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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Li Shenron" data-source="post: 5829225" data-attributes="member: 1465">This is how I'd do it...Everyone is assumed "ready" as much as possible all the time while exploring a dangerous area, a player explicitly declaring it doesn't get any advantage. In fact, better not declare anything at all so that you're still able to choose your action, limited only by what you have in hand.If you surprise the hobgoblin, you get your surprise round. Anyway, you could have only "readied" a partial action, which is exactly what you get in a surprise round.If the hobgoblin is not more surprised than you, such as in the OP example, both get to act in the surprise round. I would still have a surprise round, not a regular round, so the hobgoblin could do a partial charge but not a full charge, and this lessens the problem.I won't allow the ranger to pretend letting the arrow go becomes more like a free action on the ground that it would be more realistic. I would just say that he cannot go around with the bow strung for long so that he still need a fraction of time to really pull it back, and that taking aim carefully enough to be able to shoot at your BAB takes some time as well. Want more realism? Then have this attack penalty for aiming on the fly and this damage penalty for not being able to really keep the bow strung to maximum all the time.</blockquote>