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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Maxperson" data-source="post: 7759336" data-attributes="member: 23751">The combat chapter is full of holes and needs a lot of DM intervention.Let's start with surprise."Any character or monster that doesn’t notice a threat is surprised at the start of the encounter."What does that even mean?  In a game where shapechangers abound and illusion magic is common, and where everyone can be an evil villain in disguise, literally everyone and everything a PC sees is a noticed threat.  That would mean that it's impossible to sucker punch someone as the threat is noticed so no surprise can happen.  However, if you ask people you'd probably get a nearly universal consensus that sucker punches are possible?  Does that mean that you have to notice an active threat?  It doesn't say active threat.  What if the sucker punch happens after the start of the encounter?  Is it impossible then?  The DM has to decide these things.On to initiative."If a tie occurs, the DM decides the order among tied DM-controlled creatures, and the players decide the order among their tied characters. The DM can decide the order if the tie is between a monster and a player character."The rule for ties between the player and DM is that the DM gets to arbitrarily decide which goes first with no consistency required.  DM Fiat in a box!!  That's hardly a detailed rule.  They might as well have said there isn't a rule for it.  They do give an optional rule that can give consistency, but the default is basically no rule at all.Now for your turn.The most common actions you can take are described in the “Actions in Combat” section later in this chapter."The most common actions are described for combat.  What about the myriad of less common actions?  What are they?  What are the rules for them?  The combat section doesn't tell you.  It's entirely up to the DM whether to allow an action, deny it, decide what the rules will be for them, etc.Hell, that's just the first page of the combat section.</blockquote>

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