Sorry, very sorry, it's a pet peeve. I'm used to a lot of french so my brain auto-translates this to "red" and I have to 'correct' my brain back to 'Rogue'. It breaks my flow and makes my brain annoyed with me. One of my biggest pet peeves alongside the use of ect instead of etc.
Anyways, back to topic...
I do agree that the Ready action is underused. Essentially you get to turn any action into a reaction.
"I ready Catapult spell so when an enemy goes to send an arrow my way, I will send it right back at them."
"I ready the Grease spell for when the target steps the second stair from the top of the staircase."
If you're a Conjuror you can ready the Benign Transposition to trigger the instant an enemy comes within 5 feet of you - letting you immediately teleport up to 30 ft away.
-
Slightly off topic, if you're in a narrow hallway being chased by enemies, you can use Arcane Gate either side of them to trap them. When done on stairs you basically create an infinite staircase which works wonders if you've also cast Grease on that stair section. **plays Limp Bixkit's Rollin'**
Click ✨ HERE ✨ For My Youtube Videos featuring Guides, Tips & Tricks for using D&D Beyond. Need help with Homebrew? Check out ✨ thisFAQ/Guide thread ✨ by IamSposta.
Sorry - did I spell it 'rouge'? Yeah, I realized I while back that this was incorrect spelling. I still need to implant this into my brain, lol;)
I like the use you mentioned of Benign Transposition. It works quite well!
Lol, yeah. Infinite stairs sound fun. Although, I'm not sure I could put my enemies through what I have been through - as a kid, my Dad would play 'Stairway to Heaven' on a loop. Really great melody, yet in bored me half to death to hear it so often.
Variant rules must be made for boring your enemies to death.
Happy holidays!
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Funny you should ask. I asked a similar, slightly more specific question in my comment which you ignored. "At what angle does the ground become a wall?"
how does “ground” get defined if you have spiderclimb, or are a monk walking on ceilings multiclassed with sorcerer? (9 monk 11 sorcerer)
Those features/spells specifically mention being able to walk on vertical surfaces and ceilings. They make no mention of "ground." "Ground" is not defined in the rules, it is most referenced as the surface of the earth, is similar but not synonymous with "floor," and is always separate from "vertical surface" and "ceiling."
Edit—- pretty convenient to ignore the rope bridge scenario. And pretty convenient to only choose to believe a lateral fall will only result in damage equivalent of 10 feet fall damage.
I didn't specifically ignore the rope bridge scenario, I just didn't see what it added to the fall damage discussion, unless you fall off the bridge in which case I covered it quite thoroughly.
And I already mentioned that lateral movement has an inconsequential effect on falling speed and therefore falling damage. It is not that I believe "lateral falls" only result in 10 feet of fall damage, lateral movement does not result in 10 feet of falling damage unless you were moving 25 feet per second (150 feet per turn) when you fell.
like I said- that’s a pretty 2-d world/view. You can call me as names as you want. Doesn’t change the fact. That there’s an entire D&D universe of scenarios outside the box you are only thinking in. And a lot of the stuff outside your box is still RAW.
I actually have a 4-d World view, where the 4th dimension is time. Time is pivotal in determining speed and collision energy which is the source of fall damage. And what I have been trying to explain is that normal (non-vehicle) lateral movement does not significantly effect falling angle.
In order to have 45° fall angle (which is the angle required for the portal to catch you) after 10 feet of falling you would have had to be flying at 150 feet per turn when the fall started. Otherwise, the portal would have to be on a steep incline of roughly 40-45° (where ever 5 feet horizontally is also 5 feet vertically), which isn't even impossible, just unlikely.
And where in all of this discussion of 3-d topology does it seem like I have a 2-d world view? From the very beginning of this argument, I have been talking about the ground NOT being flat.
Robazathus and DxJxC, this is getting too intense.
Personal viewpoint is exactly that - personal. Each of you has valid points. But if you want to have a full on math argument, please do so outside this thread, 'cause it is cluttering up my inbox. And preferably do it without name calling and/or personal jabs, because it is inappropriate to do so on a forum:)
Happy holidays!
Right, sorry. How did we get so off topic with discussing whether a vertical portal could catch a falling person while constantly being accused of not being able to think in higher dimensions? I'll stop.
Ready action! I find it most useful for archers to take a shot when enemies come out of cover.
Thank you for sharing some pretty cool ideas - ready actions are often misunderstood.
There may be some issues with some of the plans though, based on the sentence in the rules, "When the trigger occurs, you can either take your reaction right after the trigger finishes or ignore the trigger." - I think that would technically mean the party get breathed all over by the dragon, taking the damage and THEN the wall of force goes up between them and the dragon.
That said, I would totally allow it to work as you described in any game I am running, because it's cool planning and the visual is really neat!
It's like saying "I ready an action - when the enemy shoots an arrow, I'm going to move 5 ft to the left, so they automatically miss!" ...no, that doesn't work.
1 and 3 don't work, in my opinion. This isn't MTG. If you trigger on the enemy taking an action, your thing will trigger after the enemy has taken their action, not during. With example number 1, if you put up the wall of force AFTER the enemy's already attacked, then you don't negate their damage at all - they've already taken their swing. If you put up the wall of force BEFORE the enemy's attacked, then the enemy gets to do something else with their action instead, since they haven't spent an action doing an attack.
It's like saying "I ready an action - when the enemy shoots an arrow, I'm going to move 5 ft to the left, so they automatically miss!" ...no, that doesn't work.
So, I had a DEBATE about something similar today at work with my soon to be DM.
A ranger has bow in hand, I go first and use my action to ready. I say " Whenever the ranger reaches for an arrow I will throw my kunai "
My DM stated that the arrow would be pulled as an attack action so his attack would happen. That is fine, but my trigger isn't for his attack action its for the movement of his hand towards his quiver. He said it doesn't matter because my reaction happens after the trigger and my trigger is his attack action, ok whatever, thats fine. The moment the ranger attacks his arrow leaves his bow no question.
does my reaction then go off and i throw kunai, or does the arrow hit then i throw the said kunai?
Does my reaction happen when the arrow leaves bow or when it hits essentially.
Another one was, if i ready for him to grab an arrow from his quiver and fling it at me and he doesn't do that but instead casts a spell at me what happens? I just assumed im caught off guard or something and his spell hits. Just wanted some clarification there as well.
Thank you for sharing some pretty cool ideas - ready actions are often misunderstood.
There may be some issues with some of the plans though, based on the sentence in the rules, "When the trigger occurs, you can either take your reaction right after the trigger finishes or ignore the trigger." - I think that would technically mean the party get breathed all over by the dragon, taking the damage and THEN the wall of force goes up between them and the dragon.
That said, I would totally allow it to work as you described in any game I am running, because it's cool planning and the visual is really neat!
It's like saying "I ready an action - when the enemy shoots an arrow, I'm going to move 5 ft to the left, so they automatically miss!" ...no, that doesn't work.
1 and 3 don't work, in my opinion. This isn't MTG. If you trigger on the enemy taking an action, your thing will trigger after the enemy has taken their action, not during. With example number 1, if you put up the wall of force AFTER the enemy's already attacked, then you don't negate their damage at all - they've already taken their swing. If you put up the wall of force BEFORE the enemy's attacked, then the enemy gets to do something else with their action instead, since they haven't spent an action doing an attack.
It's like saying "I ready an action - when the enemy shoots an arrow, I'm going to move 5 ft to the left, so they automatically miss!" ...no, that doesn't work.
So, I had a DEBATE about something similar today at work with my soon to be DM.
A ranger has bow in hand, I go first and use my action to ready. I say " Whenever the ranger reaches for an arrow I will throw my kunai "
My DM stated that the arrow would be pulled as an attack action so his attack would happen. That is fine, but my trigger isn't for his attack action its for the movement of his hand towards his quiver. He said it doesn't matter because my reaction happens after the trigger and my trigger is his attack action, ok whatever, thats fine. The moment the ranger attacks his arrow leaves his bow no question.
does my reaction then go off and i throw kunai, or does the arrow hit then i throw the said kunai?
Does my reaction happen when the arrow leaves bow or when it hits essentially.
Another one was, if i ready for him to grab an arrow from his quiver and fling it at me and he doesn't do that but instead casts a spell at me what happens? I just assumed im caught off guard or something and his spell hits. Just wanted some clarification there as well.
RAW, your interpretation to use "his hand moves towards his quiver" is correct and your DM's interpretation to use the action is "wrong".
The rules for Ready define a trigger like this:
"First, you decide what perceivable circumstance will trigger your reaction."
You can perceive his hand moving towards the quiver, you cannot perceive him taking the Attack Action, not even after the attack (it could have been a Bonus Action, a special ability or a spell instead).
If the Attack Action is the trigger, the arrow first hits you, deals damage, potentially kills you or interrupts the spell you were holding and then you get to use your readied action.
For your second question: your trigger did not happen so you cannot use your readied action. The spell is resolved as normal and you wasted your turn.
Yes, I have bad experience with the ready action + bows. My character Box was trying to creep unnoticed into an enemy fort, by flying up the side of a castle's wall and silently taking care of any resistance he met at the top of the barricade (how he planned to do so silently with only fire spells to rely on..... I don't believe the two things are compatible). He hadn't noticed that, in casting the Fly spell upon himself, he had attracted the attention of the castle archers. Twenty two of them.
So Box, holding his back against the wall, slowly flew up the side of the castle, and all the while laughed to himself, saying how they'd never see him coming. How ironic. Almost at the top of the wall, Box heard this yelled from the ramparts (and, I don't mind admitting, it is a sound which now pops up in my nightmares....): "VOLLEY!"
22 arrows whistled down upon him, and 15 hit him directly in the chest. At this point, I looked fearfully up at the DM for conformation of a fact that we all already knew. The DM, faltering slightly, had an odd expression on his face, a sort of half cringe, half smile. "Maximum damage." he croaked. It ended up a bit like this: 15 arrows, each dealing 1d6 +3 piercing damage.
I needn't say that, being an 5th level sorcerer, box didn't need the 5d6 fall damage his body also took to die outright.
Anyway, Box has been revived since that time, and still has a fear of arrows:)
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.
...
So I'm not sure if the revised rogue idea would work because the cunning action is a bonus action and the bolts from the grave isn't any kind of action.
I think the basic idea of the Revived Rogue was use Cunning Action as a bonus on your turn which lets you use Bolts of the Grave, then ready your main action to attack as a reaction. The idea being for that readied-action-attack to occur outside of your turn in a condition where sneak attack could still apply, this allowing you to use both Bolts of the Grave and your Sneak Attack during the same round.
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No, the idea was that you used Bolts from the Grave for Sneak Attack damage on your turn, and took the ready action on your turn to make an attack. An attack that happens after your turn in combat (using an attack with the ready action) isn't restricted to the 'only one use of Sneak Attack on your turn' rule, as the attack doesn't occur on the same turn as your Bolt from the Grave.
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I see no problem with it. In fact, that seems to be the exact sort of thing that Readied Actions are for. Clever use of them make the difference between strategic combat and a boring slugfest.
Regarding Use #3 (Arcane Gate) -
I think this one is also legit, but I wouldn't think a player should expect it to always be successful.
With this tactic, there's a chance of "free damage" on your part--along with a complete avoidance of damage from the dragon's attack. So, unless the dragon had subpar intelligence, as DM I'd personally be likely to give the dragon a chance at stopping their attack right when they see the portal appear (and the other side, aimed back at them.) Now, since they'd already committed to the attack, since the trigger would have been something like "when the dragon is about to attack," I wouldn't let them do something else with the Action, but I would allow them to sort of "skid to a stop" right before actually attacking, similar to how you can ready a spell, effectively committing to it, but drop it before your next turn if you wish. You still use up the spell slot, but the spell doesn't actually go off.
I'm not sure if that's entirely by the rules; but when talking about reactions, this level of adjudication will occur quite a bit, so I'd think there would be a good chance any decent DM would either do something similar or find some other way to prevent this from being an always-viable tactic.
A lot of "finickity" DMs are simply DMs who are not as clever as their players and know it, and are sick of an overly-clever player who knows they think faster than their DM running roughshod over their table with Tricksy Ploys the DM can't keep up with. A particularly clever player can be an awesome resource at the table. They can also be drama hogs who never allow the table to engage in anything but (their) Clever Plans, when maybe half the group really does just want a nice, clean straight-up fight for once.
Heh, now, as both a player and a DM I like Clever Plans and players trying oddball things. But the oddball thing in question is not always going to work the way the player wants it to, especially if you repeat the tactic. Once is an awesome reversal. Twice is helpful. The fifteenth time you use a readied Arcane Gate to try and get something to spike itself, you shouldn't be surprised when your DM has developed countermeasures. Not to mention the very oldest and most equal of munchkin-killing caveats: "anything you can do, your enemies can do, too."
Player makes a name for themselves reversing spells/attacks with Arcane Gate? Heh, who's to say other spellcasters aren't going to start picking up the trick themselves?
Regarding #1 (Wall of Force): You could ready a casting of Wall of Force to use on a trigger (such as a dragon inhaling, preparing to use its dragon breath). BUT... I'd argue that *intentionally dropping concentration* on Wall of Force would require *another action*, which you wouldn't be able to do until your next turn.
Regarding #2 (the Rogue "Bolts from the Grave"): "Immediately after using your cunning action, you can make a ranged spell attack against a creature within 30 feet of you." It's not explicitly said either way in the write-up, but I'd argue that using this feature counts as the "cast a spell" action, and thus you don't have a second action that you can ready to use as a reaction later.
Regarding #3 (Arcane Gate): Hmmmm. The trick here is the spell says and "creature or object" entering the portal moves through. I don't know if I'd allow magical effects, but claws, weapons, arrows? Sure. HOWEVER - the "visible" side of the portal is filled with opaque mist, so it would effectively block the casting of any spell that requires the caster to see the target.
Regarding #1 (Wall of Force): You could ready a casting of Wall of Force to use on a trigger (such as a dragon inhaling, preparing to use its dragon breath). BUT... I'd argue that *intentionally dropping concentration* on Wall of Force would require *another action*, which you wouldn't be able to do until your next turn.
Per RAW you may drop concentration at any time without needing an action or it even needing to be your turn.
"Concentration
Some spells require you to maintain concentration in order to keep their magic active. If you lose concentration, such a spell ends.
If a spell must be maintained with concentration, that fact appears in its Duration entry, and the spell specifies how long you can concentrate on it. You can end concentration at any time(no action required)."
Regarding #2 (the Rogue "Bolts from the Grave"): "Immediately after using your cunning action, you can make a ranged spell attack against a creature within 30 feet of you." It's not explicitly said either way in the write-up, but I'd argue that using this feature counts as the "cast a spell" action, and thus you don't have a second action that you can ready to use as a reaction later.
Nope. Only casting a spell uses the cast a spell action. Making a spell attack does not. Features, spells and abilities can give you the option of making a weapon or spell attack without the need of using the normal actions associated with them (Attack action and Cast a Spell action respectively).
You only use a cast a spell action to cast a spell or if a feature specifically specifies it. The wording is clear that this is just a spell attack made as part of the Cunning Action bonus action.
A weapon attack is any normal physical attack. A spell attack is any attack that is magical. You don't need spells to make spell attacks. For example, The Way of the Sun Soul monk can use radiant blasts as "spell attacks" as part of their Attack action.
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it's ROGUE.
Sorry, very sorry, it's a pet peeve. I'm used to a lot of french so my brain auto-translates this to "red" and I have to 'correct' my brain back to 'Rogue'. It breaks my flow and makes my brain annoyed with me. One of my biggest pet peeves alongside the use of ect instead of etc.
Anyways, back to topic...
I do agree that the Ready action is underused. Essentially you get to turn any action into a reaction.
"I ready Catapult spell so when an enemy goes to send an arrow my way, I will send it right back at them."
"I ready the Grease spell for when the target steps the second stair from the top of the staircase."
If you're a Conjuror you can ready the Benign Transposition to trigger the instant an enemy comes within 5 feet of you - letting you immediately teleport up to 30 ft away.
-
Slightly off topic, if you're in a narrow hallway being chased by enemies, you can use Arcane Gate either side of them to trap them. When done on stairs you basically create an infinite staircase which works wonders if you've also cast Grease on that stair section. **plays Limp Bixkit's Rollin'**
Click ✨ HERE ✨ For My Youtube Videos featuring Guides, Tips & Tricks for using D&D Beyond.
Need help with Homebrew? Check out ✨ this FAQ/Guide thread ✨ by IamSposta.
Sorry - did I spell it 'rouge'? Yeah, I realized I while back that this was incorrect spelling. I still need to implant this into my brain, lol;)
I like the use you mentioned of Benign Transposition. It works quite well!
Lol, yeah. Infinite stairs sound fun. Although, I'm not sure I could put my enemies through what I have been through - as a kid, my Dad would play 'Stairway to Heaven' on a loop. Really great melody, yet in bored me half to death to hear it so often.
Variant rules must be made for boring your enemies to death.
Happy holidays!
Hi there! I'm a Christian musician based in Canada :)
Funny you should ask. I asked a similar, slightly more specific question in my comment which you ignored. "At what angle does the ground become a wall?"
Those features/spells specifically mention being able to walk on vertical surfaces and ceilings. They make no mention of "ground." "Ground" is not defined in the rules, it is most referenced as the surface of the earth, is similar but not synonymous with "floor," and is always separate from "vertical surface" and "ceiling."
I didn't specifically ignore the rope bridge scenario, I just didn't see what it added to the fall damage discussion, unless you fall off the bridge in which case I covered it quite thoroughly.
And I already mentioned that lateral movement has an inconsequential effect on falling speed and therefore falling damage. It is not that I believe "lateral falls" only result in 10 feet of fall damage, lateral movement does not result in 10 feet of falling damage unless you were moving 25 feet per second (150 feet per turn) when you fell.
I actually have a 4-d World view, where the 4th dimension is time. Time is pivotal in determining speed and collision energy which is the source of fall damage. And what I have been trying to explain is that normal (non-vehicle) lateral movement does not significantly effect falling angle.
In order to have 45° fall angle (which is the angle required for the portal to catch you) after 10 feet of falling you would have had to be flying at 150 feet per turn when the fall started. Otherwise, the portal would have to be on a steep incline of roughly 40-45° (where ever 5 feet horizontally is also 5 feet vertically), which isn't even impossible, just unlikely.
And where in all of this discussion of 3-d topology does it seem like I have a 2-d world view? From the very beginning of this argument, I have been talking about the ground NOT being flat.
Right, sorry. How did we get so off topic with discussing whether a vertical portal could catch a falling person while constantly being accused of not being able to think in higher dimensions? I'll stop.
Ready action! I find it most useful for archers to take a shot when enemies come out of cover.
So, I had a DEBATE about something similar today at work with my soon to be DM.
A ranger has bow in hand, I go first and use my action to ready.
I say " Whenever the ranger reaches for an arrow I will throw my kunai "
My DM stated that the arrow would be pulled as an attack action so his attack would happen. That is fine, but my trigger isn't for his attack action its for the movement of his hand towards his quiver. He said it doesn't matter because my reaction happens after the trigger and my trigger is his attack action, ok whatever, thats fine.
The moment the ranger attacks his arrow leaves his bow no question.
does my reaction then go off and i throw kunai, or does the arrow hit then i throw the said kunai?
Does my reaction happen when the arrow leaves bow or when it hits essentially.
Another one was, if i ready for him to grab an arrow from his quiver and fling it at me and he doesn't do that but instead casts a spell at me what happens? I just assumed im caught off guard or something and his spell hits. Just wanted some clarification there as well.
RAW, your interpretation to use "his hand moves towards his quiver" is correct and your DM's interpretation to use the action is "wrong".
The rules for Ready define a trigger like this:
"First, you decide what perceivable circumstance will trigger your reaction."
You can perceive his hand moving towards the quiver, you cannot perceive him taking the Attack Action, not even after the attack (it could have been a Bonus Action, a special ability or a spell instead).
If the Attack Action is the trigger, the arrow first hits you, deals damage, potentially kills you or interrupts the spell you were holding and then you get to use your readied action.
For your second question: your trigger did not happen so you cannot use your readied action. The spell is resolved as normal and you wasted your turn.
Hey, don't worry. I've done it myself:)
Yes, I have bad experience with the ready action + bows. My character Box was trying to creep unnoticed into an enemy fort, by flying up the side of a castle's wall and silently taking care of any resistance he met at the top of the barricade (how he planned to do so silently with only fire spells to rely on..... I don't believe the two things are compatible). He hadn't noticed that, in casting the Fly spell upon himself, he had attracted the attention of the castle archers. Twenty two of them.
So Box, holding his back against the wall, slowly flew up the side of the castle, and all the while laughed to himself, saying how they'd never see him coming. How ironic.
Almost at the top of the wall, Box heard this yelled from the ramparts (and, I don't mind admitting, it is a sound which now pops up in my nightmares....): "VOLLEY!"
22 arrows whistled down upon him, and 15 hit him directly in the chest. At this point, I looked fearfully up at the DM for conformation of a fact that we all already knew. The DM, faltering slightly, had an odd expression on his face, a sort of half cringe, half smile. "Maximum damage." he croaked. It ended up a bit like this: 15 arrows, each dealing 1d6 +3 piercing damage.
I needn't say that, being an 5th level sorcerer, box didn't need the 5d6 fall damage his body also took to die outright.
Anyway, Box has been revived since that time, and still has a fear of arrows:)
Hi there! I'm a Christian musician based in Canada :)
Thank you so much, not that my DM will listen to this but you have helped to clear some of my confusion for future games!
:)
Hi there! I'm a Christian musician based in Canada :)
The ready action requires you to take an action:
So I'm not sure if the revised rogue idea would work because the cunning action is a bonus action and the bolts from the grave isn't any kind of action.
I think the basic idea of the Revived Rogue was use Cunning Action as a bonus on your turn which lets you use Bolts of the Grave, then ready your main action to attack as a reaction. The idea being for that readied-action-attack to occur outside of your turn in a condition where sneak attack could still apply, this allowing you to use both Bolts of the Grave and your Sneak Attack during the same round.
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No, the idea was that you used Bolts from the Grave for Sneak Attack damage on your turn, and took the ready action on your turn to make an attack. An attack that happens after your turn in combat (using an attack with the ready action) isn't restricted to the 'only one use of Sneak Attack on your turn' rule, as the attack doesn't occur on the same turn as your Bolt from the Grave.
Hi there! I'm a Christian musician based in Canada :)
Yeah, that makes sense, thanks for helping me understand.
That's alright. I admit, I worded the sentences a little strangely!!
Happy Holidays:)
Hi there! I'm a Christian musician based in Canada :)
Regarding Use #1 (Wall of Force) -
I see no problem with it. In fact, that seems to be the exact sort of thing that Readied Actions are for. Clever use of them make the difference between strategic combat and a boring slugfest.
Regarding Use #3 (Arcane Gate) -
I think this one is also legit, but I wouldn't think a player should expect it to always be successful.
With this tactic, there's a chance of "free damage" on your part--along with a complete avoidance of damage from the dragon's attack. So, unless the dragon had subpar intelligence, as DM I'd personally be likely to give the dragon a chance at stopping their attack right when they see the portal appear (and the other side, aimed back at them.) Now, since they'd already committed to the attack, since the trigger would have been something like "when the dragon is about to attack," I wouldn't let them do something else with the Action, but I would allow them to sort of "skid to a stop" right before actually attacking, similar to how you can ready a spell, effectively committing to it, but drop it before your next turn if you wish. You still use up the spell slot, but the spell doesn't actually go off.
I'm not sure if that's entirely by the rules; but when talking about reactions, this level of adjudication will occur quite a bit, so I'd think there would be a good chance any decent DM would either do something similar or find some other way to prevent this from being an always-viable tactic.
Sterling - V. Human Bard 3 (College of Art) - [Pic] - [Traits] - in Bards: Dragon Heist (w/ Mansion) - Jasper's [Pic] - Sterling's [Sigil]
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>> New FOW threat & treasure tables: fow-advanced-threat-tables.pdf fow-advanced-treasure-table.pdf
A lot of "finickity" DMs are simply DMs who are not as clever as their players and know it, and are sick of an overly-clever player who knows they think faster than their DM running roughshod over their table with Tricksy Ploys the DM can't keep up with. A particularly clever player can be an awesome resource at the table. They can also be drama hogs who never allow the table to engage in anything but (their) Clever Plans, when maybe half the group really does just want a nice, clean straight-up fight for once.
Heh, now, as both a player and a DM I like Clever Plans and players trying oddball things. But the oddball thing in question is not always going to work the way the player wants it to, especially if you repeat the tactic. Once is an awesome reversal. Twice is helpful. The fifteenth time you use a readied Arcane Gate to try and get something to spike itself, you shouldn't be surprised when your DM has developed countermeasures. Not to mention the very oldest and most equal of munchkin-killing caveats: "anything you can do, your enemies can do, too."
Player makes a name for themselves reversing spells/attacks with Arcane Gate? Heh, who's to say other spellcasters aren't going to start picking up the trick themselves?
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Absolutely. I think that ideas like this should be used sparingly, or the DM should be prepared to reprimand with even more clever tactics:) :P
Hi there! I'm a Christian musician based in Canada :)
I totally agree
“I will take responsibility for what I have done. [...] If must fall, I will rise each time a better man.” ― Brandon Sanderson, Oathbringer.
Regarding #1 (Wall of Force):
You could ready a casting of Wall of Force to use on a trigger (such as a dragon inhaling, preparing to use its dragon breath). BUT... I'd argue that *intentionally dropping concentration* on Wall of Force would require *another action*, which you wouldn't be able to do until your next turn.
Regarding #2 (the Rogue "Bolts from the Grave"):
"Immediately after using your cunning action, you can make a ranged spell attack against a creature within 30 feet of you." It's not explicitly said either way in the write-up, but I'd argue that using this feature counts as the "cast a spell" action, and thus you don't have a second action that you can ready to use as a reaction later.
Regarding #3 (Arcane Gate):
Hmmmm. The trick here is the spell says and "creature or object" entering the portal moves through. I don't know if I'd allow magical effects, but claws, weapons, arrows? Sure. HOWEVER - the "visible" side of the portal is filled with opaque mist, so it would effectively block the casting of any spell that requires the caster to see the target.
Per RAW you may drop concentration at any time without needing an action or it even needing to be your turn.
"Concentration
Some spells require you to maintain concentration in order to keep their magic active. If you lose concentration, such a spell ends.
If a spell must be maintained with concentration, that fact appears in its Duration entry, and the spell specifies how long you can concentrate on it. You can end concentration at any time (no action required)."
Link to Basic Rules: https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/basic-rules/spellcasting#Concentration
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Nope. Only casting a spell uses the cast a spell action. Making a spell attack does not. Features, spells and abilities can give you the option of making a weapon or spell attack without the need of using the normal actions associated with them (Attack action and Cast a Spell action respectively).
You only use a cast a spell action to cast a spell or if a feature specifically specifies it. The wording is clear that this is just a spell attack made as part of the Cunning Action bonus action.
A weapon attack is any normal physical attack. A spell attack is any attack that is magical. You don't need spells to make spell attacks. For example, The Way of the Sun Soul monk can use radiant blasts as "spell attacks" as part of their Attack action.
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