Caliban said:
Except for the fact that the D&D combat round is supposed to simulate simultaneous actions, not stop and go movement. That's why any bonuses and penalties for your actions tend to last until your next action, not just your initiative.
I suppose it's a good thing you gave yourself wiggle-room by saying "tend," because I can think of several examples that contradict this, and I'm not even trying hard.
The bonuses and penalties that "tend" to last until your next action are generally arithmetical (and are also generally chosen by the character in question); situational bonuses and penalties (like the one described in the WSC response), tend
not to last until your next action ... they last until the situation changes for the acting character. Whenever that is, the bonus or penalty goes away immediately.
I don't buy that I only lose my Dex bonus during my turn if I'm balancing. Makes no sense.
If you're an orc in the area of a
daylight spell, and you're dazzled, you don't keep the -1 to attacks until your next action ... you keep the -1 to attacks until the
daylight is gone, even if it
dispelled a split-second after your previous action. If you're under cover, and the cover is
disintegrated, you don't keep the cover bonus to AC until your next action ... the situation has changed, no matter what anybody wants to claim about "simultaneous combat," and as soon as the cover goes away, so does the cover bonus. If you're magically
sleeping and a friend wakes you, you're not helpless until the start of your next action ... the situation has changed, and you're no longer
sleeping and helpless. If you're a ranger with +6 damage to orcs, and the orc you're fighting is
polymorphed into a gibbering mouther, which then provokes an AoO, you don't get the +6 damage on your attack of opportunity ... the situation has changed. And on and on and on.
The reason WCS's "doesn't make sense" to y'all is that you simply don't want it to make sense ... you
want a broken
grease spell, for whatever reason. (My guess would be that's the way you've always played it, since people tend to keep playing by the rules they've established, even when they're wrong.) And, of course, that's fine. But you simply can't substantiate your claims, under the rules, that WCS's interpretation "doesn't make sense." It makes perfect sense:
grease creates a negative situation ... once an affected character is out of the situation, he no longer suffers the negative. This is the way the game works.