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Message: <blockquote data-quote="kaomera" data-source="post: 3172494" data-attributes="member: 38357">I have one question: How was the party able to sense the monster? From the situation you have described, I feel that there should have in fact been a surprise round, in which the monster and any PCs that where able to detect it before it entered the room would be able to act normally. Assuming that any PCs where able to detect the monster as it entered the room, they ought to then get their readied actions (to make ranged attacks at the monster). In any case, the PCs and monster should both be flat-footed until they begin their first actual actions; in the monster's case that would be when it enters the room, in the PCs case it would be either in the surprise round or the first normal round of combat. Of course, if the PCs had some way of knowing that the monster was about to appear (specifically at that point in time, not in a general "we think he's on his way here" kind of way) then there's no surprise round at all.A separate issue is that the players should not have announced their intention to attack. Aside from the fact that they had readied actions, until initiative is rolled they should not be allowed to declare actions, this only ever (IMHO) leads to arguments. At most I would have allowed the PCs to yell out "I'm gonna attack!" to one another, but given that the PCs are waiting in ambush I'd tend to assume that they are smart enough to keep quiet, even if he players aren't. I feel pretty strongly that letting players "declare ahead" and then penalizing them because the situation has changed is (in 3.x at least) bad form.</blockquote>

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