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The Delay action only works for that round.
You can't use it to act faster in a following round.
By choosing to delay, you take no action and then act normally on whatever initiative count you decide to act. When you delay, you voluntarily reduce your own initiative result for the rest of the combat. When your new, lower initiative count comes up later in the same round, you can act normally. You can specify this new initiative result or just wait until some time later in the round and act then, thus fixing your new initiative count at that point.
You never get back the time you spend waiting to see what's going to happen. You also can't interrupt anyone else's action (as you can with a readied action).
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Delay lets you delay until any point in time prior to when your next normal action would be. You could delay till before the first actor in the normal (not surprise) round then stop delaying and take your action.
The more appropriate question I think you are getting to is: can I, by delaying, get a full round of actions instead of only the single action allowed during the surprise round?
The rules don't cover this. Personally I'd say no for the following reason:
If someone got to act in the surprise round, but was last in init order, it would not be fair to allow them to get a full round of actions during what amounts to the surprise round, when everyone else acting in the surprise round, did not, simply by delaying for the 'round' to tick over into the next one.
Or in other words, if you delay, you still don't get any more action economy by delaying then you would have had you not delayed - you are merely changing when you want to use said action economy that has been granted to you.
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Delay lets you delay until any point in time prior to when your next normal action would be.
That's actually not the case, as I quoted above.
When you Delay, you must still "come out of Delay" during that same round.
If you don't, you just don't act that round, and revert back to your regular initiative the following round.
However, there is the last bit in the Delay section:
Initiative Consequences of Delaying: Your initiative result becomes the count on which you took the delayed action. If you come to your next action and have not yet performed an action, you don't get to take a delayed action (though you can delay again).If you take a delayed action in the next round, before your regular turn comes up, your initiative count rises to that new point in the order of battle, and you do not get your regular action that round.
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Except that "that round" means the round between my turns. Rounds in combat are an abstraction and are only measured in relation to events.
If we used your interpretation, if I'm understanding you correctly, the person who acts last in the initiative order could never delay to go after someone with a higher initiative.
Let's say the initiative order is Bob, Susie, Goblin1, Jane, Goblin2, and Billy. At some point in the combat Billy's turn comes up. He wants to Color Spray the goblins but needs to wait until Bob gets out of the way. He delays until after Bob's turn then casts his spell.
Are you saying he can't do that?
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Initiative Consequences of Delaying: Your initiative result becomes the count on which you took the delayed action. If you come to your next action and have not yet performed an action, you don't get to take a delayed action (though you can delay again).
If you take a delayed action in the next round, before your regular turn comes up, your initiative count rises to that new point in the order of battle, and you do not get your regular action that round.
Ok. I don't know how I missed that.
So, in the OP's scenario, if he Delays during the Surprise round, with the intention of raising his Initiative before the enemy, he'd have to skip his first entire non-Surprise round as well.
Harsh, but if you're invisible or otherwise hidden I suppose the wait could be worth it.
...he'd have to skip his first entire non-Surprise round as well.
Why would he need to wait for an entire non-surprise round? I don't see anything that suggests that is the case.
Otherwise, it's:
Surprise Round: Delay, and take no action.
First Round: Act normally, on your Initiative.
I'm just not seeing which part of the quoted text you believe prevents this option.
e.g,
There are no rules that say you can't delay during the surprise round.
The rules on delaying are that any time before my next initiative I can stop delaying and take my action - doing so changes my initiative to that point in the init order.
bbangerter is correct, you can, in the surprise round, delay and then act first in the first round.
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There are no rules that say you can't delay during the surprise round.
I didn't say you couldn't. In fact, I even used the Surprise round in my example.
The rules on delaying are that any time before my next initiative I can stop delaying and take my action
I mentioned this up thread. That's not what the Delayed action section actually states.
Your delayed action must be taken later in the same round.
doing so changes my initiative to that point in the init order.
That's where Sniggevert's quote comes in.
- If you come to your next action and have not yet performed an action, you don't get to take a delayed action.
- (though you can delay again).
- If you take a delayed action in the next round, before your regular turn comes up, your initiative count rises to that new point in the order of battle,
- and you do not get your regular action that round.
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Nefreet, I think you are confused.
If you take a delayed action in the next round, before your regular turn comes up, your initiative count rises to that new point in the order of battle, and you do not get your regular action that round.
This just means that you can't act twice in a single round. When you take a "delayed action," that is taking your actions.
So if you delay in the surprise round:
Surprise: delay and take no action
First: act on new, higher initiative (you still only have a standard action delayed), you do not act on your old initiative for this turn.
bbangerter is correct, you can, in the surprise round, delay and then act first in the first round.The quotes provided disagree with being able to move your Initiative count *up*.
Unless you take no action on the round following the round you Delayed.
...your initiative count rises to that new...
??
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Nefreet, I think you are confused.
If you take a delayed action in the next round, before your regular turn comes up, your initiative count rises to that new point in the order of battle, and you do not get your regular action that round.This just means that you can't act twice in a single round. When you take a "delayed action," that is taking your actions.
Okay. Acting twice. That makes sense.
The wording of "in that same round" still makes it seem like you can't delay until the next round, but I suppose that could also mean "one round's duration".
Still, using it to get a full-attack off, rather than just the standard action allowed during Surprise, seems like gaming the system.
In that I agree, see my first post in this thread.
This has come up in my home games, and I generally agree with your first post bbangerter; if you delay your surprise round action, you take that action (unless the delay fizzles due to delaying until your normal turn occurs again). As always, not official or anything.
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This has come up in my home games, and I generally agree with your first post bbangerter; if you delay your surprise round action, you take that action (unless the delay fizzles due to delaying until your normal turn occurs again). As always, not official or anything.
Oh, I like that.
So, you can only delay the action that you would have been able to take when you delayed?
That would prevent full-attacking when you could only have delayed a standard action.
Edit: Darnit Mark! Your edit beat my quote =P
I don't feel that this is gaming the system. You are losing a standard action to act before everyone else.
Without Delay:
You have a standard action (surprise round) and a full-round action (first round) with the full-round action being 'wherever your initiative falls'.
With Delaying until the first round:
You lose your surprise round action. Your full round action now occurs before everyone else's.
You have lost an action (standard) and gained no additional actions.
All you have gained is that your full-round action has occurred before everyone else's but isn't that appropriate since you were active in the surprise round (assumes they were not)?
I don't feel that this is gaming the system. You are losing a standard action to act before everyone else.
Without Delay:
You have a standard action (surprise round) and a full-round action (first round) with the full-round action being 'wherever your initiative falls'.With Delaying until the first round:
You lose your surprise round action. Your full round action now occurs before everyone else's.You have lost an action (standard) and gained no additional actions.
All you have gained is that your full-round action has occurred before everyone else's but isn't that appropriate since you were active in the surprise round (assumes they were not)?
However, that assumes that you already beat them on initiative, in which case you didn't need to do this anyway. If you acted after them on initiative, then you aren't losing any actions relative to them by delaying from one round to another.
Hmmm, good point.
However, that assumes that you already beat them on initiative, in which case you didn't need to do this anyway. If you acted after them on initiative, then you aren't losing any actions relative to them by delaying from one round to another.I don't feel that this is gaming the system. You are losing a standard action to act before everyone else.
Without Delay:
You have a standard action (surprise round) and a full-round action (first round) with the full-round action being 'wherever your initiative falls'.With Delaying until the first round:
You lose your surprise round action. Your full round action now occurs before everyone else's.You have lost an action (standard) and gained no additional actions.
All you have gained is that your full-round action has occurred before everyone else's but isn't that appropriate since you were active in the surprise round (assumes they were not)?
At least partly for this reason, I don't roll initiatives for anyone not in the surprise round. That way there is no gaming the system. At the very least, a player cannot say "Well, I know I'm going before the monster so I won't delay and lose an action". Sure, if his roll is super good or super bad, he can make assumptions, but then, I would assume his character could make the same assumption.
Another thing not explicitly stated in the rules but makes sense to me is that you cannot delay to an initiative count you could not roll. For example, if your initiative bonus is +2, you could delay to next round and act on 22, but you could not act higher than 22 - if a monster rolls a 23 initiative, you delayed, but the monster actually beats you and goes first. If you want to be sure you act before the monster, then you better use Ready, not Delay, but then you're only readying a standard action.
I don't really mind abandoning a surprise round to get full actions at the top of the order in round 1. My monsters do it all the time (when appropriate - zombies, e.g., are not this clever). Besides, sometimes that surprised opponent will roll well and win initiative anyway.
(Side note: as a GM response to the fact that every player on the freaking planet takes the REACTIONARY trait, I have started giving traits to monsters too, and they all take Reactionary - well, the percentage of monsters at my table that take reactionary is the same as the percentage of players who took it)
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(Side note: as a GM response to the fact that every player on the freaking planet takes the REACTIONARY trait, I have started giving traits to monsters too, and they all take Reactionary - well, the percentage of monsters at my table that take reactionary is the same as the percentage of players who took it)
I don't take reactionary. Someone has to not take it for it to be useful. And if all of your PCs are taking reactionary, it's quite normal to assume they'll be faster than things without traits (i.e. npcs and monsters). You're essentially nerfing your players for their design choices by completely negating their trait.
(Side note: as a GM response to the fact that every player on the freaking planet takes the REACTIONARY trait, I have started giving traits to monsters too, and they all take Reactionary - well, the percentage of monsters at my table that take reactionary is the same as the percentage of players who took it)I don't take reactionary. Someone has to not take it for it to be useful. And if all of your PCs are taking reactionary, it's quite normal to assume they'll be faster than things without traits (i.e. npcs and monsters). You're essentially nerfing your players for their design choices by completely negating their trait.
Yeah, well, the forums are always saying "If you're players are always using a certain (usually OP) tactic, have the monsters use it too".
I like to think I'm responding in kind to demonstrate that they're over-utilization of this trait can be a two-way street.
Oh well, "to-may-to", "to-mah-to"...
(and I really only use it on sentient enemies: NPCs, orcs, goblins, etc. - why can't they have traits if sentient humans and elves and such can?)
Another thing not explicitly stated in the rules but makes sense to me is that you cannot delay to an initiative count you could not roll. For example, if your initiative bonus is +2, you could delay to next round and act on 22, but you could not act higher than 22 - if a monster rolls a 23 initiative, you delayed, but the monster actually beats you and goes first. If you want to be sure you act before the monster, then you better use Ready, not Delay, but then you're only readying a standard action.
Why would you do that? After the initial roll and initiative order has been determined, the actual number rolled has NO bearing or significance anymore.
By doing the above you get things like:
Monster takes its turn
Player delays
Other monsters/players take their turns
Player wants to now act, but because we've moved back to the top of the init again the monster gets to go again before the player who deliberately waited does?
You're losing your action in the surprise round if you delay past the end of it. Bonus: Since you haven't acted, you're still flatfooted until you do.
Not really. You don't lose actions in a round due to delaying unless the init order gets back to you and you still have not acted. (Flat footed is a separate issue, and personally if a person chose to delay I would not leave them flat footed - they could have acted, the idea that because they are intentionally waiting for something else before taking full aggressive action meaning they can't be defensive is silly).
Normal things with no one delaying
Surprise Round
Creature 1 single action
Creature 2 single action
Creature 3 single action
Normal round(s)
Creature 1 full action
Creature 2 full action
Creature 3 full action
Repeat normal round till combat is over
If creature 3 delays:
Surprise Round
Creature 1 single action
Creature 2 single action
Creature 3 delays till start of the normal rounds
Normal round(s)
Creature 3 full action (gaming the system if he gets a full round action)
Creature 1 full action
Creature 2 full action
Repeat normal round till combat is over
In both cases its 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3... repeating.
In the second case if 3 gets a full round action he lost nothing, instead he effectively got a full round action in during the surprise round instead.
Creature 1 has no reason to delay till the normal round, if he does then yes he does lose his surprise round action as it his turn right after 3 is done.
2 could delay till after 3 and then take his surprise round action (in the way I adjudicate this). If he delays till after 1's normal round, then he has lost his surprise round action.
Another thing not explicitly stated in the rules but makes sense to me is that you cannot delay to an initiative count you could not roll. For example, if your initiative bonus is +2, you could delay to next round and act on 22, but you could not act higher than 22 - if a monster rolls a 23 initiative, you delayed, but the monster actually beats you and goes first. If you want to be sure you act before the monster, then you better use Ready, not Delay, but then you're only readying a standard action.
Why would you do that? After the initial roll and initiative order has been determined, the actual number rolled has NO bearing or significance anymore.
By doing the above you get things like:
Monster takes its turn
Player delays
Other monsters/players take their turns
Player wants to now act, but because we've moved back to the top of the init again the monster gets to go again before the player who deliberately waited does?
Not at all.
You could delay to the end of the current round and still go after everyone this round, and before the monster next round, right?
It's just a big circle.
But, actually, I don't even really use initiative numbers except during the first round and the surprise round. After that, everyone's just taking turns.
In your example (using my previous initiative results):
Surprise round:
PC rolls a 10 initiative but decides to delay until next round.
Round 1:
PC delays until 22 (his maximum result with his +2 INIT modifier) but the monster goes on 23 so it goes first.
Monster takes its turn
Player delays
Other monsters/players take their turns
Player wants to now act. Next next combatant to act is the fast monster (on 23) next round, so since everyone is done, player acts at the end of this round, before that monster gets its next turn.
Round 2:
Monster acts again.
Etc.
So the player lost his surprise round because he gambled that giving up his partial surprise round would let him get a full round before the monster - he lost that bet and the monster went first. Then he decided he wanted to delay until right before the monster's next turn, so he did - now he acts at the end of the round, right before the monster's next turn (next round). No actions lost except the one he gambled with (if the monster had rolled worse, the gamble would have paid off; it usually does pay off, actually).
Edit:
if the player insisted on delaying into next round and going before the monster, I'd let him. The conversation would go like this:
Player: I delay until right before the monster.
(other combatants go, now it's the end of the round)
Me: OK, it's the end of round 1, Your turn.
Player: No, I want to go first next round!
Me: OK, great, it's the beginning of round 2. Your turn.
Or if I were feeling argumentative (for the sake of demonstration), it might go like this:
Me: OK, it's the end of round 1, Your turn.
Player: No, I want to go first next round!
Me: can your CHARACTER tell me when this round ends and the next one begins?
Player: No, I guess not, he's just fighting for his life; he doesn't even know what a round is.
Me: OK then. The monster is about to attack; in fact, it will attack next. You have delayed to this point in time as you requested and now you just barely have time to act before the monster. Your turn. (and then I put his marker at the end of the round on the initiative tracker)
And if he still insists on being at the top of the next round:
Me: OK then. The monster is about to attack; in fact, it will attack next. You have delayed to this point in time as you requested and now you just barely have time to act before the monster. Your turn. (and then I put his marker at the top of the next round on the initiative tracker)
Because it really doesn't matter, except in the first round or the surprise round.
All participants in a combat are flatfooted until they do their first action. Unless there's an ability, or what not that provides an exception, that means if you delay your first action, you have not acted until you .... act.You're losing your action in the surprise round if you delay past the end of it. Bonus: Since you haven't acted, you're still flatfooted until you do.
Not really. You don't lose actions in a round due to delaying unless the init order gets back to you and you still have not acted. (Flat footed is a separate issue, and personally if a person chose to delay I would not leave them flat footed - they could have acted, the idea that because they are intentionally waiting for something else before taking full aggressive action meaning they can't be defensive is silly).
I get that's RAW, hence why 'personally' I would not run it that way.
EDIT: I'm going to redact that it is even RAW. I think an argument can be made that it is not.
Flat-Footed: At the start of a battle, before you have had a chance to act (specifically, before your first regular turn in the initiative order), you are flat-footed.
If I delay, I had a chance to act, and chose not to, but have met the requirements for no longer being flat footed.
You're losing your action in the surprise round if you delay past the end of it. Bonus: Since you haven't acted, you're still flatfooted until you do.
Not really. You don't lose actions in a round due to delaying unless the init order gets back to you and you still have not acted. (Flat footed is a separate issue, and personally if a person chose to delay I would not leave them flat footed - they could have acted, the idea that because they are intentionally waiting for something else before taking full aggressive action meaning they can't be defensive is silly).
Normal things with no one delaying
Surprise Round
Creature 1 single action
Creature 2 single action
Creature 3 single actionNormal round(s)
Creature 1 full action
Creature 2 full action
Creature 3 full action
Repeat normal round till combat is overIf creature 3 delays:
Surprise Round
Creature 1 single action
Creature 2 single action
Creature 3 delays till start of the normal roundsNormal round(s)
Creature 3 full action (gaming the system if he gets a full round action)
Creature 1 full action
Creature 2 full action
Repeat normal round till combat is overIn both cases its 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3... repeating.
In the second case if 3 gets a full round action he lost nothing, instead he effectively got a full round action in during the surprise round instead.Creature 1 has no reason to delay till the normal round, if he does then yes he does lose his surprise round action as it his turn right after 3 is done.
2 could delay till after 3 and then take his surprise round action (in the way I adjudicate this). If he delays till after 1's normal round, then he has lost his surprise round action.
I have to disagree with the results (conclusion) of your example. Creature 3 has absolutely lost an action, a standard action while moving his Full-Round action to the top of the list.
Any way you slice it he loses that standard action when measuring actions over multiple rounds.
Guass what has he actually lost? He didn't actually change in the init order. But instead of just a single action he got a full action in the same order.
Surprise Round: 1, 2, and 3 (in that order) get standard actions.
Round 1: 1, 2, and 3 (in that order) get full-round actions.
and so on....
vs
Surprise Round: 1, 2 but not 3 (in that order) get standard actions.
Round 1: 3, 1, and 2 (in that order) get full-round actions.
and so on...
Yes, he is pulling his full-round action from later in round 1 up to a higher initiative. Yes, I (now) agree that is gaming the system.
But, contrary to what you stated, he is most certainly losing a standard action in the course of the battle to do this trick.
Technically I suppose. But in any given round if all enemies are dead when 3's turn comes up, he has no reason to take actions.
Surprise round all enemies are dead? No reason to take actions.
Round 1 (or 2, 3, 4, 5...) all enemies are dead after 2 goes? No reason to take actions (but he got an extra move on his 'surprise' round).
If 3 gets killed in any round, he still got his extra move, and wouldn't have gotten to take his other action due to being dead.
In either case he 'lost' an action he would have no reason to take (or couldn't take).
I understand where your coming from - just a matter of perspective on what 'losing' your surprise round action means.
I don't know, this isn't broken, but smells like gaming the system to me. You've already rolled initiative, and lost, now getting to choose to lose a standard action to act firt sounds like too good of a deal. If you rolled 1 and would probably be the last person in the initiative order, you only get to profit if you delay to act first.
Side question: If you Delay your action in the surprise round, or in the first round, are you still flat-footed until you act?
I think you are no longer flat-footed, because it says you are flat-footed until you've had a chance to act, and you did have a chance and chose to wait.
No, flat-footed ends on your first turn (surprise round or otherwise). Once that turn starts, you're not flat-footed anymore. If you use that turn to delay to later in the round, so be it, but you still had your turn and ended your flat-footedness.
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I don't know, this isn't broken, but smells like gaming the system to me. You've already rolled initiative, and lost, now getting to choose to lose a standard action to act firt sounds like too good of a deal. If you rolled 1 and would probably be the last person in the initiative order, you only get to profit if you delay to act first.
Side question: If you Delay your action in the surprise round, or in the first round, are you still flat-footed until you act?
I think you are no longer flat-footed, because it says you are flat-footed until you've had a chance to act, and you did have a chance and chose to wait.
You're forgetting there's a cost to act in the surprise round. You did something when you could have done something else and not acted in the surprise round. So it cost something to go "first".
You're forgetting there's a cost to act in the surprise round. You did something when you could have done something else and not acted in the surprise round. So it cost something to go "first".I don't know, this isn't broken, but smells like gaming the system to me. You've already rolled initiative, and lost, now getting to choose to lose a standard action to act firt sounds like too good of a deal. If you rolled 1 and would probably be the last person in the initiative order, you only get to profit if you delay to act first.
Side question: If you Delay your action in the surprise round, or in the first round, are you still flat-footed until you act?
I think you are no longer flat-footed, because it says you are flat-footed until you've had a chance to act, and you did have a chance and chose to wait.
I Am accounting for this cost and it still feels like too good of a deal, to me at least.
I have to disagree with the results (conclusion) of your example. Creature 3 has absolutely lost an action, a standard action while moving his Full-Round action to the top of the list.
Any way you slice it he loses that standard action when measuring actions over multiple rounds.
But that 'lost' action is the last action by Creature 3 during which he decided to do nothing, or at least nothing meaningful to the combat.
Only if we define the end of combat as MUST be at the end of a round (instead of when the last creature decides to do something other than pass), will Creature 3 appear to lose an action, but even then, it was an action where Creature 3 did nothing. If Creature 3 decides to do something meaningful with that lost action, then another round would start. Starting a new round also gives the other people an extra action, but if they do nothing, does it really count as Creature 3 lost an action? (Well they could do something useless just to be doing something, but does that even matter? Creature 3 could always say he still has something to do and yet another round would start).You have two possible situations - either creature 3 has the last meaningful action or another creature does. (Just for grins I'm gonna assume Creature #1 died somewhere in the battle.) I'm also assuming that Creature 3 was able to act in the surprise round but rolled the worst initiative, thus his decision to delay into the next round to go first. Otherwise Creature 3 can lose meaningful actions relative to any creature he delays past in the order.
CASE 1: Creature 3 has last meaningful action.
OPTION A: Creature 3 delayed in the surprise round:: (surprise round = round 0)
round 0: (surprise round)
Creature 1 acts (action #1)
Creature 2 acts (action #1)
Creature 3 delays
round 1:
Creature 3 acts (action #1)
Creature 1 acts (action #2)
Creature 2 acts (action #2)
...........
round 997:
Creature 3 acts (action #997) (did not act in surprise round)
Creature 1 does not act since he is dead
Creature 2 acts (action #998) (did act in surprise round)
round 998:
Creature 3 acts (action #998) (kills last enemy or heals last downed ally)
Creature 1 does not act since he is dead
Creature 2 passes (action #999)
round 999:
Creature 3 passes (action #999)
Creature 1 does not act since he is dead
Creature 2 passes (action #1000)
End of combat.
OPTION B:
Creature 3 acted in the surprise round (counted as round 0 here)::
round 0: (surprise round)
Creature 1 acts (action #1)
Creature 2 acts (action #1)
Creature 3 acts (action #1)
round 1:
Creature 1 acts (action #2)
Creature 2 acts (action #2)
Creature 3 acts (action #2)
...........
@ end of round 996:
Creature 3 acts (action #997) (since he acted in surprise round=0)
round 997:
Creature 1 does not act since he is dead
Creature 2 acts (action #998)
Creature 3 acts (action #998) (kills last enemy or heals last downed ally)
round 998:
Creature 1 does not act since he is dead
Creature 2 passes (action #999)
Creature 3 passes (action #999)
round 999:
Creature 1 does not act since he is dead
Creature 2 passes (action #1000)
Creature 3 passes (action #1000)
End of combat.
Here the last meaningful action is by Creature 3 with action #998.
For OPTION A, Creature 3 'lost' action #999 (if you define the end of combat as the end of round #998) or #1000 (if you define the end of combat as the end of round #999), but it only looks lost if you decide you have to end combat at the end of a round of initiative.
The 'lost' action was a PASS. In both OPTION A and B, Creature 3 got the same number of real=non-PASS action compared to the other creatures.
Alternatively you could say that creature 3's action #998 was the end of combat for either option. In which case there is no lost action.
Bottom line - the 'lost' action is a PASS action. But what if he wanted to do another action, making the 'lost' action into a real action? Well, a new round would be created since we are still in combat and Creature 3 now does an action and everyone else passes. We get the same result, but we added one round and now we have a new lost action which is still a PASS.
So now what if someone else has the last meaningful action?
CASE 2: Another Creature has last meaningful action.
OPTION C:
Creature 3 delayed in the surprise round::
round 0: (surprise round)
Creature 1 acts (action #1)
Creature 2 acts (action #1)
Creature 3 delays
round 1:
Creature 3 acts (action #1)
Creature 1 acts (action #2)
Creature 2 acts (action #2)
...........
round 997:
Creature 3 acts (action #997) (did not act in surprise round)
Creature 1 does not act since he is dead
Creature 2 acts (action #998) (did act in surprise round)
round 998:
Creature 3 acts (action #998)
Creature 1 does not act since he is dead
Creature 2 acts (action #999) (kills last enemy or heals last downed ally)
round 999:
Creature 3 passes (action #999)
Creature 1 does not act since he is dead
Creature 2 passes (action #1000)
End of combat.
OPTION D:
Creature 3 acted in the surprise round (counted as round 0 here)::
@ end of round 996:
Creature 3 acts (action #997) (since he acted in surprise round=0)
round 997:
Creature 1 does not act since he is dead
Creature 2 acts (action #998) (did act in surprise round)
Creature 3 acts (action #998)
round 998:
Creature 1 does not act since he is dead
Creature 2 acts (action #999) (kills last enemy or heals last downed ally)
Creature 3 passes (action #999)
round 999:
Creature 1 does not act since he is dead
Creature 2 acts (action #1000)
Creature 3 passes (action #1000)
End of combat.
Here the last meaningful action is by Creature 2 with action #999.
Again you can say that Creature 3's action #999 is lost if he delays in the surprise round, but the lost action is a PASS action. If Creature 3 wants to take a real action with #999, then this turns into OPTION A, where we start a whole new round where Creature 3 acts and everyone else passes.
So, yeah if you want to count by complete rounds, then Creature 3 lost an action, but it was a PASS action. There was no effect on the battle or on how many real/(non-pass) actions were taken by any of the creatures, nor the order of those actions. The problem with this scenario is that it only works if Creature 3 was dead last in initiative order, otherwise he loses a meaningful/(non-pass) action relative to the creatures he beat on the initiative roll.
Of course, by delaying to the non-surprise round, if creature 3 is able to do a full-round action, he may be able to make the battle shorter than if he did a standard action only. This can result in multiple people 'losing' actions. This could effect any creature, and may or may not include creature 3. But that is a different issue.