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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Arial Black" data-source="post: 6695616" data-attributes="member: 6799649">A couple of points to comment on...By RAW, attacks (real, honest-to-goodness trying to kill the baddy attacks) are combat, combat takes place in combat rounds, initiative is rolled and surprise determined before any attack is resolved, including the attack that kicks off combat!It has been suggested a few times in this thread that the initial attack should come before initiative is even rolled, and the reasoning seems to be that if the assassin gets surprise then he 'obviously' attacks before the (oblivious) victim could possibly do anything about it.The trouble with this is that it assumes that the victim cannot do anything about it!Whatever the rule is, it must be able to fairly replicate both situations: the one where the victim never has a clue about any danger until it's too late, AND the one where the victim does get a last minute clue. The chosen rules have to be able to simulate the victim sensing the attack at the last minute, just as easily as they simulate the victim being clueless.The rules as written allow both situations to be fairly simulated. An attack 'outside combat'(?) doesn't allow the victim to sense the assassin and react faster, attacking the assassin before he can attack the victim. It may be unlikely, but the rules should be able to handle it.Next: reactions. Just like actions, attacks, everything else, reactions need to have the right conditions to function. You need to be able to see (or otherwise sense) the target of your attack or the trigger for your reaction or held action, and this does not need to be repeated in the description of every attack or reaction or spell.Imagine that your hands have been amputated and you cannot execute the required somatic component for the spell. Being 'able to take reactions' because it's after your first turn and can now take reactions again doesn't make your hands grow back! Before your first turn, you couldn't cast shield both because you cannot take reactions until after your first turn (because surprise) AND because you cannot cast the spell (because no hands = no somatic components).You cannot cast shield to react to an attack you don't know about, just like you cannot make a weapon attack against a creature that you don't even realise is there. Being able to use reactions after your first turn doesn't remove the requirement to know about the attack that your shield will intercept.</blockquote>

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