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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Smoo" data-source="post: 6609049" data-attributes="member: 6794403">That post was kind of vague, so let me give an example from this week. (Spoiler from Rise of Tiamat)[sblock]The party was doing Xonthal's Tower from Rise of Tiamat, specifically the Chuul Pool. The chuuls are programmed to attack if somebody moves the gem (in effect they have a standing readied action, but that's not the readied action I'm referring to). Now, the party has every suspicion that as soon as they touch that gem, all hell is going to break loose. The archers expect something to come out of that pool, and they want to attack it if it does.[/sblock]One could simply roll initiative (a giveaway), and then any party members who roll higher could ready actions then. Mechanically sound, but a little sterile. I enjoyed it a lot more letting the party announce readied actions. Then when they triggered the action, the monsters launched their attack (a more dramatic start to the encounter than rolling initiative), but the readied actions also go off (the players feel satisfied for good planning). Then roll initiative. Combat starts already in 5th gear.</blockquote>