Our Group's Cleric has the duty to protect the backline wizard. Following scenario:
a bunch of enemies is 20 feet away and it is not clear if our frontline can engage all of them. The Cleric is worried that an enemy could circle around his melee range and attack the wizard directly by flanking him. He thus wants to Ready an Action: If a melee enemy comes within 12 feet of me i move to him and attack.
I allowed this in the moment but i did not find a definitive answer if it is possible. If he could ONLY move and uses his reaction for the Ready Action itself, he would have no Reaction to intercept the melee enemy if the latter just runs past him nontheless, and this approach of using the Ready Action would not work.
RAW, using the Ready action, a player can choose an action to perform OR to move up to their speed, which they then do by taking a reaction once their triggering condition is met. They can not both move and perform an action as a readied response.
That said, I would absolutely allow a player to do what you described, so long as they were "saving" their movement for when they take a reaction, rather than using on their turn. It's not quite RAW, but I think it is perfectly reasonable.
Our Group's Cleric has the duty to protect the backline wizard. Following scenario:
a bunch of enemies is 20 feet away and it is not clear if our frontline can engage all of them. The Cleric is worried that an enemy could circle around his melee range and attack the wizard directly by flanking him. He thus wants to Ready an Action: If a melee enemy comes within 12 feet of me i move to him and attack.
I allowed this in the moment but i did not find a definitive answer if it is possible. If he could ONLY move and uses his reaction for the Ready Action itself, he would have no Reaction to intercept the melee enemy if the latter just runs past him nontheless, and this approach of using the Ready Action would not work.
Sadly you can't move and attack, or vice versa, on any action but an Attack action.
As others said, you really can’t by RAW. You can only ready an action. You can’t ready a move. You can ready the dash action, which would allow you to move, but then you’d have no action left to attack, and as you note, would use their reaction as part of the ready.
So their action would be to ready a dash. Their reaction would trigger. They’d run up next to the enemy, and pretty much wave as the enemy passed by.
As others said, you really can’t by RAW. You can only ready an action. You can’t ready a move. You can ready the dash action, which would allow you to move, but then you’d have no action left to attack, and as you note, would use their reaction as part of the ready.
So their action would be to ready a dash. Their reaction would trigger. They’d run up next to the enemy, and pretty much wave as the enemy passed by.
No, you can ready a move. You just can't ready a move and an action at the same time. Sequilonis laid out how it works above.
Technically you can ready the Dash action, but it doesn't do anything, because the Dash action doesn't actually move you, and you can't ready both an action and a move at the same time.
Yeah, Readying Dash is not very useful because you can't move off-turn (unless some game feature allows it; here are some examples: Dissonant Whispers question).
This is the explanation from the Dev:
@thomas_conners If you ready the Dash Action, can you then move up to twice you speed in reaction to the trigger? @JeremyECrawford Dash gives you extra movement. Off your turn, you have no movement. E.g., 0 ft. + 30 ft. = 30 ft., not 60 ft.
The same reasoning applies to Readying Disengage: you won't be able to move when the trigger occurs.
Yeah, Readying Dash is not very useful because you can't move off-turn (unless some game feature allows it; here are some examples: Dissonant Whispers question).
This is the explanation from the Dev:
@thomas_conners If you ready the Dash Action, can you then move up to twice you speed in reaction to the trigger? @JeremyECrawford Dash gives you extra movement. Off your turn, you have no movement. E.g., 0 ft. + 30 ft. = 30 ft., not 60 ft.
The same reasoning applies to Readying Disengage: you won't be able to move when the trigger occurs.
There's nothing that explicitly says that off your turn, you have no movement, so this is just Jeremy Crawford stating that, correct? And in a sense, he's incorrect here. When you Ready an Action to move, you can move on your turn, move as a reaction (if the Reaction is triggered), and move on your following turn. Dissonant Whispers similarly forces an enemy to use a Reaction, if available, to move.
These are all features that explicitly provide movement outside of the characters turn, but I feel that they highlight that Crawford's response confuses the issue. The, IMO, correct ruling is that the Dash Action doesn't actually involve movement so Readying the Dash Action does nothing. You Ready an Action or you Ready movement. Readying the Dash and Disengage Actions don't do anything because they modify movement and you cannot ready movement and an Action at the same time. Similarly, Ready the Ready Action, even if it allowed you to delay the decision on an Action to Ready does nothing as you will not have a Reaction to use it on. It would be nice if the Ready Action explicitly excluded Dash, Disengage, and Ready to avoid confusion.
The only scenario where I can think of this coming up is readying the [actions]Attack[/actions] because you can move between attacks. A poorly worded feature increasing movement during the Attack action could create an opportunity for off-turn movement. I seem to recall a class with the ability to teleport between attacks. If that feature does not require you to expend movement to teleport, it also could create the opportunity for off-turn movement.
Edit: A Horizon Walker Ranger can teleport between attacks during an Attack Action and it is not restricted to doing so on their turn so this would qualify.
Another option are features that let you sacrifice an attack to make attack with a companion. For example, a Pact of the Chain Warlock could ready an Action to Attack and during that Attack Action, forgo an Attack to have their familiar attack using its Reaction.
Finally, there's features like Manifest Echo of the Echo Knight (Explorerer's Guide to Wildemount) which normally only allows you to attack from the Echo's space on your turn but can Unleash Incarnation allows an additional attack from the Echo's space.
Most of these won't help the Cleric and are hard to pull off anyway, but 1 level dip into Warlock for Pact of the Chain is potentially very useful. Warlock Cantrips and a Familiar delivering touch spells or attacking. I like the Sphynx of Wonder, but any of the Invisible ones are excellent as well (and don't forget they can chill in a Familiar pocket). So, park the familiar by the Wizard to protect them or in the front lines (yikes) to deliver touch-based heals and the Cleric can hang out by the Wizard.
Yeah, Readying Dash is not very useful because you can't move off-turn (unless some game feature allows it; here are some examples: Dissonant Whispers question).
This is the explanation from the Dev:
@thomas_conners If you ready the Dash Action, can you then move up to twice you speed in reaction to the trigger? @JeremyECrawford Dash gives you extra movement. Off your turn, you have no movement. E.g., 0 ft. + 30 ft. = 30 ft., not 60 ft.
The same reasoning applies to Readying Disengage: you won't be able to move when the trigger occurs.
There's nothing that explicitly says that off your turn, you have no movement,
There's this:
"On your turn, you can move a distance equal to your Speed or less. Or you can decide not to move."
The Ready action providers a specific exception
"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."
"On your turn, you can move a distance equal to your Speed or less. Or you can decide not to move."
The Ready action providers a specific exception
"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."
Yes, that's on your turn. I was talking about off your turn. Crawford's statement that you have zero movement when it's not your turn isn't quite right. You cannot move, but your movement is not zero.
Or are you saying that the Ready Action states that you movement is equal to your speed during that Action?
You take the Ready action to wait for a particular circumstance before you act. To do so, you take this action on your turn, which lets you act by taking a 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 zombie 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 (expending any resources used to cast it) 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 an action, and holding on to the spell’s magic requires Concentration, which you can maintain up to the start of your next turn. If your Concentration is broken, the spell dissipates without taking effect.
The Ready action specifically states that you can perform an action or move up to your speed.
What Jeremy Crawford was stating was that you can not normally move off of your turn. He was not stating that your Speed was 0, simply that you cannot choose to use that speed to move except on your turn without another feature allowing you to do so.
[...] The only scenario where I can think of this coming up is readying the [actions]Attack[/actions] because you can move between attacks. A poorly worded feature increasing movement during the Attack action could create an opportunity for off-turn movement. [...]
Just to clarify you can only move between attacks on your own turn:
Attack [Action] [...] Moving between Attacks. If you move on your turn and have a feature, such as Extra Attack, that gives you more than one attack as part of the Attack action, you can use some or all of that movement to move between those attacks.
"On your turn, you can move a distance equal to your Speed or less. Or you can decide not to move."
The Ready action providers a specific exception
"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."
Yes, that's on your turn. I was talking about off your turn. Crawford's statement that you have zero movement when it's not your turn isn't quite right. You cannot move, but your movement is not zero.
Or are you saying that the Ready Action states that you movement is equal to your speed during that Action?
Your movement is zero because movement is the maximum distance you are able to move on that turn, most commonly an amount equal to your speed. Movement = Speed - Total Distance Moved on your turn and 0 outside your turn
[...] The only scenario where I can think of this coming up is readying the [actions]Attack[/actions] because you can move between attacks. A poorly worded feature increasing movement during the Attack action could create an opportunity for off-turn movement. [...]
Just to clarify you can only move between attacks on your own turn:
Attack [Action] [...] Moving between Attacks. If you move on your turn and have a feature, such as Extra Attack, that gives you more than one attack as part of the Attack action, you can use some or all of that movement to move between those attacks.
Oops. Careless of me. I checked several other features for that wording, but not that. The Horizon Walker teleport still works outside of your turn, though.
Your movement is zero because movement is the maximum distance you are able to move on that turn, most commonly an amount equal to your speed. Movement = Speed - Total Distance Moved on your turn and 0 outside your turn
It's not a meaningful distinction, but your movement is not zero. It's more like undefined. However, when it is defined, it will most likely be your speed.
Consider this scenario, two level 2+ Rogues are racing.
On each of their turns, they
Bonus Action Dash (Cunning Action)
Move 60 feet
Ready an Action to Move 30 feet when the other catches up
Each Turn (measured from the start of their turn until the start of their next turn), each Rogue is moving 90 feet. Now you get a similar effect just from Dashing twice and things can get silly pretty easily (as in about 5K feet per turn), but there is movement outside of your turn. I think the standard is that it is present, you just need a feature to use it. However, it's a bit of a tomato vs tomato distinction.
My point was more that instead of addressing that Readying a Dash action didn't actually allow for any movement, he states that off turn, your movement is 0 feet and with the Dash Action, it would be 30 feet of movement instead of 60 feet, implying that you could move 30 feet in this scenario. This is not correct, since whatever your final movement is, you can't use it since you readied an action instead of movement.
Our Group's Cleric has the duty to protect the backline wizard. Following scenario:
a bunch of enemies is 20 feet away and it is not clear if our frontline can engage all of them. The Cleric is worried that an enemy could circle around his melee range and attack the wizard directly by flanking him. He thus wants to Ready an Action: If a melee enemy comes within 12 feet of me i move to him and attack.
I allowed this in the moment but i did not find a definitive answer if it is possible. If he could ONLY move and uses his reaction for the Ready Action itself, he would have no Reaction to intercept the melee enemy if the latter just runs past him nontheless, and this approach of using the Ready Action would not work.
RAW, using the Ready action, a player can choose an action to perform OR to move up to their speed, which they then do by taking a reaction once their triggering condition is met. They can not both move and perform an action as a readied response.
That said, I would absolutely allow a player to do what you described, so long as they were "saving" their movement for when they take a reaction, rather than using on their turn. It's not quite RAW, but I think it is perfectly reasonable.
Sadly you can't move and attack, or vice versa, on any action but an Attack action.
As others said, you really can’t by RAW. You can only ready an action. You can’t ready a move. You can ready the dash action, which would allow you to move, but then you’d have no action left to attack, and as you note, would use their reaction as part of the ready.So their action would be to ready a dash. Their reaction would trigger. They’d run up next to the enemy, and pretty much wave as the enemy passed by.Move along, nothing to see her.
No, you can ready a move. You just can't ready a move and an action at the same time. Sequilonis laid out how it works above.
Technically you can ready the Dash action, but it doesn't do anything, because the Dash action doesn't actually move you, and you can't ready both an action and a move at the same time.
pronouns: he/she/they
Yeah, Readying Dash is not very useful because you can't move off-turn (unless some game feature allows it; here are some examples: Dissonant Whispers question).
This is the explanation from the Dev:
The same reasoning applies to Readying Disengage: you won't be able to move when the trigger occurs.
There's nothing that explicitly says that off your turn, you have no movement, so this is just Jeremy Crawford stating that, correct? And in a sense, he's incorrect here. When you Ready an Action to move, you can move on your turn, move as a reaction (if the Reaction is triggered), and move on your following turn. Dissonant Whispers similarly forces an enemy to use a Reaction, if available, to move.
These are all features that explicitly provide movement outside of the characters turn, but I feel that they highlight that Crawford's response confuses the issue. The, IMO, correct ruling is that the Dash Action doesn't actually involve movement so Readying the Dash Action does nothing. You Ready an Action or you Ready movement. Readying the Dash and Disengage Actions don't do anything because they modify movement and you cannot ready movement and an Action at the same time. Similarly, Ready the Ready Action, even if it allowed you to delay the decision on an Action to Ready does nothing as you will not have a Reaction to use it on. It would be nice if the Ready Action explicitly excluded Dash, Disengage, and Ready to avoid confusion.
The only scenario where I can think of this coming up is readying the [actions]Attack[/actions] because you can move between attacks. A poorly worded feature increasing movement during the Attack action could create an opportunity for off-turn movement. I seem to recall a class with the ability to teleport between attacks. If that feature does not require you to expend movement to teleport, it also could create the opportunity for off-turn movement.
Edit: A Horizon Walker Ranger can teleport between attacks during an Attack Action and it is not restricted to doing so on their turn so this would qualify.
Another option are features that let you sacrifice an attack to make attack with a companion. For example, a Pact of the Chain Warlock could ready an Action to Attack and during that Attack Action, forgo an Attack to have their familiar attack using its Reaction.
Finally, there's features like Manifest Echo of the Echo Knight (Explorerer's Guide to Wildemount) which normally only allows you to attack from the Echo's space on your turn but can Unleash Incarnation allows an additional attack from the Echo's space.
Most of these won't help the Cleric and are hard to pull off anyway, but 1 level dip into Warlock for Pact of the Chain is potentially very useful. Warlock Cantrips and a Familiar delivering touch spells or attacking. I like the Sphynx of Wonder, but any of the Invisible ones are excellent as well (and don't forget they can chill in a Familiar pocket). So, park the familiar by the Wizard to protect them or in the front lines (yikes) to deliver touch-based heals and the Cleric can hang out by the Wizard.
How to add Tooltips.
My houserulings.
There's this:
"On your turn, you can move a distance equal to your Speed or less. Or you can decide not to move."
The Ready action providers a specific exception
"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."
Find my D&D Beyond articles here
Yes, that's on your turn. I was talking about off your turn. Crawford's statement that you have zero movement when it's not your turn isn't quite right. You cannot move, but your movement is not zero.
Or are you saying that the Ready Action states that you movement is equal to your speed during that Action?
How to add Tooltips.
My houserulings.
The Ready action specifically states that you can perform an action or move up to your speed.
What Jeremy Crawford was stating was that you can not normally move off of your turn. He was not stating that your Speed was 0, simply that you cannot choose to use that speed to move except on your turn without another feature allowing you to do so.
Just to clarify you can only move between attacks on your own turn:
Your movement is zero because movement is the maximum distance you are able to move on that turn, most commonly an amount equal to your speed. Movement = Speed - Total Distance Moved on your turn and 0 outside your turn
Find my D&D Beyond articles here
Oops. Careless of me. I checked several other features for that wording, but not that. The Horizon Walker teleport still works outside of your turn, though.
It's not a meaningful distinction, but your movement is not zero. It's more like undefined. However, when it is defined, it will most likely be your speed.
Consider this scenario, two level 2+ Rogues are racing.
On each of their turns, they
Each Turn (measured from the start of their turn until the start of their next turn), each Rogue is moving 90 feet. Now you get a similar effect just from Dashing twice and things can get silly pretty easily (as in about 5K feet per turn), but there is movement outside of your turn. I think the standard is that it is present, you just need a feature to use it. However, it's a bit of a tomato vs tomato distinction.
My point was more that instead of addressing that Readying a Dash action didn't actually allow for any movement, he states that off turn, your movement is 0 feet and with the Dash Action, it would be 30 feet of movement instead of 60 feet, implying that you could move 30 feet in this scenario. This is not correct, since whatever your final movement is, you can't use it since you readied an action instead of movement.
How to add Tooltips.
My houserulings.