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<blockquote data-quote="Jon_Dahl" data-source="post: 5809137" data-attributes="member: 89822">I agree with you 100%. The only problem is here is that I started the surprise round from a clear table; I ignored what had been discussed before the surprise round and simply asked the player what he wanted to do. He wanted to cast a spell straight away. It would've been much better if I had asked about the ready action. But no, I simply asked what he wanted to do and this is what I got.IMO the situation was tactically difficult:Attack in surprise round (enemy is flat-footed, which possibly is a benefit because BBEG dex modifier was +5) and hope you will win the initiative, which you do. During the first round ready an action to disrupt spellcasting =&gt; Win.Ready an action during the surprise round to disrupt spell-casting. However, the enemy rolls extremely poor initiative and finally when it's your time to cast a spell, your party is surrounding the enemy who is casting on the defensive. You fail your Wisdom check and cast the lightning bolt, thus killing your friends but the BBEG succeeds in Ref save and receives insignificant amount of damage =&gt; Lose?I'm not trying to justify anything, because I had a TPK but I sincerely - from the bottom of my heart - hope that no one sees this situation as a complete DMing failure. Imagine the players reaction if I had advised him to do something that ultimate caused a friendly fire incident, killing one or more PCs?Note: Of course he could've yelled that his attacking with a spell, thus alerting his comrades not to get too close or in the way BUT BBEG would've heard it also.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Jon_Dahl, post: 5809137, member: 89822"] I agree with you 100%. The only problem is here is that I started the surprise round from a clear table; I ignored what had been discussed before the surprise round and simply asked the player what he wanted to do. He wanted to cast a spell straight away. It would've been much better if I had asked about the ready action. But no, I simply asked what he wanted to do and this is what I got. IMO the situation was tactically difficult: [B]Attack in surprise round[/B] (enemy is flat-footed, which possibly is a benefit because BBEG dex modifier was +5) and hope you will win the initiative, which you do. During the first round ready an action to disrupt spellcasting => [U]Win[/U]. [B]Ready an action during the surprise round to disrupt spell-casting[/B]. However, the enemy rolls extremely poor initiative and finally when it's your time to cast a spell, your party is surrounding the enemy who is casting on the defensive. You fail your Wisdom check and cast the lightning bolt, thus killing your friends but the BBEG succeeds in Ref save and receives insignificant amount of damage => [U]Lose[/U]? I'm not trying to justify anything, because I had a TPK but I sincerely - from the bottom of my heart - hope that no one sees this situation as a complete DMing failure. Imagine the players reaction if I had advised him to do something that ultimate caused a friendly fire incident, killing one or more PCs? Note: Of course he could've yelled that his attacking with a spell, thus alerting his comrades not to get too close or in the way BUT BBEG would've heard it also. [/QUOTE]

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