I have a player doing a Gloom Stalker and I have a question for the hive brain. He used his dread ambusher ability during the second round of an attack, which I thought odd and questioned, and he assured me it was fine. I let it go, to allow the game to run and followed up later. This is my interpretation of the dread ambush - Can only be used on first turn of EACH combat. ie if your combat lasts 6 rounds, you only use it as you enter that combat. Not the second, third etc rounds. Further, if you finish that enemy and engage another, you can use that ability again as it is a new combat. Or, could be similarly explain as combat being when the melee ends after all the enemy are defeated. Thus the next combat being the next melee engagement. Thoughts.
You are correct, Dread Ambusher only applies to his first turn of each combat encounter. He cannot use it again until he enters a new combat encounter, which starts with you determining surprise and then having your players roll initiative.
You are totally correct. Dread Ambusher is not like Action Surge from Fighter, although loosely comparable, that you choose to activate whenever you want.
Yep. All ranger stuff is situational. Gloom stalkers as much as any. A melee based (starting combat from a distance, I mean) gloom stalker NOT in darkness has 1 extra spell for their subclass at level 3. Being in their element makes all ranger crazy good. Being out of that element leaves them still solid.
I have a player doing a Gloom Stalker and I have a question for the hive brain. He used his dread ambusher ability during the second round of an attack, which I thought odd and questioned, and he assured me it was fine. I let it go, to allow the game to run and followed up later. This is my interpretation of the dread ambush - Can only be used on first turn of EACH combat. ie if your combat lasts 6 rounds, you only use it as you enter that combat. Not the second, third etc rounds. Further, if you finish that enemy and engage another, you can use that ability again as it is a new combat. Or, could be similarly explain as combat being when the melee ends after all the enemy are defeated. Thus the next combat being the next melee engagement. Thoughts.
There's no RAW, reliable way to differentiate combats on the DM side - on the PC side, your DM simply tells you when combat is over, but if you're the DM, you have to basically just guess when it's appropriate for combat to end, just as you adjudicate when it begins. A new combat generally means the old one has ended, by definition.
If you want to prepare some formal rules for your player, the most complex scenario that's likely to come up is one where the Gloomstalker sneaks up to a foe, hurts them, then runs off to wait until they're allowed to attack again fresh. We don't really have rules for that, so make up whatever feels appropriate to you. All that really matters is that your players have some idea how your rules work so they can play according to them.
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I have a player doing a Gloom Stalker and I have a question for the hive brain. He used his dread ambusher ability during the second round of an attack, which I thought odd and questioned, and he assured me it was fine. I let it go, to allow the game to run and followed up later. This is my interpretation of the dread ambush - Can only be used on first turn of EACH combat. ie if your combat lasts 6 rounds, you only use it as you enter that combat. Not the second, third etc rounds. Further, if you finish that enemy and engage another, you can use that ability again as it is a new combat. Or, could be similarly explain as combat being when the melee ends after all the enemy are defeated. Thus the next combat being the next melee engagement. Thoughts.
You are correct, Dread Ambusher only applies to his first turn of each combat encounter. He cannot use it again until he enters a new combat encounter, which starts with you determining surprise and then having your players roll initiative.
Once per combat. That combat could have one enemy or 20 enemies, or last 1 round or 10 rounds. It is a first round opening burst of damage.
Dread Ambusher work "At the start of your first turn of each combat...If you take the Attack action on that turn, you can..."
You are totally correct. Dread Ambusher is not like Action Surge from Fighter, although loosely comparable, that you choose to activate whenever you want.
Yep. All ranger stuff is situational. Gloom stalkers as much as any. A melee based (starting combat from a distance, I mean) gloom stalker NOT in darkness has 1 extra spell for their subclass at level 3. Being in their element makes all ranger crazy good. Being out of that element leaves them still solid.
There's no RAW, reliable way to differentiate combats on the DM side - on the PC side, your DM simply tells you when combat is over, but if you're the DM, you have to basically just guess when it's appropriate for combat to end, just as you adjudicate when it begins. A new combat generally means the old one has ended, by definition.
If you want to prepare some formal rules for your player, the most complex scenario that's likely to come up is one where the Gloomstalker sneaks up to a foe, hurts them, then runs off to wait until they're allowed to attack again fresh. We don't really have rules for that, so make up whatever feels appropriate to you. All that really matters is that your players have some idea how your rules work so they can play according to them.