Can characters Ready an action with the trigger "when the target stops benefiting from Dodge and before they use their action"?

Question

I ran into a situation with ready action that I feel goes against the spirit of the game and maybe the rules but I'm unsure.

I'm running a homebrew game. I made this Bladesinger NPC that I gave a magic item, so that when they took the Dodge action, they got more reactions. He challenged my players' character to a fight and if they could put up a good fight for X amount of rounds, he would give them information.

Once they figured out he was taking the Dodge action every turn and hitting them with reactions, they came up with the following Ready action: "When he stops benefitting from Dodge and before he uses his action, I want to swing my sword/cast a spell/shoot an arrow".

It was late in the session, they had almost reached the point where the fight was going to end anyway, and I couldn't really see where they had technically broken a rule, so I allowed it for just that fight. I'm not going to allow it in future fights and this guy and his magic item might never come back, but was my players' ready action legal?

Answer 1

It depends how you consider the game world to work

Dodging ends at the start of your turn, if the NPC immediately takes the dodge action, has any time passed between one dodge and the other? In my opinion the NPC never stopped dodging. Even if they did, I'm not convinced there is any perceivable way to notice if someone is ready to dodge or not.

The second problem I have with this trigger is that triggers when dodging ends. The rules for readying an action state:

First, you decide what perceivable circumstance will trigger your reaction

Turns don't exist to PCs, so it's hard to imagine that dodge ending when the NPCs turn comes around is something that can be observed.

Overall I find that trigger too technical, and doesn't really take into account the way the game world is functioning. I don't see any other way to make the ready action work here, without DM fiat (more on that later).

I would ask for what the player is looking for, what they expect their PC to be reacting to. If they give some mechanical answer about turns or actions, then that's a good sign that their trigger isn't legal.

What other options did the player have?

• One simple way to counter dodging is to grapple the target. A grappled target's speed is 0, which means they can't benefit from dodging. Since it uses a grapple check instead of an attack roll, they don't have advantage from dodge.

• Similarly you could use shove to push them prone, in which case dodge's advantage is countered by advantage when attacking prone targets from 5ft.

• Another option is to get out of sight. Depending on the situation this may he easier or harder. If you can break line of sight (or hide) then dodge doesn't give advantage against attacks.

• Dodge back. Clearly the NPC likes dodging, perhaps by dodging back they will be forced to change tactics or that will be enough to earn their respect.

• As a DM you may allow some clever reactions. For example perhaps readying an action for when the Bladesinger attacks. Even though the PC may be hit too, the Bladesinger has to commit in order to attack, so as a DM it may be a fair ruling to say that the Bladesinger isn't dodging while attacking. Waiting for other distractions or setting a trap for the Bladesinger may be acceptable to you too, but all of this is just DM fiat.

Answer 2

There is no time between turns, per se. If a creature dodge one turn and then dodges the next turn then it is dodging continuously. So your ruling would be incorrect. A creature that is dodging never stops dodging.

Your players are trying unorthodox methods because your magic item broke the gaming system. As far as I know, the high level Cavalier Vigilant Defender capstone is the only feature that allows multiple reactions per turn. So allowing multiple reactions is very powerful dynamic. This is why homebrews that change the action economy should be approached with extreme caution.

You didn't say what allowed the NPC to take those multiple reactions, so it's possible that your magic item just allowed a creature to have permanent disadvantage, basically an improved invisibility that only allowed [multiple] reactions.

Let's also dig in to what you were allowing the NPC to do.

Holding an Action

This would not be allowed by a dodging creature, because Dodge is the action.

Opportunity Attacks

These have to be triggered. So I'm not sure exactly what the multiple reactions are doing.

In summary: It's a mess. You should have the magic item fall down an endless well and move on from these mechanics, or else the players will be scheming how to kill your NPC to have it for themselves.