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Message: <blockquote data-quote="atom crash" data-source="post: 2111449" data-attributes="member: 22162">KarinsDad, all the situations you put forth are fairly well covered by the DMG, pg. 21-26. I'll just give the highlights since I can't post 5 pages of text here:-- Combat is a big part of the game. The DM's main job is running combat.-- To start an encounter, determine which side is aware of the other side. Either do a surprise round or have both sides roll initiative.-- Remember that all actions are happening simultaneously, but for ease of play actions are resolved by initiative from highest to lowest.-- As a general rule, combat actions should only be performed in combat. Obvious exceptions, such as casting healing spells, exist.Properly adjudicated, initiative and/or a surprise round can cover all of your examples. In the thieves guild, the attacking rogue should roll a bluff check (or some other skill) to attack the party by surprise. If the party doesn't spot the imminent attack, he gets a surprise round (but the other rogues do not). If they detect the attack, then everyone rolls initiative. Conversely, the party wizard can decide to attack the rogues while the rest of the party is negotiating, and the same mechanic would hold. Even if they are looking for a fight, the party can't possibly see everything, and initiative determines who acts in what order. If you'd like, give them a +2 bonus to initiative because they are alert. (I remember that in Car Wars, initiative was determined by the fastest vehicle, but attacks happened in the order that they are declared. That would get damn messy around the gaming table with D&D.)If someone is approaching the king, the guards most certainly will be checking him out. They might even step in front of the king. They could tell him to halt, draw a weapon, attack him outright, whatever. You see, both sides are aware of each other. No surprise round, unless the assassin specifically tried subterfuge to get in a sneak attack. In that case, he'd have to succeed at an opposed skill check. Otherwise, everyone rolls initiative. Allowing players to ready actions outside of combat is a bad idea. Characters can't always be in combat. That would be messy to adjudicate. Instead, the DM should let them make statements such as, "If I see suspicious activity, I draw steel and attack." If that situation is met, roll initiative. If the opponent tries to hide his suspicious ativity, there's a skill mechanic for that. Consider the case of posting a watch while the party sleeps at night. Who wants to roleplay the entire night in 6-second increments? Instead, you simply determine if there's going to be an encounter and whose watch it's on. Then roll listen or spot checks to determine if the sentry -- who it is assumed is being alert all night -- detects the threat before the sleeping party gets ambushed.I had a scenario once where the party in my game knew -- through some listen checks -- that there were some bad guys on the other side of the room. They wanted to swarm into the room and start slaying, so I had them roll initiative. The dwarf's job was to kick in the door while everyone else streamed through the doorway into the room. Guess who rolled the lowest initiative? Everyone else had to stand there, delaying or readying their actions until the dwarf got into position, kicked in the door, and got out of the way. It was frustrating and eventually amounted to no one getting to attack in the surprise round. Bad DMing on my part.Now I'd tell them to get into position and let the dwarf kick in the door, then everyone rolls initiative. They are aware of the bad guys, so everyone got a surprise round.When you are limited to a standard or move action only -- such as in a surprise round -- you can only charge up to your movement speed. In order to act again on round one before the party acts, you still have to beat initiative. Granted, it's not impossible to move 60 feet and attack while everyone else is still flat-footed, but it isn't a given if you have surprise.And I disagree that an extreme example illustrates the point. An extreme example merely illustrates an exception to the norm. An extreme exception.</blockquote>

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