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Message: <blockquote data-quote="mpattee" data-source="post: 4624298" data-attributes="member: 82039">I'm starting a new game and haven't DM'd in quite a few years.  A question has come up from a ranger player that I'm trying to sort out. I'm going to start out with some things as I understand them from reading the books please correct me if I'm getting something wrong.When starting a combat if the players have surprise on a group of goblins(just used for example) you would roll initiative and then resolve the surprise round based on those rolls. During this surprise round the players get one action of any type (standard, move or minor) and then normal combat starts. If the players didn't have their weapons out would they have to use a minor action during the surprise round to pull them out?If the ranger for instance did have his bow out would he have to choose between shooting at the goblin (a standard action) or marking it as his quarry (a minor action) during the surprise round.Another side of this is if the ranger snuck up on the group of goblins and the goblins were unaware of him being there.  Would he be able to designate his quarry and then attack? I'm thinking this would work in one of two ways, either he would be able to designate out of combat and then start attacking which would trigger initiative and a surprise round where he could shoot at the goblins, or does combat immediately start when he makes a hostile action such as designating a target and you would roll initiative and then the designation of his quarry would be his surprise round.How many actions can you perform outside of combat if you are watching a group that you've snuck up on. I'm guessing that he would be able to designate and then start combat and perform his surprise round. But I'm not sure what it means to designate the quarry.  Does he point at them. yell at them, or is it just a mental thing in the rangers head?Sorry for the long-winded post just trying to make sure I'm being clear.</blockquote>

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