Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cintra" data-source="post: 2195701" data-attributes="member: 2448">If they "assume" the same enemies will be present, but wait to determine their attacks until the door is open so they can see exactly where their enemies are positioned etc. (or so as not to waste spells/ammunition), then they are surprised.If they say, before opening the door, that they'll take certain actions as soon as the door opens, then both sides are surprising the other (with their actions if not their presence), and I'd run it as a surprise round.  But they will have to take exactly the actions they specified, e.g. cast exactly the spell they said, within reasonable parameters. I'd probably let a fighter-type specify he'll charge the "closest target" or the "closest golem" for example.  But I wouldn't let the fighter charge someone else if he specified a golem and no golem is visible. (If the area beyond the door is very big, I might even take into account where the party thinks the bad guys will be, and penalize them or disallow an action if it doesn't match decently.) And I wouldn't let a spellcaster change their mind and cast a different spell; choosing not to cast their spell at all would be okay, e.g. if there is a group of people camped in the room instead and they don't want to attack; but the caster would still have spent their action basically aborting their prepped spell.  And in that same "folks camping" scenario, the charging fighter would still charge toward the closest foe if that's what he specified, he'd just have to screech to a halt as he sees something other than expected.This way, they can get benefits for prepping actions, but suffer consequences if they do it every time.  (You don't want to create a ruling that results in laborious "I prep this action the moment the door opens" every time they open a door to a new room.  Been there. Done that.)</blockquote>

Verification