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<blockquote data-quote="Nytmare" data-source="post: 5145523" data-attributes="member: 55178">Well, I lost my post, but that's ok cause Draco managed to say most of what I was gunning for anyways.In my eyes, there's nothing saying that a person can not take Total Defense outside of combat.&nbsp; BUT, the artificial absurdity is the round structure of combat, and the idea that, as long as you are &quot;in combat mode&quot; you can forge an unbreakable chain of Total Defense Actions.Draco somehow managed to say, almost word for word, what I had written.In a situation like this, the player is over ruling the DM, and insisting that the encounter is starting earlier than the DM just said it did.&nbsp; This is not a decision the player gets to make.They can try to start an encounter all they want, the DM might even agree with the player and decide to go along with it, but the encounter does not begin until the DM says it does.I think that a big part of this discussion boils down to the fact that people forget that combat is the abstraction, and that the rules that govern how the chaos of a fight is described are not meant to be applied to how not fighting is described. You can not be 100% vigilant and Totally Defend from the time that you wake up, to the time that you pass out.&nbsp; Rounds do not exist outside of a fight.&nbsp; You can be cautious, you can be paranoid, you can hang back and let other people be in the front of the group, but you can still be surprised or caught off guard.&nbsp; This is what initiative is.&nbsp; I'm going to repeat that and give it its own paragraph because I think it's so important.This is what initiative is.Totally defend outside of combat all you want.&nbsp; Get that +2 bonus to AC and rest well knowing that you are Totally Defending and that you're a bad ass with big fat numbers for your defenses.&nbsp; When combat starts, feel free to keep on Totally Defending, but realize that the non stop string of Total Defenses you can do on one side of the line simply does not exist on the other.&nbsp; Hopefully I've explained my point of view well enough at this point.&nbsp; For me, I don't see them as things that you &quot;can't&quot; do outside of combat, they're just trumped by initiative and are not meant to be used as a means of insurance for characters who are afraid that they're going to roll poorly.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Nytmare, post: 5145523, member: 55178"] Well, I lost my post, but that's ok cause Draco managed to say most of what I was gunning for anyways. In my eyes, there's nothing saying that a person can not take Total Defense outside of combat. BUT, the artificial absurdity is the round structure of combat, and the idea that, as long as you are "in combat mode" you can forge an unbreakable chain of Total Defense Actions. Draco somehow managed to say, almost word for word, what I had written. In a situation like this, the player is over ruling the DM, and insisting that the encounter is starting earlier than the DM just said it did. This is not a decision the player gets to make. They can [B]try[/B] to start an encounter all they want, the DM might even agree with the player and decide to go along with it, but the encounter does not begin until the DM says it does. I think that a big part of this discussion boils down to the fact that people forget that combat is the abstraction, and that the rules that govern how the chaos of a fight is described are not meant to be applied to how not fighting is described. You can not be 100% vigilant and Totally Defend from the time that you wake up, to the time that you pass out. Rounds do not exist outside of a fight. You can be cautious, you can be paranoid, you can hang back and let other people be in the front of the group, but you can still be surprised or caught off guard. This is what initiative is. I'm going to repeat that and give it its own paragraph because I think it's so important. This is what initiative is. Totally defend outside of combat all you want. Get that +2 bonus to AC and rest well knowing that you are Totally Defending and that you're a bad ass with big fat numbers for your defenses. When combat starts, feel free to keep on Totally Defending, but realize that the non stop string of Total Defenses you can do on one side of the line simply does not exist on the other. Hopefully I've explained my point of view well enough at this point. For me, I don't see them as things that you "can't" do outside of combat, they're just trumped by initiative and are not meant to be used as a means of insurance for characters who are afraid that they're going to roll poorly. [/QUOTE]

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