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ShortQuests -- Pocket Sized Adventures! An all-new collection of digest-sized D&D adventures designed for 1-2 game sessions.

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="William_2" data-source="post: 2243831" data-attributes="member: 13925">Oh yea, sorry, it did say that A and B both see Y!  My take remains the same, then: initiative is rolled for those two, and they act in order, each getting a standard action.  While B might act first, and waste his action by doing nothing, that does not in any way limit A’s ability to act.  A gets a standard action to do as they please.  Both of them do indeed act unilaterally- if they want to try and act in accord, that is great, but if B does something on their own, A remains free to do likewise. Which is why the issue of players performing actions is relevant- your example has a player, A, who has a standard action, but there is no mention of what they do, implying that they chose to do nothing, which is highly unlikely.This encounter does not start with any decision on the part of A or B- it starts when they see Y, which is relatively involuntary, and not under their control.  They have one opportunity to take a standard action before initiative is rolled.  If they do nothing, they may end up not even going first.  Doing nothing does not mean that an encounter has not started.  It may mean you wasted your chance to get an advantage, but you won’t prevent the encounter from happening by doing nothing.  By hiding or disappearing or the like, you can make an encounter very short, but you will still have acted."(in that case, A would have used his surprise round, maybe B could use it too if they have coordinated)."  I think that they each qualify for a surprise round on their own- they don't have to be acting together.  they don't even have to know that each other exist in order to act in the same surprise round- they just have to be there, notice an opponent when the opponent doesn't notice them, and decide to act.</blockquote>

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