Spellcasting in the Suprise round.

[Pyrex]

This situation came up in our game last night and we were not quite sure what should happen.

Our heroes have suprise and thus each have a Partial Action available during the suprise round.

The bard starts casting Sleep, which has a casting time of "1 round".

When does he finish casting?

 

[andargor]

This situation came up in our game last night and we were not quite sure what should happen.

Our heroes have suprise and thus each have a Partial Action available during the suprise round.

The bard starts casting Sleep, which has a casting time of "1 round".

When does he finish casting?

Looks like you're playing 3.0 ("partial action"). I don't know if it helps, but in 3.5 a 1 round casting time is defined as being a full-round action.

A spell that takes 1 round to cast is a full-round action. It comes into effect just before the beginning of your turn in the round after you began casting the spell. You then act normally after the spell is completed.

Since you can only take a standard ("partial") action in the surprise round, you can't cast spells with a 1 round casting time like sleep.

Andargor

 

[Tatsukun]

Or more to the point, you can't FINISH a full round action in a surprise round. You can use your standard action, and then on your next turn you can use another standard action to finish your spell. After this second action, the spell happens.

-Tatsu

 

[Hypersmurf]

Or more to the point, you can't FINISH a full round action in a surprise round. You can use your standard action, and then on your next turn you can use a move action to finish your spell. After this move action, the spell happens.

Both the 'Start Full Round Action' action and the 'Complete Full Round Action' action are standard actions.

You need to use a standard action in both rounds to cast the Sleep spell.

Start/Complete Full-Round Action
The “start full-round action” standard action lets you start undertaking a full-round action, which you can complete in the following round by using another standard action. You can’t use this action to start or complete a full attack, charge, run, or withdraw.

-Hyp.

 

[Thanee]

What the smurf said.

So, the spell would trigger in the next round (almost) as normal (for a spell with a 1 round casting time), the biggest downside is, that you have to use your standard action for that turn, too, so you only have a move action left during the first round of combat then.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Tatsukun]

Yeah, that's exactly what I said, two standard actions...

(...looks around, edits post)

-Tatsu

 

[andargor]

Yeah, that's exactly what I said, two standard actions...

(...looks around, edits post)

-Tatsu

Cheater.

At least I stand up and take it like a Balrog!

Andargor

 

[Elephant]

I'd probably rule that it would require a move action instead of a standard in the first full combat round, just to be nice.

 

[Marimmar@Home]

Don't be nice to your players, it will always come around to haunt you.

~Marimmar

 

[likuidice]

so an invisible assailant, who started a coup de grace action during the surprise round, would have to use a second round to finish it, or an invisible rogue with whirlwind attack would: start the action in surprise round, breaking invisibility, then complete the action in the normal round, possibly having his opponents beat his initiative and just move back out of reach?