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<blockquote data-quote="KarinsDad" data-source="post: 2757836" data-attributes="member: 2011">We use a &quot;Start of Round&quot; card. Most of the time, we flip right past it and ignore it. According to the DMG, new monsters are supposed to show up at the start of the round. So, knowing the actual counts is not really necessary.It's unnecessary bookkeeping and a waste of time.As DM, I also sometimes throw a new creature in within the initiative system. For example, if the PC Wizard Fireballs on his init, 2 rounds later just after his init, a new creature might enter the combat.With regard to keeping track of actions when creatures move their initiatives, that's easy as well without keeping track of counts.You put in an &quot;Effect 1 Card&quot;, an &quot;Effect 2 Card&quot;, etc. For example, if the Wizard casts Stinking Cloud and then in a later round, delays his action, you put an effect card in the stack at his current point in the initiative. It is up to the player playing the PC or the DM playing the NPC to keep track of the number of rounds that effect is valid.But, there is absolutely no reason to use counts at all except for finding out the initial ordering.Actually, he is correct. When you distill it down, all that really matters is the order. The counts are merely there as a tool to keep rule consistency. There is no reason at all to use the &quot;first half of Delay as written&quot; rule because you could always just Delay until the next count in which case you Delay until the next count. Effectively, what you are doing here is ignoring the &quot;first half of Delay as written&quot; because it is a pretty lame rule and going straight to the &quot;second half of Delay as written&quot;.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="KarinsDad, post: 2757836, member: 2011"] We use a "Start of Round" card. Most of the time, we flip right past it and ignore it. According to the DMG, new monsters are supposed to show up at the start of the round. So, knowing the actual counts is not really necessary. It's unnecessary bookkeeping and a waste of time. As DM, I also sometimes throw a new creature in within the initiative system. For example, if the PC Wizard Fireballs on his init, 2 rounds later just after his init, a new creature might enter the combat. With regard to keeping track of actions when creatures move their initiatives, that's easy as well without keeping track of counts. You put in an "Effect 1 Card", an "Effect 2 Card", etc. For example, if the Wizard casts Stinking Cloud and then in a later round, delays his action, you put an effect card in the stack at his current point in the initiative. It is up to the player playing the PC or the DM playing the NPC to keep track of the number of rounds that effect is valid. But, there is absolutely no reason to use counts at all except for finding out the initial ordering. Actually, he is correct. When you distill it down, all that really matters is the order. The counts are merely there as a tool to keep rule consistency. There is no reason at all to use the "first half of Delay as written" rule because you could always just Delay until the next count in which case you Delay until the next count. Effectively, what you are doing here is ignoring the "first half of Delay as written" because it is a pretty lame rule and going straight to the "second half of Delay as written". [/QUOTE]

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