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If my mage rolls first in initiative and my tank is next to go, I want the ability to delay my mage to go after the tank.

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If they are next to each other in the queue, then you choose the order, but not if there is an enemy or friendly NPC in between (anything controlled by AI). If you select the last controllable character that is available to you, be sure to not end that character's turn, though, as that will end the turn for all characters that "go together".

From your topic I'm not sure if you want to be able to "delay" it in the sense mentionen above or if you want it to be placed last in the queue.

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Originally Posted by frequentic
If they are next to each other in the queue, then you choose the order, but not if there is an enemy or friendly NPC in between (anything controlled by AI). If you select the last controllable character that is available to you, be sure to not end that character's turn, though, as that will end the turn for all characters that "go together".

From your topic I'm not sure if you want to be able to "delay" it in the sense mentionen above or if you want it to be placed last in the queue.


I should be able to click on any character or monster and delay until that person/thing goes.

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I agree, I want this as well.

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The PnP game used to allow you to 'hold' or delay your action until later in the round. I think that's what the OP is referring to.

I believe this was scrubbed for 5e because it was being abused by players under the effect of 'until your next turn'-type spells and effects. It makes sense for me, going first is not always a benefit and having a higher initiative should always be an advantage.

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I think it might be okay if the delay carried over into following rounds (ie. if you delay until the end of the round, then on the following round you're still going to go last - you don't get to take 2 back to back turns), but if it doesn't affect the turn order in following rounds then it would be pretty abusable.

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Originally Posted by Sadurian
The PnP game used to allow you to 'hold' or delay your action until later in the round. I think that's what the OP is referring to.

I believe this was scrubbed for 5e because it was being abused by players under the effect of 'until your next turn'-type spells and effects. It makes sense for me, going first is not always a benefit and having a higher initiative should always be an advantage.


Holding your action is still a thing in 5e, I can't remember the exact wording off the top of my head, but it is specifically an action you prepare that then uses your reaction to trigger if the circumstances are met, otherwise it just eats up your action and nothing happens if it's not met. This is painful if you try and do a spell this way, as if you hold your action for casting a spell and the action is never triggered, any resources consumed in the casting of the spell (e.g spell slots) are still used up anyway.

While obviously describing exactly what you want to do an establishing a whole "IF ELSE" tree would be absurd, just having the ability to take your turn later in that round at the cost of your reaction to otherwise simulate the hold action could potentially work.

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Originally Posted by JeffOfMarketing
Originally Posted by Sadurian
The PnP game used to allow you to 'hold' or delay your action until later in the round. I think that's what the OP is referring to.

I believe this was scrubbed for 5e because it was being abused by players under the effect of 'until your next turn'-type spells and effects. It makes sense for me, going first is not always a benefit and having a higher initiative should always be an advantage.


Holding your action is still a thing in 5e, I can't remember the exact wording off the top of my head, but it is specifically an action you prepare that then uses your reaction to trigger if the circumstances are met, otherwise it just eats up your action and nothing happens if it's not met. This is painful if you try and do a spell this way, as if you hold your action for casting a spell and the action is never triggered, any resources consumed in the casting of the spell (e.g spell slots) are still used up anyway.

While obviously describing exactly what you want to do an establishing a whole "IF ELSE" tree would be absurd, just having the ability to take your turn later in that round at the cost of your reaction to otherwise simulate the hold action could potentially work.

The new action is 'Ready', and, as you say, is effectively acting but putting that action on pause. It is not great in my experience for the reasons you suggest - you use up whatever action or spell you had 'Readied' even if the trigger event didn't happen.

Not as flexible as the old Hold/Delay Action and we rarely use it.

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Yeah, that does need to happen, although I would rather have a rework of the system, because now your possibilities and the difficulty of the fight directly correlates to the order of your characters. For example, I would like to grease the ground with my mage and then set it on fire with an arrow from my rogue, extinguish a part of it with a water spell from my cleric and then let my tank move into that spot to take an AE swing with his sword. With the initiative system a tactic like that is not planable.
There is also an issue with effects that only last one turn. I had my mage freeze the ground below an enemy to make him fall so that I can have advantage in the next turn, sadly, the enemy was first in initiative and simply immediately got up, making my tactic pretty useless.
Also, what kind of bothers me is when there are encounters where I would say I ambush the enemy and have the initiative (like the fight in front of the gate of the grove, there is still an initiative roll that might put some of my characters on last, although I set it all up.
The system is really rather annoying at the moment.

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I agree You do not have the "ready an action" combat option that allows you to coordinate your action to trigger with some of your teammates or the enemy´s actions.

So It would be welcome if at least you have a delay action that could be easier to program in a videogame. That would open a new set of tactical options in combat that could be more interesting.

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If we are trying to emulate 5e as close as possible a delay is not part of DnD 5e.

Jeremy Crawford the lead dev of 5e says this from that asked question:

"There is no Delay/Hold/etc. action in D&D. When it's your turn, you either act or don't act.

If you decide to do nothing, I recommend taking the Dodge action.

If you want to act later in the round, use the Ready action"

Which leads us to the problem that we also dont have a Dodge Action. For any of you that are not familiar with Dodge Action, You dodge until the start of your next turn and all attack incoming to you will be at a disadvantage. Dodge is a major tactic used very often in tabletops for survival and if you really have nothing to do at the moment you do that.

Also to Clarify on the Ready action, you consume your action based on a specific trigger cant be anything ( I cast shocking hands when that specific mob comes within 5 feet ) That is to prevent everyone just passing over and over as its a combat resource.

Jaz

Last edited by Jazhara202; 21/10/20 04:18 PM.

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