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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Oryan77" data-source="post: 5347870" data-attributes="member: 18701">I was wondering how everyone handles a character initiating an attack in a scenario like this:PCs are talking to an NPC. Both sides are obviously aware of each other. The conversation gets heated and a PC thinks that the NPC is probably going to cast a spell at them once he is done with his monologue. So not to take any chances, the PC casts a silence spell at the NPC in mid sentence.In 2e, we used to have everyone roll to see if they are surprised, roll initiative, let the character cast the spell, everyone who is not surprised could react after that character casts, and then everyone goes in order of initiative after the surprise round. It's been awhile, but I think it went something like that.When I first DMed 3e (with different players), everyone got upset when I handled a surprise action like that. They pointed me to the 3e rule that states that anyone not aware of the other people are surprised. So simply knowing that someone is there is enough to keep you from being surprised.This has always made it hard for me to make characters be cinematic during roleplaying. For example:Last session the PCs were talking to a very powerful NPC. During the talk, the PCs were being a bit obnoxious and this serious evil NPC was getting tired of their antics. So I wanted to have him cast Hypnotic Pattern just to shut them up so they know he means business. But I did not want them to think that he was casting a spell to start combat. But the 3e rules makes it hard to do that if everyone is aware, rolls initiative, and a PC beats the NPCs initiative and attacks him before he gets his spell off (thinking the NPC might be trying to harm them).In 2e, we interpreted a surprise round as being surprised by the action that someone does. So just because you see the guy while your talking, you may not expect him to attack you (maybe it's a bad guy that you thought was an ally).An obvious example for how the 3e ruling messes up a good scene is the Hans Solo & Greedo scene in Star Wars (Hans shoots first). If Greedo is not aware that Hans has a gun pointed at him, then how can he "beat" Hans initiative and fire before Hans decides to fire. He was aware of Hans, but not necessarily that Hans was going to attack him. But in 3e D&D, if Hans stated that he shoots Greedo, then they roll for initiative and if Greedo beats his initiative, then he gets to shoot at Hans first as if he knew Hans decided to attack.So do you guys ever have scenarios like this? If so, do you do it by the book or do you ask for spot checks to notice the action rather than the person?</blockquote>

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