Round #1 - Character X is in the middle of the combat initiative order and uses the Ready action to cue up firing their bow if an enemy leaves cover. Round #1 then ends with no enemy taking triggering movement.
Round #2 - Enemy A (first in the initiative order) leaves cover to advance on the party. Now what?
Is it correct that Character X can choose to use their reaction (cued up with Ready in the last round) to shoot Enemy A? Is this their reaction from their turn on Round #1?
Does this prohibit them from using the reaction that would have been associated with their turn on Round #2?
Readying an action allows you to set a condition in which you use your Reaction to take the specified Action, and it lasts until the start of your next turn. so if you're in the middle of the initiative order, and you hold an action to attack, then as long as the trigger happens before it comes back to your turn, and you don't use a different Reaction in that time, you still get to use it.
It seems like you might be getting mixed up about Turns and Rounds.
The Order of Combat
A typical combat encounter is a clash between two sides, a flurry of weapon swings, feints, parries, footwork, and spellcasting. The game organizes the chaos of combat into a cycle of rounds and turns. A Round represents about 6 seconds in the game world. During a round, each participant in a battle takes a Turn. The order of turns is determined at the beginning of a combat encounter, when everyone rolls initiative. Once everyone has taken a turn, the fight continues to the next round if neither side has defeated the other.
The player on their Turn would use the Ready Action -- this allows them to choose a circumstance that triggers their Reaction. They would be able to use that Reaction any time before their next Turn regardless of what Round it is.
Ready specifically states "Before the start of your next turn".
Ready
Sometimes you want to get the jump on a foe or wait for a particular circumstance before you act. To do so, you can take the Ready action on your turn, which lets you act using your reaction before the start of your next turn.
First, you decide what perceivable circumstance will trigger your reaction. Then, you choose the action you will take in response to that trigger, or you choose to move up to your speed in response to it. Examples include "If the cultist steps on the trapdoor, I’ll pull the lever that opens it," and "If the goblin steps next to me, I move away."
When the trigger occurs, you can either take your reaction right after the trigger finishes or ignore the trigger.
When you ready a spell, you cast it as normal but hold its energy, which you release with your reaction when the trigger occurs. To be readied, a spell must have a casting time of 1 action, and holding onto the spell’s magic requires concentration (explained in chapter 10). If your concentration is broken, the spell dissipates without taking effect. For example, if you are concentrating on the web spell and ready magic missile, your web spell ends, and if you take damage before you release magic missile with your reaction, your concentration might be broken.
Round #1 - Character X is in the middle of the combat initiative order and uses the Ready action to cue up firing their bow if an enemy leaves cover. Round #1 then ends with no enemy taking triggering movement.
Round #2 - Enemy A (first in the initiative order) leaves cover to advance on the party. Now what?
Is it correct that Character X can choose to use their reaction (cued up with Ready in the last round) to shoot Enemy A? Is this their reaction from their turn on Round #1?
Does this prohibit them from using the reaction that would have been associated with their turn on Round #2?
The actual round of combat isn't important in this context--it's what happens before Character X's next turn. Their readied action carries over all the way until they begin their next turn, at which time the readied action ends, and they get their turn again.
In your example, the enemy who moved at the beginning of round 2 would still create an actionable event if Character X wanted to use their reaction to fire the bow at the enemy.
Thanks, but that’s not the source of my uncertainty. I’m really wondering whether Character X gets a second reaction in Round #2. Take my example above a little further. Character X uses It’s readied reaction to fire upon Enemy A when it leaves cover in Round 2.
Then we get to Character X’s turn in Round 2 and say they ready another attack to be triggered when Enemy B moves out of cover. Still in Round #2 Enemy B takes their turn and moves out of cover. Does Character X get a second reaction in Round 2?
Basically there's very little that actually orients on the round count itself, as opposed to the initiating unit's turns. You start your turn with an Action, Bonus Action, and Reaction. When your next turn starts- which will be after everyone else on the board has taken their turns, any of those that you used are refreshed. Your relative position in the initiative order is rarely, if ever a factor.
Nothing in the game counts rounds. There's nothing that ends at the start or end of a round, and there's nothing that begins at the start or end of a round. The round is an abstraction on top of an abstraction. It may as well not exist.
A player gets one reaction. If they use it, it returns to them at the start of their turn.
So in your example, because the player has not used their reaction yet, and their turn hasn't started yet, they can use their reaction to shoot. The round has no effect on this, because the round has no effect on anything.
Thanks very much. Just to paraphrase it back, so I’m sure I get it - a character/creature gets one Reaction to use during the timeframe beginning with the start of their turn and ending with the start of their next turn. Rounds don’t matter for this analysis.
this is still bugging me. I don’t know what to do with the underlined language below from the Basic Rules (which doesn’t show up 8n the corresponding section in the PHB.
Limiting to one Reaction per ROUND would lead me to a different result than what we articulated above.
Ready
Sometimes you want to get the jump on a foe or wait for a particular circumstance before you act. To do so, you can take the Ready action on your turn, which lets you act using your reaction before the start of your next turn.
First, you decide what perceivable circumstance will trigger your reaction. Then, you choose the action you will take in response to that trigger, or you choose to move up to your speed in response to it. Examples include "If the cultist steps on the trapdoor, I'll pull the lever that opens it," and "If the goblin steps next to me, I move away."
When the trigger occurs, you can either take your reaction right after the trigger finishes or ignore the trigger. Remember that you can take only one reaction per round.
this is still bugging me. I don’t know what to do with the underlined language below from the Basic Rules (which doesn’t show up 8n the corresponding section in the PHB.
Limiting to one Reaction per ROUND would lead me to a different result than what we articulated above.
Ready
Sometimes you want to get the jump on a foe or wait for a particular circumstance before you act. To do so, you can take the Ready action on your turn, which lets you act using your reaction before the start of your next turn.
First, you decide what perceivable circumstance will trigger your reaction. Then, you choose the action you will take in response to that trigger, or you choose to move up to your speed in response to it. Examples include "If the cultist steps on the trapdoor, I'll pull the lever that opens it," and "If the goblin steps next to me, I move away."
When the trigger occurs, you can either take your reaction right after the trigger finishes or ignore the trigger. Remember that you can take only one reaction per round.
Just FYI, this is not in the current printing of the PHB. It was errata'ed out.
Current version:
"Sometimes you want to get the jump on a foe or wait for a particular circumstance before you act. To do so, you can take the Ready action on your turn, which lets you act using your reaction before the start of your next turn.
First, you decide what perceivable circumstance will trigger your reaction. Then, you choose the action you will take in response to that trigger, or you choose to move up to your speed in response to it. Examples include "If the cultist steps on the trapdoor, I'll pull the lever that opens it," and "If the goblin steps next to me, I move away."
When the trigger occurs, you can either take your reaction right after the trigger finishes or ignore the trigger."
" Remember that you can take only one reaction per round." was deleted from the current printing.
However, it appears to be a stealth errata in the sense that the errata summary does not list the deletion of this sentence. (The sentence is present in the 1st printing of the PHB and absent in the 10th printing so sometime between the two printings, the sentence was deleted).
For the current rules, a character has one reaction they can use. Once used, it can't be used again until the start of their next turn. This essentially means that from the start of their turn until the start of their next turn, the character has one reaction available to use. Rounds aren't relevant.
Certain special abilities, spells, and situations allow you to take a special action called a reaction. A reaction is an instant response to a trigger of some kind, which can occur on your turn or on someone else’s. The opportunity attack, described later in this chapter, is the most common type of reaction.
When you take a reaction, you can’t take another one until the start of your next turn. If the reaction interrupts another creature’s turn, that creature can continue its turn right after the reaction.
I'll just add one more detail to this discussion and that is the relevant section of the rules for Surprise:
If you're surprised, you can't move or take an action on your first turn of the combat, and you can't take a reaction until that turn ends.
From this we can infer that under normal circumstances (when we are NOT surprised) we begin the combat with a Reaction that can be used / triggered right away as soon as the first creature in the initiative order begins their first turn -- potentially before we have even begun our own first turn. As normal, if this was used before our first turn then we get another one at the start of our first turn. If this second one is used before the start of our second turn, we'll get another one at the start of our second turn, and so on.
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Round #1 - Character X is in the middle of the combat initiative order and uses the Ready action to cue up firing their bow if an enemy leaves cover. Round #1 then ends with no enemy taking triggering movement.
Round #2 - Enemy A (first in the initiative order) leaves cover to advance on the party. Now what?
Is it correct that Character X can choose to use their reaction (cued up with Ready in the last round) to shoot Enemy A? Is this their reaction from their turn on Round #1?
Does this prohibit them from using the reaction that would have been associated with their turn on Round #2?
Readying an action allows you to set a condition in which you use your Reaction to take the specified Action, and it lasts until the start of your next turn. so if you're in the middle of the initiative order, and you hold an action to attack, then as long as the trigger happens before it comes back to your turn, and you don't use a different Reaction in that time, you still get to use it.
It seems like you might be getting mixed up about Turns and Rounds.
The player on their Turn would use the Ready Action -- this allows them to choose a circumstance that triggers their Reaction. They would be able to use that Reaction any time before their next Turn regardless of what Round it is.
Ready specifically states "Before the start of your next turn".
The actual round of combat isn't important in this context--it's what happens before Character X's next turn. Their readied action carries over all the way until they begin their next turn, at which time the readied action ends, and they get their turn again.
In your example, the enemy who moved at the beginning of round 2 would still create an actionable event if Character X wanted to use their reaction to fire the bow at the enemy.
"Not all those who wander are lost"
Thanks, but that’s not the source of my uncertainty. I’m really wondering whether Character X gets a second reaction in Round #2. Take my example above a little further. Character X uses It’s readied reaction to fire upon Enemy A when it leaves cover in Round 2.
Then we get to Character X’s turn in Round 2 and say they ready another attack to be triggered when Enemy B moves out of cover. Still in Round #2 Enemy B takes their turn and moves out of cover. Does Character X get a second reaction in Round 2?
My apologies if I’m not articulating this well.
When you use your reaction, you don't get it back until the beginning of your turn, if that answers your question.
"Not all those who wander are lost"
Basically there's very little that actually orients on the round count itself, as opposed to the initiating unit's turns. You start your turn with an Action, Bonus Action, and Reaction. When your next turn starts- which will be after everyone else on the board has taken their turns, any of those that you used are refreshed. Your relative position in the initiative order is rarely, if ever a factor.
TexasDevin has it correct.
Nothing in the game counts rounds. There's nothing that ends at the start or end of a round, and there's nothing that begins at the start or end of a round. The round is an abstraction on top of an abstraction. It may as well not exist.
A player gets one reaction. If they use it, it returns to them at the start of their turn.
So in your example, because the player has not used their reaction yet, and their turn hasn't started yet, they can use their reaction to shoot. The round has no effect on this, because the round has no effect on anything.
Thanks very much. Just to paraphrase it back, so I’m sure I get it - a character/creature gets one Reaction to use during the timeframe beginning with the start of their turn and ending with the start of their next turn. Rounds don’t matter for this analysis.
Essentially, yes.
this is still bugging me. I don’t know what to do with the underlined language below from the Basic Rules (which doesn’t show up 8n the corresponding section in the PHB.
Limiting to one Reaction per ROUND would lead me to a different result than what we articulated above.
Ready
Sometimes you want to get the jump on a foe or wait for a particular circumstance before you act. To do so, you can take the Ready action on your turn, which lets you act using your reaction before the start of your next turn.
First, you decide what perceivable circumstance will trigger your reaction. Then, you choose the action you will take in response to that trigger, or you choose to move up to your speed in response to it. Examples include "If the cultist steps on the trapdoor, I'll pull the lever that opens it," and "If the goblin steps next to me, I move away."
When the trigger occurs, you can either take your reaction right after the trigger finishes or ignore the trigger. Remember that you can take only one reaction per round.
Just FYI, this is not in the current printing of the PHB. It was errata'ed out.
Current version:
"Sometimes you want to get the jump on a foe or wait for a particular circumstance before you act. To do so, you can take the Ready action on your turn, which lets you act using your reaction before the start of your next turn.
First, you decide what perceivable circumstance will trigger your reaction. Then, you choose the action you will take in response to that trigger, or you choose to move up to your speed in response to it. Examples include "If the cultist steps on the trapdoor, I'll pull the lever that opens it," and "If the goblin steps next to me, I move away."
When the trigger occurs, you can either take your reaction right after the trigger finishes or ignore the trigger."
" Remember that you can take only one reaction per round." was deleted from the current printing.
However, it appears to be a stealth errata in the sense that the errata summary does not list the deletion of this sentence. (The sentence is present in the 1st printing of the PHB and absent in the 10th printing so sometime between the two printings, the sentence was deleted).
For the current rules, a character has one reaction they can use. Once used, it can't be used again until the start of their next turn. This essentially means that from the start of their turn until the start of their next turn, the character has one reaction available to use. Rounds aren't relevant.
Beauty. Thanks!
Yea the "basic rules" section here is wrong. And just to add to what @David42 said, this is from the rules for Reactions.
I'll just add one more detail to this discussion and that is the relevant section of the rules for Surprise:
From this we can infer that under normal circumstances (when we are NOT surprised) we begin the combat with a Reaction that can be used / triggered right away as soon as the first creature in the initiative order begins their first turn -- potentially before we have even begun our own first turn. As normal, if this was used before our first turn then we get another one at the start of our first turn. If this second one is used before the start of our second turn, we'll get another one at the start of our second turn, and so on.