House rules for held actions - gap between start of segment and character's DEX

[Jfry]

On 5E (not Revised) p235 I see "A character may Hold his Action until a later DEX in one of his Phases or until a later Segment. However, he can never use a Held Action to take two Actions in one Segment - he loses any Held Action when the next Segment in which he has a Phase begins, because he can only have one Phase at a time."

Then in the example I see "...He can't even use it in Segment 3 before DEX 23 comes up - he loses it as soon as Segment 3 begins."

This together seems to point pretty strongly toward an unavoidable period when one can never be ready to react - on the Segments of my Phases, before my DEX comes up. So for example:
Frog has SPD 2, DEX 18
Toad has SPD 4, DEX 18
Heron has SPD 4, DEX 20

Seg 12, on DEX 20, Heron does a move-by on Frog and Toad, swooping out of their reach. On DEX 18, Frog and Toad choose to hold their actions in the hopes of bopping Heron on his next swoop.
Seg 3, On DEX 20, Heron swoops again. Toad has an action coming this phase, so he loses his held action and can't react. Frog (ever grateful for his lower SPD) doesn't have an action this phase, and so IS able to swing.

If I understand this right, Toad will never be able to react to Heron swooping at him, since they have the same SPD and Toad's DEX is lower...unless perhaps Toad voluntarily reduces his SPD for a while.

First I should ask, am I missing something in the rules?

Second (if I'm not) have y'all house-ruled this one?

I really like that there's no way to manipulate holding actions to act twice in a phase...but it makes sense to be that Toad would have some way to anticipate and react to Heron...and especially that Toad would be at least as well off as his slower brother Frog.

I'm leaning toward the following modification:

"A character may Hold his Action until a later DEX in one of his Phases or until a later Segment. However, he can never use a Held Action to take two Actions in one Segment - IF HE HOLDS AN ACTION INTO HIS NEXT PHASE, THE HELD ACTION REPLACES THE ACTION HE WOULD HAVE HAD FOR THAT PHASE, because he can only have one Phase at a time."

Whaddaya think?

[Chris Goodwin]

Whaddaya think?

I think..... you've posted in the wrong forum.

[Tonio]

At least in 5ER, there's text to that effect, saying something like "If the GM wishes, he can allow the player to give up his normal Phase that Segment to use his Held Action". And yeah, I also dislike how there's an implied period where you can't react, no matter what, unless the GM decides to use an optional rule. =/

[Jfry]

Whoops. While a different flavor of this thread could perhaps be a proposal for a 6E rules change, I meant this for a post in HERO System Discussion and misclicked.

I'll repost over there, for anyone who wants to discuss house rules in 5E, rather than rule change proposals in 6E...and my apologies for posting in the wrong spot.