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Message: <blockquote data-quote="howandwhy99" data-source="post: 6299143" data-attributes="member: 3192">This is exactly the reason why time keeping exists. To know the order of actions of everything occurring in the game. The default speed in Dungeons & Dragons is human speed, but that covers a wide range of of different time frames. Blocked time exists to assist in tracking these. Fractions of a second, 6-second spell Segments, 1-minute Rounds, 10-minute Turns, Hours, Days, Weeks, and so on. Actions that take a different period of time are simply finished with the shortest sequences first. Actions that occur in the same period of time require initiative to be rolled. For example,Psionic combat was in fractions of a second and skirmish combat was in 1-minute rounds. Psionic combat always completed before skirmish combat began - even if it began in the middle of a combat round. But could the players take actions within the fractions of seconds psionic combat occurs? Of course, but they won't be casting spells or landing blows. There's not much a normal human can do in that period of time.In my understanding, Initiative is rolled for:1. Creature vs. Creature2. Object vs. Object...but never Creature vs. Object. Those are Saving Throws. The dragon's breath weapon is an environmental effect. The claw attack is the dragon. For order of actions environmental effects aren't considered to be reactive. Does the bomb go off first or does the mountain fall on it? Only if they occur at the same moment is initiative rolled - a random toss essentially.  But against characters the OP's descending portcullis doesn't see them trying to scramble underneath. So environmental effects are understood to complete at the very end of every round (actually block time frame). PCs who fully scramble underneath before the end of the round aren't affected by its dropping. They know by viewing when they have only 1 round left before the portcullis reaches the base (a duration based on its movement stat). But maybe the portcullis is cut and drops in a few seconds? If we are in Rounds, then it occurs on the turn of the player who cut it. Unless a character is standing underneath there is no time to react. Creature acting in opposition to other creatures roll initiative when acting in segments of similar time, usually rounds. There is no reactivity for objects, but spells occur on spellcaster's initiative when they put them into effect. There a lot of nuances to initiative rules actually, so I won't list them all here. But I don't think this is what you are asking about necessarily. Traps occur when environmental effects are rigged to be reactive to creature actions. The Traps act first with the creatures affected regardless, but Saving Throws are rolled (by creatures and items) to resist effects.Ultimately Initiative is not simply about who hits who first, but the order in creatures capable of sensing and reacting their environment act against each other.Now let's get more complicated. Who builds a wagon first? You could simply look at the time this takes, but that time won't differentiate in a race. It's an average. If this is a race, then how players choose to build the wagon matters. What equipment and materials are on hand? How many people are helping? What do they know about building a wagon? Answering those questions can set the time takes for the NPCs, but player/characters make up their own mind. They tell their actions and as referee you assess the time unit these take. They might spy on the NPCs and learn what they are doing. But the NPCs might see this and spy on the PCs too altering their final completion time too. It might just come to a single initiative check in a single round to know who finishes first. Or maybe the two teams ran for supplies at the same time and initiative is rolled to know who get there first. All sorts of fun can occur when situations become games.</blockquote>

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