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Message: <blockquote data-quote="FormerlyHemlock" data-source="post: 7180677" data-attributes="member: 6787650">Absolutely. I'm a big believer in encouraging them. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Correct.I see what you did there. : )Delay lets you declare your action after other actions have been resolved. It's the equivalent of, in fencing, pausing for a beat before committing to an attack. In Delsenora's case, it would mean that instead of trying to cast Blindness but maybe being too slow, she'd definitely be too slow to cast Blindness before Shoalar moved but could respond to events that actually unfolded. For instance, if Rupert had managed to Ensnare Shoalar with his Ensnaring Strike, then Delsenora could be right behind him with a Hold Person--but if Rupert missed as in fact he actually did, she could instead do something like Polymorph Rath into a Great White Shark now that he's in the water.And if there were a hidden fifth combatant, like an invisible imp allied with Shoalar, Delsenora would have been free to respond to whatever that fifth combatant did instead of the action she committed to.It doesn't have to be a fixed spot, it just has to be a fixed intention, one that he could have realistically and reasonably have. As DM I would accept "I, Shoalar, am casting Tidal Wave to hit that elf dude with the bow and as many of his allies as I can, preferably the human witch too." Edit: hmmm, maybe I should have enemies declare actions in their own "voices". "I, Grumph Thunderkilt, smash talky-dwarf's brains through his skull with big club!" That's actually more fun than third-person "the Hill Giant swats at you repeatedly with his big club."It has to be simple enough for you to describe to the DM and for the DM to keep in his head. There's a theoretical point at which I would say, "No, that's too complicated," but in practice that doesn't happen because players just declare "I Delay" instead. If it's moderately complicated it may trigger initiative rolls for everybody, as Shoalar's declaration sort of did: only Rupert didn't have to roll initiative, because he missed twice and didn't move, and the timing of a miss doesn't matter. (If he had moved then initiative might have affected whether Delsenora was hit by the Tidal Wave. Conversely, if the players had started out already in a dispersed formation then initiative would not have affected whether Delsenora got hit, even if Rupert did not move.)I dunno. It's possible that there's a playstyle difference. Could you explain to me why it was problematic that two of the players wanted to cast AoEs? What goal of yours did that interfere with, avoiding initiative rolls?Remember that avoiding initiative rolls is not an explicit goal of the system. Keeping players engaged and making combat more interesting (and more intertwined with non-combat) is the goal. Avoiding unnecessary initiative rolls is just an optimization for convenience. Initiative should be rolled only when it matters and is therefore interesting*. If it just so happens that your players are dashing in and out of cover and interacting with lots of enemies on each round, it could indeed be the case that initiative is always interesting and that making some initiative rolls every round is the best way to proceed. (Also, some players prefer to roll initiative whenever possible--some people don't like Schrodinger resolutions, like not knowing at the time Rath makes his attack rolls whether or not he is in time to hit Shoalar.) If there are ten gnolls and five of them are shooting at Delsenora and dispersing into skirmish formation and five of them are shooting at Rupert and also dispersing while Rupert casts Conjure Animals and Delsenora casts Fireball, maybe the simplest way to resolve it really is to just have Delsenora and Rath each roll initiative, and roll a handful of initiative dice for the gnolls and count how many of them are before, between, and after Rupert and Delsenora this round.That probably won't be necessary on subsequent rounds though, because the gnolls will already be dispersed.* Some of the best moments of dramatic tension in my campaign have centered on initiative rolls: "Is the Death Slaad going to get away with Nox's Robe of the Archmagi, via Plane Shift, before Nox's skeletons can take its last few HP?" We already knew that just barely enough skeletons hit to kill the slaad, but would they be FAST enough? I rolled initiative for the Slaad and had Nox roll initiative for all of his skeletons that hit (because the initiative of the ones that missed doesn't matter)... and IIRC the Slaad rolled a 2, so the Slaad was too slow and got pincushioned by skeleton arrows, and a happy ending was had for Nox.Initiative rolls for moving behind total cover are sometimes pretty exciting too.</blockquote>

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