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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cavalorn" data-source="post: 1256949" data-attributes="member: 15377">Worth remembering:DMs don't kill PCs.  Monsters (and NPCs and traps and so on) kill PCs. <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=":)" />You applied the rules as best you were able and played an NPC in a consistent way.  Personally, I'd have gone for a Bluff / Sense Motive between Dante and Immo at the point when Dante claimed not to have the scroll, as if Dante had guilt written all over his face and Immo had seen right through him, it would have made the ensuing zap-fest more of an obvious consequence.  Dante's player would have been able to think 'Busted' and deal with the consequences.Surprise rounds are, as has been pointed out, for when one side is unaware of the other.  When you've got two sides facing each other down, you really want to go straight to initiative.  Even so, this isn't really a rules issue, it's more about how the player sees himself in the context of the game.  It sounds like he just wanted some 'action' of the kind that the other players didn't.  Whoa.  Now that is bad DMing, in my book, if only because it's so horribly unsubtle.You can't afford to have an attack of conscience at a time like that.  It's not your fault that this happened.  Dante provoked it and knew exactly what he was doing.  There's even an element of 'Go on, kill me, I dare you.'  When a player refuses to tell you his stats, then that's a sign that the real conflict is between DM and player.I suggest that you don't emulate his habits of asking people what their hit points are.  That basically says 'I could kill you if I wanted to, but I'm going to make sure I don't, and I want you to know this.' The time to assess an encounter is *before* the PCs enter it, not when they're in the thick of things.</blockquote>

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