Question about ready an action and spell casting

Ran into a situation where I want to ready an action to cast a spell on a beholder as soon as it diverts it's anti-magic gaze from my character. The GM believes that to ready a spell it requires I hold a magic charge and when the condition is fulfilled the spell is finished casting and if the the condition isn't met anytime within the round the spell slot is lost. Problem is the GM thinks holding the magic charge is denied by the beholder currently looking at my character rendering my character unable to ready a spell for when the beholder isn't casting it's gaze at my character. There have been other moments when I readied a spell with a condition that never triggered resulting in the loss of the spell slot to ready the spell.

Is this ruling correct and if so where can I find it because looking at pg.140 and pg.160 of the PHB I can't find any rules that support this?

So I have no idea what edition you are talking about. I don't think it really matters though. As a player, when you find yourself citing to rules minutia to argue against a referee's interpretation you're in the wrong, even if you are technically correct you're wrong. The referee defines the setting and makes ad hoc decisions about how mechanics work in edge cases such as the one you describe.

Accept what the referee says and figure out a different plan (or run away - it's a beholder!).

I'm not saying this out of a demand for referee supremacy, but because rules lawyering general ruins a lot of the fun of the game. It encourages both players and referee to to take a more antagonistic approach to the game, because it's not just a player problem. When you find yourself having to rely on edge cases and citation to mechanics to survive or have fun in the game (though of course bad decisions - like tussling with beholders - often do lead to character death and that's part of the game) rather then thinking your way through the problem using your own common sense it likely means that the referee is also being dogmatic and antagonistic.

Remember, it's an RPG and the referee has the power to "win" at any time by saying "rocks fall, your characters all die". This of course makes for a crappy game, but then so does a player who is meta-gaming in ways that the rules don't intend - e.g. the peasant railgun. Both of these sorts of things tend to make for a bad time and they come from playing in bad faith or with an antagonistic attitude. Yes it's sometime depressing as a referee to set up a complex scenario and have a clever group of players just Gordian Knot it with a greased pig, a bag of chalk, and a couple of spells or whatever ... but that usually feels great for players. Conversely it's sad as a player when your schemes fail, but you can't win the easy wat every time - especially with something as boring as a spell (a direct damage spell I would assume).

Now I don't know exactly how a beholder's anti-magic gaze works and I don't know how wizards cast spells but both of those are decisions the referee ultimately will make. The key resolving these kinds of things and a good game is players that trust and allow their referees to make fair decisions ... and a referee that trusts and allows their players to overcome the obstacles they face with good ideas. The proper way to raise issues like the the one you are having is as questions, and the referee should respond in good faith as well - no "gotcha" type tricks. So something like this might work better then fighting over PHB lines...

Player: "So I know I'm caught in the anti-magic ray right now, but can I hold my spell ready to cast in my head so I can release it as soon as the beholder looks away?"

Referee: "Nah, you can delay acting until the end of the round, after the beholder's turn, but you'll have to take the full time it normally takes to cast if you do because the ray is disrupting even thinking about the spell"

Player: "Not even a bit faster? I've cast this spell a lot, and should know it fairly well?"

Referee: "No spells just take the same amount of time to cast under all circumstances" or "Hmm, okay, but it's going to be stressful - make a Save vs. Spells to do it on the initiative right after the beholder looks away (and acts) but if you fail it backfires and burns out three of your other memorized spells or does damage to you."

Player: "Okay, Look folks, I can't blast the beholder until the end of the round so do what you can!"

I don't know if your referee is being antagonistic, but I'd say a game where you feel the need to argue with rules citations rather then common sense is in trouble. It's not bad trouble or uncommon trouble, but to figure that out, it might help to think of things a bit more and ask yourself "Is the referee being fair and is what I want fair?" There's always weird holes in the rules, but like all games "fair play" is a concept that governs those holes and odd situations.

Answering here from the perspective of 5.0, but I don't know if this has been changed in 5.5.

I think that going by the RAW you DM is correct: the Beholder creates a cone with the same effect as an Antimagic Field spell, which says that spells cannot be cast from inside the affected area. Ready a spell says you cast the spell as normal when taking the Ready action except you "hold its energy" and release it with your reaction after the trigger. In this case, the casting occurs before the trigger so you're still in the antimagic area and cannot cast.

Li Shenron said:

Answering here from the perspective of 5.0, but I don't know if this has been changed in 5.5.

I think that going by the RAW you DM is correct: the Beholder creates a cone with the same effect as an Antimagic Field spell, which says that spells cannot be cast from inside the affected area. Ready a spell says you cast the spell as normal when taking the Ready action except you "hold its energy" and release it with your reaction after the trigger. In this case, the casting occurs before the trigger so you're still in the antimagic area and cannot cast.

Click to expand...

From the 2014 SRD:
[...] When you ready a spell, you cast it as normal but hold its energy, which you release with your reaction when the trigger occurs. To be readied, a spell must have a casting time of 1 action, and holding onto the spell's magic requires concentration. If your concentration is broken, the spell dissipates without taking effect. For example, if you are concentrating on the web spell and ready magic missile, your web spell ends, and if you take damage before you release magic missile with your reaction, your concentration might be broken. [...]
So you do cast the spell, losing the spell slot, and then hold it using your concentration, meaning you lose concentration if you are holding in it on anything else already (you can only concentrate on one thing), and if your concentration is broken while holding the spell, it can no longer be triggered. In any case, the spell slot is gone.
This means in your second example, I think the ruling is absolutely correct.
Now to the Beholder, see Antimagic Field:
[...] A slot expended to cast a suppressed spell is consumed. While an effect is suppressed, it doesn't function, but the time it spends suppressed counts against its duration. [...]
[...] Spells. Any active spell or other magical effect on a creature or an object in the sphere is suppressed while the creature or object is in it. [...]
I think it is clear that you lose a spell slot if you try to cast while inside the antimagic field (or gaze in that case). I think you could rule that you could cast the spell before entering the filed/gaze, hold it while you are inside, and it get's triggered after you leave the filed, if the trigger applies. That's how I would do it, in any case, seeing as the filed/gaze does not dispel magic, but suppresses it.
Hope that helps!

PsyberSouL said:

Ran into a situation where I want to ready an action to cast a spell on a beholder as soon as it diverts it's anti-magic gaze from my character. The GM believes that to ready a spell it requires I hold a magic charge and when the condition is fulfilled the spell is finished casting and if the the condition isn't met anytime within the round the spell slot is lost. Problem is the GM thinks holding the magic charge is denied by the beholder currently looking at my character rendering my character unable to ready a spell for when the beholder isn't casting it's gaze at my character. There have been other moments when I readied a spell with a condition that never triggered resulting in the loss of the spell slot to ready the spell.

Is this ruling correct and if so where can I find it because looking at pg.140 and pg.160 of the PHB I can't find any rules that support this?

Click to expand...

In 5E (2014) the rules for Readying an Action are on page 193, and as Li and Zottel pointed out, those rules specify that if you're Readying a spell you're actually casting it when you Ready it, then "holding it" for release at the right moment. So you wouldn't be able to Ready/Cast while in the antimagic field.

But based on your page numbers mentioned, it sounds like you're asking about 3.5E. The Cast a Spell action is on 140, and Readying is on 160.

Pages 140-141 specify that for touch spells specifically you can "hold the charge" indefinitely until it's discharged by touching someone or something, including if you keep missing your touch attacks. Which may be what your DM is thinking of. The rules for Readying an Action on 160 seem to specify, however, that you DON'T actually take the action until the trigger occurs. This is very different from 5E. Particularly the paragraph about Readying to Counterspell, which says that WHEN the opposing spell caster casts a spell, you cast the counterspell, IF you have the appropriate spell prepared (or Dispel Magic, though it may require a roll).

I agree with Gus re: the general philosophy and gaming best practices, but this may be worth discussing with your DM between game sessions to make sure you're on the same page about how readied actions work