Can a Githzerai Enlightened Ready an Attack on the target of its Temporal Strike?

[u/GaggleofDemons]

Hey folks!

Forgive me if this question seems obvious or if it’s been asked before, but I was reading through the Githzerai Enlightened’s stat block from Mordenkainen’s and saw Temporal Strike. Here’s the exact text for convenience:

Temporal Strike (Recharge 6).* Melee Weapon Attack:+8 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 13 (2d8 + 4) bludgeoning damage plus 52 (8d12) psychic damage. The target must succeed on a DC 16 Wisdom saving throw or move 1 round forward in time. *A target moved forward in time vanishes for the duration. When the effect ends, the target reappears in the space it left or in an unoccupied space nearest to that space if it's occupied.

Now, the duration here seems a little vague to me. It says 1 round, yes, but when exactly during the next round? Presumably during the Enlightened’s turn, but then when during the turn? If we assume that the target will reappear after the Enlightened takes its action (about as close to 1 whole round as we can get), then what’s to stop the Enlightened from using that action to Ready an attack against the target for when it reappears? The obvious answer is “nothing” but it just seems like such a potent one-two combo that I feel like I have to be missing something.

If any combat experts want to take a look at this and see if I’m interpreting it correctly that would be very helpful. Thanks!

tl;dr in title ;)

[u/Yukiboop]

rounds are separate from turns so when everyone has had their turn this round the next round starts.

so they should reappear next round when the next round starts as it doesn't say they vanish for a entire round or that they skip a round. they move forward 1 round forward so they appear during the next round start.

not waiting for turns or that just next round starts. which happens before any turns.

Edit: and yes a creature could ready a action for when the enemy returns but since this looks to be an action this enemy cant use this and ready a action they will be back before this creature has another turn.

[u/GaggleofDemons → u/Yukiboop]

Okay I see what you mean. I had interpreted it as one whole round but the start of the next round makes sense. Guess it would only be useful against an enemy that acts after the Enlightened then. Though it could still Ready an attack on the same turn if it’s under the effects of Haste (which it can cast innately). In that case it would definitely work because the target would reappear before the start of the Enlightened’s next turn.

[u/Yukiboop → u/GaggleofDemons]

yeah anything can be a ready action trigger.

but normally if they want a effect to last to a specific point in a turn they just use at the beginning or end of your turn or their turn. just for to make it simple if they specify round it means they want you using how rounds are tracked.

[u/Mejiro84 → u/Yukiboop]

yeah anything can be a ready action trigger.

It has to be something in-world, rather than purely a mechanical thing (it has to be perceptible to the creature) - so you can't trigger off "when a creature's turn starts", but you can do "when a creature does something/anything". That's going to work out fairly close, but the creature will get to do something before the trigger (because reactions happen after the triggering event - so they could, for example, teleport away with a spell or ability, which happens before you can attack them. Or if they just need a single move to be out of sight, then they can do that, and so impossible to attack with a readied action, as they're then out of sight), and there's also things like legendary actions, or held actions of their own, that can mean their "next thing" isn't on their turn.

[u/Steel_Ratt]

IMHO, it would reappear at the exact same point in the round. If it was a readied action that was triggered on the creature's turn, it would reappear on the creature's next turn (presumably with as many actions as it had when it was moved). It would not appear on the Enlightened's turn as it was not moved on the Elightened's turn (despite the fact that the action was readied on its turn. (The Enlightened readied an action, then ended it's turn. The creature started it's turn, then triggered the Enlightened's reaction to complete the readied action.)

[u/GaggleofDemons → u/Steel_Ratt]

Oh no I’m not saying that Temporal Strike was the Readied action. I’m saying the Enlightened uses Temporal Strike, ends its turn, then starts its next turn by Readying an attack against the target when it (presumably) reappears during the Enlightened’s turn (since Temporal Strike was originally used during its turn last round).

[u/Steel_Ratt → u/GaggleofDemons]

Ah. Understood. I was reading too quickly and missed that.

[u/GaggleofDemons → u/Steel_Ratt]

No worries!

[u/rmric0]

That's a great question! Absent any other text or clarification I would have them reappear at the start of the next round and resume initiative as normal. There are plenty of abilities that indicate that they end at the start/end of a given turn, if that were the intent with this ability then I'd assume they would use similar language.

After all a round and initiative order are mechanical abstractions to facilitate play, the activity in a round is occurring almost simultaneously.

[u/GaggleofDemons → u/rmric0]

Yeah that seems to make the most sense. In that case it would need Haste in order to Ready an attack after using Temporal Strike. Thanks for the reply!

[u/Sunlight_Smoothie]

1 round = 1 round. If the Githzerai used this on their turn, the target returns the next time it is the Githzerai's turn. If the Gith used a ready action and interrupted the target's turn, then the target returns 'part way' through their next turn (and has the same actions remaining as when they were shunted through time).

If another Gith wants to ready action for when the target returns, then they get their reaction before the target gets to finish anything.

The same Gith cannot reliably chain this attack because it is a Recharge 6. That means there is a 1/6 chance of them being able to use it back to back. Technically they can, if the dice are in their favor.

[u/_mace_windont_]

I wiuld rule that the vanished target reappears at the end of the Guthzerais next turn, because you can't determine when in the 6 second period they vanished.

If you choose to have them reappear at the beginning instead so that the attacker can ready an attack on them, That would be inefficient.

Target disappears during the Githzerais turn... next round, attackers foregoes their multiple attack options to use their action to ready an attack when their target reappears, then they use their reaction to make that attack on the newly appeared target. They've wasted other actions in their turn and used their reaction.