Act II: Ill Fortunes (the fourth day)

Sorry I was down with the flu for a couple days and totally forgot to check the forum. Heather had readied an action to attack the tentacles with her magic weapon, would I have been able to do that when they reached up for Veroth?

I'll roll just in case.

Actually, no, you cast your spell, so that took your action IIRC. You cannot ready an action when you take an action in the round.

Ok.

Do you approach further to attack the monsters, because right not you still cannot see them.

Sorry I am still a bit confused, can I not see the tentacles? Or can I not try and attack them because if some rule? Do I have to attack the body of the things?

They're using most of their tentacles to help them climb up. They used one to try and grab Veroth, but missed, but that tentacle went right into helping them climb again. Hitting the tentacles would have been possible with a readied action. Right now, you cannot see them.

You cannot ready an action while taking an action. If you take an action (casting a spell for exemple), you no longer have any action left to ready for later.

Ok, I thought because the scimitar can attack the same round the spell is cast I could ready that attack action that I hadn't used. Next time I will save the spell until it can actually attack.

Can I ready an attack from it now? In case the tentacles appear again?

I don't want to get to get close enough to be attacked so I will cancel what I said earlier and cast Bless instead.

Hmm, good question, can you ready an attack form a spell that attack on its own? Can you still do so while using an action?

Edit: Alright, after some reading, here's what I got. Readying an action takes a standard action, so you cannot cast a spell which requires a standard action and still ready a standard action.
Also, about Spiritual Weapon "attacking on its own", you still need to direct it. You cannot direct your weapon to attack a target you cannot see.
So this is how I interpret the current situation. You need to ready an action to direct your weapon to attack the otyughs when their tentacles shoot out. Once the weapon has been directed, it will attack the otyughs all on its own no problem. So right now, if you want to ready an attack with your spiritual weapon, you need to ready an action to direct it towards the otyughs, and you cannot do that if you cast Bless this round.

From the spell description "It strikes the opponent you designate, starting with one attack in the round the spell is cast and continuing each round thereafter on your turn" so it appears that once it is cast, it gets its own attack action each turn, separate from the casters actions. I don't see why that couldn't be a readied attack action.

It also states that if the weapon ever goes out of your sight, it returns to you and hover. So if she sent the weapon to attack a target she cannot see which would result in her spiritual weapon breaking line of sight with her, this would result in the weapon returning to her without attacking, no?

I would think if you casted Spiritual weapon at the Tentacles as part of the monster it would go and attack the monster itself, but when then it does, it would returned to you as the spiritual weapon attacking the monster put itself is out of your sight (Long tentacles). Spell implies that the spiritual weapon only responds to direct commands so it can't be set to Ready for an action. It requires a move action to make it attack something that is in your sight (or part of it as in the case of tentacles, but this again could cause it to return to caster if attacking the main body puts the spiritual out your physical sight and then it would again will return to you.) Tentacles don't have HP and are not considered monsters so they can't be physically attacked. Not everything in gaming is possible, but are considered part of the monster for possible targeting I think for the purpose of setting spiritual weapon to attack the main body. Just my opinion.

Except that the tentacles shot out and retracted after her initiative (the otyughs are dead last). The rules also stipulate that readying an action still requires a standard action even if the action readied is a move, swift, or even a free action.

The spiritual would never leave the caster if the caster could not direct it to a target on casting. Waste the first round of its use I would think. Spiritual weapon doesn't require a target to be casted.

I would think as a your standard action that you could set it attack a target. That of course take your take your standard action when it activates. And till your delayed action happens you can't do anything. And this would be done on your round after you casted it. So then you have wasted the first two rounds of the casting that is if the target doesn't appear the round you put your delayed action on.

I definitely shouldn't have cast the spell when I did, but it's too late now. I have learned a valuable lesson for next time, and I think it is a reasonable tactical mistake for her to make. No sense putting myself in danger just to save the use of the spell. I'll just keep it around as long as I can in case they do show themselves.

So the summary is I have my spiritual weapon for 5 more rounds and I used this turn to cast Bless on my allies. No readied actions.

Sorry for not understanding the rules better.