I'm fairly new to dm'ing, so still learning the rules. I'm looking for some guidance (apologies for the pun) on *when* reactions happen when combat starts. In particular, it's not a surprise round but the bad guy gets the first move. For instance, the party walk around a corner and interrupt a group of zombie gnawing on fresh brains. Initiatives are called and Zombie 3 gets to go first. Do any of the player characters get to have a reaction to the first action by the zombie? Thanks in advance.
Reactions can be used as soon as the combat starts but each one has to have whatever it’s stated as reacting to to happen. So for instance the Shield spell requires someone to attack the player, the spell Hellish Rebuke requires the player to take damage, opportunity attacks require an enemy that is within melee range to move out of it.
To use your example if your zombie goes first and attacks a warlock with the spell Hellish Rebuke and manages to hit them that’s enough to trigger the reaction. The warlock doesn’t however get to trigger the spell just because combat has started, it’s specifically a reaction to something. They also don’t get to spam reactions, once they’ve used one they can’t use another until the start of their next turn
CunningSmile is right. Simply put, every character has a reaction they can use each round, but abilities that use a reaction will only key off of a very specific trigger.
In your example, the only way a player might get to use a reaction at the start of combat would be if, prior to turning the corner, a player turned to you and said something like "so we know there's undead about, so can I Hold an Action to make an attack if there are any here right around the corner?"
In this case (even though combat hadn't started yet) the character's action from the previous "turn" becomes a reaction that they can take only when the specific trigger they named (turning the corner and finding zombies) is met.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
I'm fairly new to dm'ing, so still learning the rules. I'm looking for some guidance (apologies for the pun) on *when* reactions happen when combat starts. In particular, it's not a surprise round but the bad guy gets the first move. For instance, the party walk around a corner and interrupt a group of zombie gnawing on fresh brains. Initiatives are called and Zombie 3 gets to go first. Do any of the player characters get to have a reaction to the first action by the zombie? Thanks in advance.
Reactions can be used as soon as the combat starts but each one has to have whatever it’s stated as reacting to to happen. So for instance the Shield spell requires someone to attack the player, the spell Hellish Rebuke requires the player to take damage, opportunity attacks require an enemy that is within melee range to move out of it.
To use your example if your zombie goes first and attacks a warlock with the spell Hellish Rebuke and manages to hit them that’s enough to trigger the reaction. The warlock doesn’t however get to trigger the spell just because combat has started, it’s specifically a reaction to something. They also don’t get to spam reactions, once they’ve used one they can’t use another until the start of their next turn
CunningSmile is right. Simply put, every character has a reaction they can use each round, but abilities that use a reaction will only key off of a very specific trigger.
In your example, the only way a player might get to use a reaction at the start of combat would be if, prior to turning the corner, a player turned to you and said something like "so we know there's undead about, so can I Hold an Action to make an attack if there are any here right around the corner?"
In this case (even though combat hadn't started yet) the character's action from the previous "turn" becomes a reaction that they can take only when the specific trigger they named (turning the corner and finding zombies) is met.