Lanathar |
Hi everyone
I have GM’d for quite a while but always found the idea of combat initiation in a dungeon tricky to get my head around
Picture a scenario where both sides know something is on the other side of a door. Players are in a 5ft corridor so one long line (or perhaps squeezing in a shared space for 2x2)
They are about to open the door.
Do people roll initiative then and force PCs to spend time delaying or moving through squares based on initiative and positioning? And would the opening of the door be kind of a freebie?
Or do most people let everyone move into the room as tight as reasonable and then roll?
This later option wouldn’t work if the room is say 10x10
Then there is factoring potential readied actions of enemies. Which surely should come up if the I use the second option of letting everyone through first?
It all gets quite confusing and has the potential to get messy
It seems like I should ask them what they all want to do once the door opens based on no knowledge?
Yikes
(For note lots of my recent encounters have not been in a situation where the PCs are constrained for space on the other side of a door. I try to avoid dungeons)
Ferka |
I generally call for initiative once at least one party is aware of the other. Otherwise, how do you know which side opens the door? There ought to be times where the baddies don’t just sit there and wait to be victimized by PC murder hobos. This also allows for things like the readied attacks that you mentioned. If they haven’t yet gone in the initiative turn, then they can’t have readied attacks, after all.
blahpers |
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Once the two groups are aware of each other and are attempting to take combat actions, combat begins. Definitely do not allow one group to fully move into the other room if the current occupants of said room would be in of a mind to stop them from doing so.
For this situation, I'm with Ferka. As soon as a party is aware of the other and proposes a combat action, initiative is rolled. If the PCs aren't aware, don't bother having them roll until the shoe drops so as not to tip them off. Yes, this means that the defenders may all have readied actions ready to go off as soon as the first hapless PC opens the door. This is expected behavior.