Question: Can an average or below maneuverability flying creature, who has move his minimum forward speed, ready an action in mid-air?
Normally if you move and take an action it is fine, but in this cause you actively wait and hold an action.
The rules on Hover seem rather vague and different version contain different articles of note:
Normal: A creature without this feat cannot halt its forward motion without falling. A creature with average, poor, or clumsy maneuverability can slow its flying movement to only half of its fly speed.
Normal: Without this feat, a creature must keep moving when flying unless it has good maneuverability or better.
The MMV was the most up to date mention of the Hover feat I could find and the 3.5 DMG Aerial Combat section was useless regarding more specific hover rules.
I am wanting to say that a creature who cannot hover cannot ready an action in mid air even if they have met their minimum forward speed requirement. My reasoning is that the Hover section of the flight chart states:
Hover: The ability to stay in one place while flying.
When the character normally moves and takes an action the round mechanics dictate that they are moving and complete the action at the end of the movement.
The problem is if a character moves and readies an action the round mechanics dictate that he moves and uses his standard action to prepare himself against an oncoming threat.
From a RAW standpoint there seems to be a loophole in the rules for Hover as if readying (which counts as a standard action) is allowable at the end of a flying creatures movement then those creatures can effectively hover without needing better maneuverability.
Does this mean hover is only useful for taking full round actions in mid air and that is it?
Help
