Previous editions of D&D allowed a player to “hold their action” or “ready an action” to be taken later in the round.
The current 5e edition doesn’t allow for this. In Sage Advice Compendium, WotC explains under Combat that an action cannot be “held.”
Can you delay your turn and take it later in the round?
No. When it’s your turn, either you do something or you don’t. If you don’t want to do anything, consider taking the Dodge action so that you’ll, at least, have some extra protection. If you want to wait to act in response to something, take the Ready action, which lets you take part of your turn later.
They explain several reasons for this – delaying your action requires an improbable amount of decision-making in six seconds, defeats the purpose of initiative, and wreaks havoc with spell effects (such as one with a duration that lasts until the end of your next turn). Under the 5e rules, you may Ready an action to be taken before your next turn, but must define the circumstances that will trigger you to take the action as well as state what action you will take. For example, you may state that you are readying yourself to pull the lever to the trap once the goblin steps on the trap door. If the conditions are met, you may decide whether or not to take the action (perhaps the goblin has thrown down his weapons and is surrendering), but you cannot change your action to something else. If the condition isn’t met before the start of your next turn (the goblin never steps on the trap door), you take no other action that round.
House Rule
I’ll allow one exception: if a player wants to move their turn to follow another player for the entire combat, they may declare this at the time that initiative is being rolled. They may only declare to do this at the time initiative is rolled and can only declare to follow an allied character’s initiative, not an opponent’s initiative. If their initiative is higher, they change it to be immediately after the player they’ve declared. If it’s lower, no change is needed. Once this is done, initiative order is set and no subsequent changes to order can be made.
Example 1
Zorel declares that he wants his turn to follow Amalia’s. Zorel rolls a modified 13 for initiative, while Amalia rolls a 9. Zorel’s initiative is set at 8 to follow Amalia’s. Note, however, that if an opponent’s initiative was also 9, Amalia and the opponent may need to roll off to see who goes first, and this could result in the opponent’s turn occurring after Amalia’s but before Zorel’s.
Example 2
As above, Zorel declares that he wants his turn to follow Amalia’s. Zorel rolls a modified 9 while Amalia rolls a 13. Since Amalia would already be going before Zorel, nothing changes: Amalia goes at 13 and Zorel goes at 9, possibly allowing opponents or other allied PCs to go ahead of him.
Notes
- A player may only announce that they are moving their initiative to follow that of another player character or a hireling or henchman in the party. They cannot hold their initiative to follow an opponent, nor that of an NPC who is not part of the PC’s party.
- The player holding his initiative to follow that of a teammate’s must be able to reasonably see what their teammate is doing. If the other member of their party is invisible or hidden, the player cannot reasonably see what the other PC is doing.
- The decision to hold your turn has to be done quickly. Any strategy discussion may occur leading up to the encounter, but once the DM announces “Roll initiative,” no strategy discussion around order can occur. The party may pre-arrange a plan earlier in the campaign (“When we eventually encounter the trolls, everyone hold their initiative until after the wizard’s so she can cast Fireball first”), or one player may quickly announce their intention impromptu, but no strategy discussion can occur once the time to roll is announced.
Related
- House Rules