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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AuraSeer" data-source="post: 2758518" data-attributes="member: 1331">The DM always knows when another monster is nearby, so he rolls its initiative normally. On each of its actions, it gets Listen/Spot checks to perceive the battle, along with other actions it happens to take. (Patrolling guards take Move actions, etc.) Once it perceives the battle or wanders into range, it continues to act at that same point in the round.Anything that shows up due to the actions of unpredictable PCs, like summoned monsters or whatever, acts immediately after the PC who caused it. I can't think of any other case where there really could be a "new" monster that the DM doesn't know about. I don't see how the "first half" of Delay makes the slightest difference to anything. There's no benefit to declaring a specific initiative roll to act on; you get precisely the same benefit by specifying the creature you want to go after (or before). In fact that's what would be going through your character's head-- he doesn't know from count 17, he only knows "just before the troll attacks again" or "right after the mage casts enlarge on me." Regardless, you can still specify a count to act on if you really want to. The meaning of the numbers has just changed. In this system if you say you want to go "on 3" you will act third in rotation, instead of acting as if you had totalled 3 for your initiative.</blockquote>