opportunity attacks? or perhaps ready a grapple attempt?
No, no fly-by attack. Plus no reason why the player would not take dodge action.
No reason not to use the Dodge Action, however being that its an Action you would only get such if you used it for your action that turn before the attack came. Or had an ability that give such. Same with Grapple, if you can move and jump at their height on your turn, then you could easily grapple and bring them back to earth, just a matter of your DM asking for the relevant Athletic, or Acrobatics for that bit of flourish, check to do the jump if they are out of your 5ft reach but still within range of your jump.
Wait, I am confused. Are you saying that the player is Readying an Action to Grapple the Giant Eagle as it attacks him? Or are you saying the player does a Move and Grapple on the player's turn? If I was the DM I would definitely have anything with an Int of 8 do strafing runs. The Eagle would swoop in, attack a target, and then hope the player misses on the Opportunity Attack as the Eagle leaves the zone. No way a player is going to leap 20 feet into the air, and the Eagle is not going to hang around near the ground inviting melee attacks.
To answer th eoriginal question. Yes, you can ready *an* attack with the trigger of something along the lines of "when a flying enemy gets close enough for me to hit I will attack it". No need for a reach weapon and the character could of course still move. As has been mentioned though, it might a better use of the action economy to use the dodge action and hope that you can get an attack of opportunity as the eagle flies away.
To answer th eoriginal question. Yes, you can ready *an* attack with the trigger of something along the lines of "when a flying enemy gets close enough for me to hit I will attack it". No need for a reach weapon and the character could of course still move. As has been mentioned though, it might a better use of the action economy to use the dodge action and hope that you can get an attack of opportunity as the eagle flies away.
Are you saying that the Readied Action includes movement and an attack? The wording has to be precise with what you are trying to describe.
A player can Move and Ready an action. A player cannot Ready an Action that includes Movement and an Attack.
To answer th eoriginal question. Yes, you can ready *an* attack with the trigger of something along the lines of "when a flying enemy gets close enough for me to hit I will attack it". No need for a reach weapon and the character could of course still move. As has been mentioned though, it might a better use of the action economy to use the dodge action and hope that you can get an attack of opportunity as the eagle flies away.
Are you saying that the Readied Action includes movement and an attack? The wording has to be precise with what you are trying to describe.
Of course not. I haven't written anything that can be even remotely interpreted as anything of the sorts. The wording is sufficently precise for anyone familiar with the rules.
A player can Move and Ready an action. A player cannot Ready an Action that includes Movement and an Attack.
To answer th eoriginal question. Yes, you can ready *an* attack with the trigger of something along the lines of "when a flying enemy gets close enough for me to hit I will attack it". No need for a reach weapon and the character could of course still move. As has been mentioned though, it might a better use of the action economy to use the dodge action and hope that you can get an attack of opportunity as the eagle flies away.
Are you saying that the Readied Action includes movement and an attack? The wording has to be precise with what you are trying to describe.
Of course not. I haven't written anything that can be even remotely interpreted as anything of the sorts. The wording is sufficently precise for anyone familiar with the rules.
A player can Move and Ready an action. A player cannot Ready an Action that includes Movement and an Attack.
No-one said you can.
The point is that many do not understand the rules, hence the need for preciseness.
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Looking for clarification if this is a valid action that could come up during combat.
Setup: In the game, I'm running, the party will be attacked by Giant Eagles. Not all the characters have decent range weapons and I can see them wanting to take the Ready action with the trigger "When the eagles attack me I want to take my attack action." the thought is that since the eagles are close enough to attack the player will be close enough to use their sword. Now I know I cannot do, dive bomb actions with the eagle as I would incur an attack of opportunity.
Question: With a creature that has flying can a player take the Ready Action to attack just before the creature comes within striking distance?
Yes, but they'll need a reach weapon (i.e. not a sword) for that to be useful against the eagles, since the striking distance of the eagles is 5 feet. Ready Action happens just after the trigger. If they don't have reach weapons, they should ready an action to attack when the eagles get to within 5 feet, not 10. Either way, they'll be able to swing before the eagle does - although, if they do this, they'll use up their reaction, so they won't be able to take opportunity attacks, and the eagles will know that, since they're intelligence 8 (probably the same intelligence as at least one party member).
Also, remember readied actions are off-turn, so abilities that are on-turn only - like Bugbear or Astral Self Monk reach, or Extra Attack - won't work when Readied.
Again, to emphasize, you're fielding flying creatures as smart as relatively stupid adventurers - unless they're magically compelled, they should engage in intelligent tactics, like grappling their foe, carrying them up high, and dropping them, like how seagulls hunt clams. Tasha's has the rules in it for if an eagle drops a player onto a player (e.g. if a PC wants to catch the falling PC to soften the blow).
Hang on. "Setup: players want to attack creatures in range. Question: can players attack creatures out of range?" Did I miss something?
Players can make attacks that are within their reach. ...is the best answer I can give.
I never mentioned out of reach. I assumed by the actions available to the eagles are when they attack with their beak and claws which would put them within the five-foot range for the player to attack with a ready action.
Readied Actions is one of the more poorly understood and abused concepts in the game.
A Readied Action must be a very precise condition. You seem to have nailed that down.
What people miss is that a Readied Action is Movement OR Object Interaction OR a single Attack (multiple attacks are not an option, even if the player has that option). There is no combination allowed.
Now, in your case, the player should NOT Ready an Action, if the Eagles are going to attack within 5 feet and plan on strafing runs, hence leaving the players' range and thereby provoking an Opportunity attack, which is a Reaction, just like a Readied Action, and a player only gets one per turn. If the player says "I am will ready an Action to attack when the Eagle gets within 5 feet of me", they are sacrificing their movement, and any other potential options that turn. It would be better to use their turn "normally", and then use their Reaction on the Opportunity Attack.
This is even more of an important issue if a player has multiple options for the Reaction, say from Sentinel Feat, Protection Fighting Style, or Rogue's Uncanny Dodge.
But your question says "before the creature comes within striking distance." In other words "not within reach."
Ok, I understand, that was.my mistake.in the wording. Sorry about that.
It came down to when I would make the attack roll for the eagles which would.be within range of both creatures and players.
You can move and ready - you don't have to give up movement to ready. You also don't have to ready only a single attack - you generally ready an Attack action. Extra Attack doesn't work when readied due to its rules text, not the Ready rules text. An example way to make multiple attacks with a Readied action is a druid wild shaped into a giant scorpion Readying multiattack - you can Ready any action, and multiattack lacks the wording EA does to stop it from working when Readied.
If you use the Ready action for your turn’s action, you can still move your speed on your turn. You can also use a bonus action if the conditions are met.
I am glad we agree on only one attack per Readied Action. We may have gone different routes to get there, but yes, only one swing of a weapon, for a Readied Action.
And I should make myself more clear.
On your turn, you can Move and Ready an Action aka specify a course of action and trigger for a potential Reaction. But no, you cannot Move AND Attack within the Readied Action itself.
The round would go like this:
Fighter’s turn (let’s say it’s sword and board): I ready my action to attack the eagle when it gets in range.
Eagle’s turn: Comes at the fighter. When the eagle is five feet away (one square), the fighter attacks (only one time, no matter the level of the fighter) then the eagle does. Eagle keeps moving, but since the fighter used its reaction with to make the readies attack, it gets no OA.
Its going to be up to you how much of a stickler you want to be about how the fighter words the trigger. If the fighter says, when they attack me, I’ll attack the eagle, then the eagle can fly right past the fighter, and attack the character next to the fighter, but the trigger won’t go off, and the fighter will just be standing there. So you might want to make things clear with your players to avoid frustration.
Also Vince makes a good point saying it doesn’t make a lot of sense for fighter to ready an action, since they will only get one sword swing no matter what, and they can just take the OA ( the exception would be if the eagle has fly by attack and wouldn’t draw an OA). About the only time it would make sense is if the eagle is about to die, so the fighter can try to kill it before it attacks him. Though in that case, the eagle would probably just fly away. And if you really want to have fun, eagles are smart enough to just ignore that silly fighter with a sword who can’t really hurt them, and focus on people who are hurting him, like casters and people with bows.
Do giant eagles have fly by? Why wouldn’t you just take the dodge action and use Opportunity attacks? or perhaps ready a grapple attempt?
No, no fly-by attack. Plus no reason why the player would not take dodge action.
No reason not to use the Dodge Action, however being that its an Action you would only get such if you used it for your action that turn before the attack came. Or had an ability that give such. Same with Grapple, if you can move and jump at their height on your turn, then you could easily grapple and bring them back to earth, just a matter of your DM asking for the relevant Athletic, or Acrobatics for that bit of flourish, check to do the jump if they are out of your 5ft reach but still within range of your jump.
Wait, I am confused. Are you saying that the player is Readying an Action to Grapple the Giant Eagle as it attacks him? Or are you saying the player does a Move and Grapple on the player's turn? If I was the DM I would definitely have anything with an Int of 8 do strafing runs. The Eagle would swoop in, attack a target, and then hope the player misses on the Opportunity Attack as the Eagle leaves the zone. No way a player is going to leap 20 feet into the air, and the Eagle is not going to hang around near the ground inviting melee attacks.
I would base the reaction on the wording of the trigger:
Also a more efficient response would be:
Attack: [roll]3d20dl2+6[/roll] Damage: [roll](if([roll:-1:critical], =0, 1d8, 2{1d8}.expand()))+4[/roll] Sneakattack: [roll](if([roll:-2:critical], =0, 2d6, 2{2d6}.expand()))[/roll]To answer th eoriginal question. Yes, you can ready *an* attack with the trigger of something along the lines of "when a flying enemy gets close enough for me to hit I will attack it". No need for a reach weapon and the character could of course still move. As has been mentioned though, it might a better use of the action economy to use the dodge action and hope that you can get an attack of opportunity as the eagle flies away.
Are you saying that the Readied Action includes movement and an attack? The wording has to be precise with what you are trying to describe.
A player can Move and Ready an action. A player cannot Ready an Action that includes Movement and an Attack.
Of course not. I haven't written anything that can be even remotely interpreted as anything of the sorts. The wording is sufficently precise for anyone familiar with the rules.
No-one said you can.
The point is that many do not understand the rules, hence the need for preciseness.