Holding An Action

[Derek Hiemforth]

When a character wants to Hold their action, does the player have to specify what they're waiting for, or can the player simply wait to see what happens before deciding what to do with the action?

 

I think most folks play it the latter way, but the wording in the Holding An Action section makes it sound like the former might be the actual intent. It says a character, "...may wait until a lower DEX or until some event occurs." Does this mean they must specify a DEX or an event to wait for?

 

Thanks!

[Steve Long]

The strict “letter of the rules” is that the character has to specify a lower DEX or an event that “triggers” his Held Action (so to speak). But there’s nothing wrong with a GM letting a character use a Held Action whenever desired. If you want to engage in lawyer-like textual analysis, there’s even some language on 5E 235 that could be read to support that interpretation — but surely no one would want to do that with game rules, would they?