According to the :     Initiative determines the order of turns during combat. When combat   starts, every participant makes a Dexterity check to determine their   place in the initiative order. The DM makes one roll for an entire   group of identical creatures, so each member of the group acts at the   same time.   Does that mean that the creatures of the same type share a turn, or only have the same initiative? If they go on the same turn, it gives a significant advantage to enemies with pack tactics, and makes "wakeup chains" against sleep/hypnotic pattern stronger.
123001
Imagine a small group of goblins moving on the same initiative that are hit by hypnotic pattern.  When one goblin that was not affected uses its action (or an attack) to wake its ally that failed the save, can that awoken ally in turn wake another affected ally, effectively ending the spell with a chain of actions in a single turn?  Or, instead, is only one goblin able to be woken up that turn, with the waking goblin having no action to use on the next sleeping  ally?
75268
Can you initiate a maneuver outside of combat? This is specifically about the Moment of Perfect Mind maneuver, which allows me to substitute my Will save for a concentration check. My GM feels that I should not be able to initiate it outside of combat, since it effectively grants me a Will save that is better than my best save. I don't see why I should not be able to initiate it outside of combat. A Druid can Wildshape out of combat and a Wizard can still cast his spells whenever he wants. My Warblade should be no different.
18797
I am trying to figure out if the surprised state ends on a creature after the first attack of a surprise round, or if the surprised state (which I would then see almost as an unofficial condition) ends only after the first round of combat.  In the second case, I would believe that a character (having the rogue's Assassinate ability) attacking a surprised creature AND having multiple attacks would score a critical hit on all hits.  Example: Does a Monk 5/Rogue 3 surprising a creature get automatic critical hits on all hits if he does 2 attacks (with extra attack) and additional unarmed strike(s)?  Or does the critical hit only affect the first hit? However, that would surprise me as the rules mention any hit is a critical hit.
75872
I was playing a game earlier and my opponent had a  that was a 4/3 and wanted to use a sorcery to fight  that was a 4/4.  We were wondering if the Channeler would die first because of First Strike? Or would it not be counted as it wasn't combat?
3931
There are some occasions when one Role or Item says that it will 'make x happens' and then another Role or Item says that it will 'make y happen'.  An example is the Bloodletter's ability used on somebody carrying a Veil of Shadows.  Is there some system or list that can be provided that tells which effects have priority over which other effects?  The only general rule I know to apply is the night immunity of Vampires, and some specific exceptions for Courts/DW and Succubi...
28861
I DM a group of four PC's and even "easy" battles take at least an hour to resolve. Normal encounters take even longer! I want to speed up combat so my players can do more in a session.  I've been trying a lot to speed up combat, we are already using:   Initiative cards that the players keep up 30 second bonus rule: if someone take his turn within 30 seconds, he receives a token. This token can be used to give a +1 on attack or damage, after rolling. Completely removed healing surges Checked all character sheets, they are roughly equal Roll damage and attack at the same time   I even introduced an experienced player, which helped my party to play more strategic, but speed hasn't improved.  Also the party is Lv 8, nearing Lv 9.  This is not an issue of the DM's turn taking too long. My turns take about 60 seconds tops. The 30 second rule helps a lot, most of the the players turns are within or near 30 seconds.   The major issue appears to be the sheer number of rounds, averaging on 25-30 rounds needed to resolve even a "normal" encounter.  What can I change to resolve combat faster?  I'm looking for both 4e solutions, system agnostic and home brew solutions.
81780
I have a two questions connected with priority and stack:   It's my turn, during the combat phase, after the declaring blockers step. Blockers are declared. At the Combat Damage step, I get priority and I pass. My opponent gets priority and decides to put a spell on the stack. Can I respond to him, adding my spell to the stack? And generally, do I always get a chance to respond after spell is put on a stack, independently from the situation? Can I hold priority during opponent's turn? By hold i mean for example when my opponent in his turn cast an instant, i decide to respond, and now basically he would get priority again, and my question is can i hold it by telling that i hold and cast second instant after first one. I know that there is possibility to do it.
60903
Let's say I have  on the board. He is a 2/2 that says:  Whenever another creature enters the battlefield under your control, creatures you control get +1/+1 until end of turn.  I play a . It says:  Put three 1/1 red Human creature tokens with haste onto the battlefield. Sacrifice those tokens at the beginning of the next end step.  The sacrifice portion is not important to this question. What is important is how these two cards interact with each other. Playing this card in my first main phase, assuming no counters or other shenanigans by my opponent, I will have my Commander and 3 tokens on the battlefield. What will happen in terms of the power/toughness of my tokens and Commander? Option A The tokens will be 1/1 each. They don't see each other come in at all. The Commander is 3/3, as one &quot;enter the battlefield&quot; trigger happens. Option B The tokens will be 1/1. They don't see each other come in at all, because they weren't on the battlefield to see any of the triggers. The Commander is 5/5, as he saw three &quot;enter the battlefield&quot; triggers occur. Option C The tokens will all be different, with one being 3/3 as he saw the other two come in, one being 2/2 as he saw only the last one come in, and 1/1 as the last one saw none come in. Option D The tokens will all be 4/4, as three creatures entered the battlefield this turn. I am obviously hoping for this option. It may be supported by a ruling on Goldnight Commander that says, emphasis mine:  The creature that entered the battlefield will also get +1/+1 until end of turn if it's still on the battlefield when the ability resolves.  The key being the ability resolving. So my thought is thus:  Thatcher Revolt goes on the stack. Thatcher Revolt resolves, and three separate &quot;enter the battlefield&quot; triggers go on the stack as the three humans enter the battlefield as 1/1. The last (it is a stack) &quot;etb&quot; trigger resolves. This puts an ability from Goldnight Commander on the stack. This resolves and the humans are now all 2/2. The next &quot;etb&quot; trigger resolves. This puts a new ability from Commander on the stack, and resolves with the humans being 3/3. The first &quot;etb&quot; trigger finally resolves, puts a Command ability on the stack, which resolves putting the humans at their final state of 4/4.  Option E The tokens will all be 2/2.  Thatcher Revolt goes on the stack. Thatcher Revolt resolves, and one single &quot;enter the battlefield&quot; trigger goes on the stack. The &quot;etb&quot; trigger resolves. This puts an ability from Goldnight Commander on the stack. This resolves and the humans are now all 2/2.  I would really like to have a complete understanding both of the result and how this result is calculated by the game engine.
26882
There is no coup de grace mechanic in D&amp;D 5e like there is in previous editions. So how is a helpless opponent dispatched quickly, mechanically? Is it just a matter of giving the opponent advantage?  It seems like one should be able to deal with someone who is under the effects of a sleep spell, for example, more quickly than just what a to-hit bonus enables.
61292
For example:      A player (speed 6) moves two squares towards a human bandit (pg. 162 MM) becoming adjacent to him, then proceeds to move around him to the right, provoking an opportunity attack. The bandit hits with his basic melee attack (+4 vs. AC; 1d8+1 damage, and the human bandit shifts 1 square), shifting one square to the left immediately.    This free shift makes it so that the PC would no longer flank the bandit at the END of his move. Can the player adjust his remaining three squares of movement so that he can once again flank the now-shifted bandit, or does he have to stick with his earlier movement designation?  This question boils down to: Is movement counted as you go, or do you say, "I am moving to here, it is within my range, and on the way to my destination 'blah' happens?"
25154
Two related questions:   When using Twinned Spell with an attack spell, do you make one attack roll for both targets, or one each? When using TS with a spell that deals damage: do you roll damage once for both targets, or once per target? If it's a non-attack spell, each gets its own Saving Throw, obviously.
33763
I'm having trouble understanding the mechanics of invisibility, so I'd like to propose a scenario, as an example, which I don't know exactly how to handle as a GM.  Let's say my group is about to fight an Invisible stalker. The creature surprises them and a combat begins. At this point, at the very least the character who got attacked knows the location of the creature, right? It's a melee attack after all.  But what happens if the stalker walks around every round? Do they have to make a Perception check to find out on which square of the board the monster is EVERY round?  I guess what I'm trying to understand is exactly when do the characters have to guess the square where they think the invisible creature is, and when do they just know it.
115284
DMed for the first time yesterday and one of the things I feel I need to sort out, among other comments, improvements, and similar, is how combat itself is actually initiated. The main example I want to use involves  attempting to generate surprise conditions by players. Here the characters have entered a ruined city and generally been noisy about the whole thing - using a spell to make their voice louder and literally ask if there is anyone about. Any enemies around probably know what something is about to kick off but arguably don't know precisely what. After resting the PCs head up a long flight of steps to a temple on the edge of the city. At the top only one crests and finds 3 bandits lounging around, chatting, and doing whatever bandits do in their spare time. After a brief exchange of pleasantries a combat starts:  DM &quot;The bandit spits in your direction 'we're not done looting the temple, so you can clear off', and starts raising his crossbow as his mates emerge from their cover behind the pillars... PC &quot;I cast Firebolt at Bandit Keith&quot; DM &quot;Hang on, I hadn't finished, everyone rolls for initiative...  Which sparked a debate about whether or not the PC could preemptively cast/attack before the combat starts by &quot;instant actioning&quot; (as above) as I was describing the start of the combat. As far as the bandits are concerned a lone half-elf who is pretty heavily armed has popped up in front of them, not even tried to be diplomatic, and ended up saying something rather suggestive about their mothers. The PC then asked about it being &quot;surprise&quot; because the bandits wouldn't necessarily expect an attack, but my view of &quot;surprise&quot; is closer to an ambush where one party is unaware of the other's existence. (This precise example is close to how  works, however this specific PC was always the first of the party to go into rooms (only one with darkvision) and consistently felt they should get free rounds at the start of combat based on declaring attacks before I could &quot;start&quot; the combat.) The second example the party came to more bandits, who were not alert immediately, in an underground room. They used magic to yell something obscene at the bandits and shut off all the torches so the bandits were effectively blinded. At this point they wanted to burst into the room casting spells, swinging maces, and playing some &quot;meaty chords&quot; (the bard's words, not mine). Again they wanted surprise arguing that, despite the fact that the bandits were yelling and cursing in confusion, they couldn't be sure they were actually being attacked as such. In the end a character with darkvision wanted to sneak in to a corner and again wanted surprise based on passing stealth rolls, so they would start the &quot;combat&quot; by firing a crossbow. At that point I think I relented because it was clear that they would do anything to try and win combats in a single round. In a nutshell, my question is: &quot;how liberally can the concept of surprise be applied to combat - is it only when one party is literally unaware of a threat (as I read the rules), or just when they are caught slightly off guard by the exact situation?&quot; NB I already plan to address the attempts at interrupting descriptions with actions next session, because it happened at other times and actually threw me off quite a bit.
72482
In D&amp;D 5e &quot;&quot; is a condition that can affect a creature during the first round of combat, only until the end of their turn:  [... T]he GM compares the Dexterity (Stealth) checks of anyone Hiding with the passive Wisdom (Perception) score of each creature on the opposing side. Any character or monster that doesn’t notice a threat is surprised at the start of the encounter. If you’re surprised, you can’t move or take an action on your first turn of the combat, and you can’t take a reaction until that turn ends. A member of a group can be surprised even if the other members aren’t. - PHB 189  Does the action that causes the surprise count as part of the round, though? Say Renee, a rogue, achieves a stealth check of 22, easily beating an orc sentry's passive perception. She sneaks directly behind him and stabs him in the back. Surely the orc isn't surprised at all until the dagger hits him (or if Renee misses, she fumbles around behind him or something). What I think it really boils down to in the end is: when is initiative rolled? If (in our example) initiative is rolled before Renee's attack hits (or misses) how can we justify the orc recovering from his surprise before the action that triggered said surprise even occurs, should he roll better than Renee on his initiative? I'd like to go with initiative is rolled immediately following whatever event began the encounter (which could be an attack, but is likely to often be something else wherever surprise isn't intended), but I can't find any documentation to support this stance.  Why Does Anyone Care? There are many reasons you might want someone to be surprised while you're attacking - in this example if Renee is over L3 (and took the Assassin archetype) she'll get 'Assassinate' if the orc is surprised, and 'Death Strike' if she's over L17. That's a lot of potential extra damage!  that if the orc is surprised, Renee will be able to retreat and hide, without having to take the disengage action as her bonus action to avoid an attack of opportunity. Of course, there's no way for her to know whether the orc is surprised or not at that stage, so trying this would be a bit of a gamble...
22590
Is there a way for me to bind a key that will allow multiple units in my control group to all use the same spell at once?  For example, if I have 3 centaurs as chen, and I have them all selected. Can I press one key to make them all warstomp at the same time?   Or if I have 3 familiars as Visage. When I have all three selected, is there a button I can press to have them all stun at the same time?
7591
When I use the , do I choose the monster to distract (and then the next ally to attack gets advantage) or do I choose the ally and the monster (so that only his attack against that target gets advantage)? Or something else?  Help [...] Alternatively, you can aid a friendly creature in attacking a creature within 5 feet of you. You feint, distract the target, or in some other way team up to make your ally’s attack more effective. If your ally attacks the target before your next turn, the first attack roll is made with advantage.
89120
N Medium humanoids have gathered on an arbitrarily long field, standing in a line with each creature 120 feet away from each of its neighbors. The creature at one end of the line is mounted on a horse with a speed of 60. The creatures are arranged in initiative order, such that all N creatures will act in the order of their position in a single melee round. The mounted creature acts first.  Each creature other than the mounted creature is holding a pike and has readied an action to Shove the next mounted creature that moves adjacent to it.  On its turn, the mounted creature commands its mount to move 60 feet towards the next creature, then drops prone (which is not stated as a condition for dismounting in the Mounted Combat section of the 5e PHB) and orders the horse to Dash and move 60 feet more, closing the distance. At this time, the next creature's readied Shove triggers, and it makes an attack on the rider. Assuming the attack hits (which is likely, given that the rider is prone, thus granting advantage, and for the sake of the example has no armor or dexterity bonus to AC) the rider will be pushed off of his mount and the mount leaves his control. At this time he has used his actions and the second creature's turn begins.  Creature 2 starts by mounting the now-adjacent horse, whose initiative changes to match his. However, the horse's turn ended when its first rider's turn did, and thus it is taking a new turn when its second rider mounts it. The second rider orders it to move 60 feet towards the third creature, drops prone, and orders it to Dash another 60 feet, triggering the third creature's readied Shove. This procedure continues until one of the Shove attacks fails, allowing the horse to move a theoretically infinite distance in a single 6-second round.  I am absolutely certain there is a flaw in this logic, but I can't find it – what error breaks this strategy?