Sneaking is op because you can start a battle with a sneak attack from Astarion and then the combat tracker is just Astarion and the enemies that saw him, or maybe only the little pillar of light that shows up.
Once Astarion gets locked into the combat tracker you can still maneuver everyone else around the enemies sight lines and get a few more alpha strikes in outside of the combat tracker. My paladin – in full plate – can walk right up to an enemy that’s frozen in the combat tracker as long as he doesn’t walk into the sight cone.
I beat dror, m, and gut in the goblin camp all without any of them taking any turns because I was able to alpha strike them into the dirt by just starting combat with the whole party sneaking, and then walking them right up outside of the combat tracker.
Is there a party that can really exploit this? Ranger, wolf barb, shadowharts +10 party sneak, and an assassin rogue? Just alpha strike everything.
Yeah, I’ve always thought that mechanic was so broken. When one person initiates combat, the entire party really should just go into initiative. It’s weird having certain party members be out of turn-based mode, like they were in a separate time stream or something.
Also I still don’t understand the mechanics when you go into initiative from that state. Sometimes, you have an action, sometimes you don’t and just have to pass your turn.
So here’s my best understanding of the mechanics of the first turn of combat:
If you use an action to attack someone and it starts combat, everyone rolls initiative and takes turns in order. When your turn comes around, you’ll be missing that action–basically, you to use your action before everyone else got a turn, but that counts as your action for the round.
If you engage turn-based mode out of combat and your actions initiate combat, it works the same way. I this case, you might also have used some movement and/or your bonus action.
There are some abilities that grant all your actions, bonus actions, and movement back when you roll initiative (the Assassin gets this, I believe). So if you spec’d Astarion as an assassin, he’ll “break” the above rule and have all his resources available, even if he did a massive sneak attack to start combat.
Even in real time, if you do something like jump, you’ll notice your bonus action icon goes gray for a few seconds. If combat starts in that window, you’ll have already used that bonus action for that round.
Hope that helps clarify!
That makes a TON of sense actually. Thanks for the explanation!
When a non-tracked character enters the battle they roll initiative and get slotted in. So Astarion usually end up at the start. Then my paladin gets out at the back after the alpha strike. That part makes sense to me.
Otherwise, agreed turn based mode should be everywhere. Not just localized to the battle or a little tu n based bubble.
Like, I started my assault on the goblin camp with a fireball and then everyone outside of range piled on. The whole camp should’ve been locked in.
Yeah that makes sense to me too. I was more referring to the fact that when some of my characters join into combat late, a lot of times they’re missing an action even though its their turn. I always just have to pass in those situations.
Agreed. In the Goblin Camp, I’ve even had situations where I would trigger one group, but I can clearly see goblins in another room just walking around casually. Breaks immersion a bit.
The worst part is when only one character goes in and you don’t realize the rest of your party is still free and all the enemies just gank on that one character relentlessly.
That is weird. Haven’t noticed that so it went right over my head. Will watch for it.
I actually cheesed it the other way–my tired and battered party was trying to exit the goblin camp without fighting the main force in the courtyard (at this point, I didn’t know I could fast travel when not near a portal, and wanted to play it out for RP reasons anyway).
So I sent my thief out first, and he disengage/sprinted through the entire camp, drawing all the attention. Once everyone was drawn away, I let combat sit there “paused” while the other three party members waltzed out the front door and off to safety. Then my thief outran everyone.
Personally, I wish Larian would have given the option to lock the entire map into turn-based mode when combat begins anywhere, but I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea (especially with multi-player). Just my preference.