Knights & Knaves Alehouse

Foster wrote "By the Book" AD&D is a super-slippery notion because of the nature of the book and the way it was written and edited. The more exact and literal you try to become, the more of the spirit gets lost or perverted. That's not how the game was intended to be (at least before Frank Mentzer s...

EOTB said: "But when no one's able to bother you, then that character goes outside of the "combat time" that everyone else is in, and can do stuff just as if they were standing beside a country road with no one in sight. And in that case, there is no delay to starting a spell. The point is that dela...

I'll write up an answer/explanation, shortly. Might be over the weekend, though. (In the meantime, some explanation of my thinking/approach is described in this post .) Thanks PJ. I recall your linked to post. I noticed you may be importing some rules from Chainmail. I am only considering the rules...

Casting does not start at the beginning of the combat round automatically and is determined by initiative like every other action. This position is supported in the core rule books. I believe my approach (where casting outside of melee engagement *does* start at the beginning of the round unless th...

The vampire could summon wolves to attack and continue to try to use its charm abilities while the PC tries to fight off wolves and rats. The PCs will usually and should have a great advantage when they know what is coming. The vampire likely realizes that also and has prepared. (charmed NPCs, wolve...

EOTB---good, clear, concise weapon speed explanation. I will start trying to use it in games to see how it works out. The problem I had with weapon speed was I disagreed with it as strength really matters as to how fast someone can wield weapons. I also looked at it as optional which I am not sure i...

I never used weapon speed as a DM so no expert on it but I think generally a one segment spell would be very difficult to interrupt but there are situations where it could be. A tie initiative roll a DM might say there is an actual tie with spell going off as a dagger strikes the caster or the DM mi...

Surprise is determined by rolling a six-sided die for each party concerned, modifying the result by using the most favorable member of the party concerned, i.e. a ranger, surprised only on a roll of 1, will represent the whole of a group of other character types. Note, however, the effect of dexter...

Foster--are you saying that if a spell attack on a group with surprised PCs and a non surprised PC as long as the non surprised PC is affected then the hostile caster has given up his right to attack the surprised PCs and will have to wait to roll initiative? Also if the hostile caster has given up ...

Good point Axe as to the general idea that the surprised PCs should be attacked and non surprised PC cannot stop it. I generally agree with that but wanted to address the situation where a non surprised PC is being affected by the spell attack on the surprised PCs. In effect the surprise segments ar...

Don't forget the time restriction or restoration may not be possible.

Buy restoration spells from any cleric willing to cast it on you. One spell per level lost by energ drain.
I would allow all levels to return due to a wish .

The cleric's turn is his action for the round and can do nothing else.
The turning, like PJ correctly pointed out, is subject to begin, just like spell casting, based on the initiative roll.
Ex. Cleric rolls 5, vampire a 2. Cleric's turn occurs on segment 2.

Returning to the non surprised gnome illusionist and the lizardman shaman casting a sleep spell during two surprise segments. Can the gnome act to stop the shaman? Does the gnome have to wait for the surprise segments to end before he can roll intiative? If the gnome had been surprised then regular ...

The PHB or DMG indicate that surprise occurs before actual initiative is rolled. The gnome is not surprised and therefore should not be subject to any attack during the surprise segments. The lizard men will not get free attacks on him or her while the surprised PCs are attacked. The gnome though is...