General Chat

I might be confusing Ad&d 1st ed with OSRIC rules but I’m not sure I understand how actions are going to transpire here. Am I to understand that all actions of all characters are going to start and finish within segment 4, whereas the sleep spell being cast will only take effect in segment 5?

In my recollection of how initiative ties work in ad&d, all actions were initiated simultaneously, but did not all finish at the same time: in melee your dexterous rogue wielding his dagger (speed factor 2) would act before the hulking warrior swinging his two handed-sword (speed factor 10), even though blows on both side would land even if said rogue’s attack had slain the warrior.

More importantly in the present case, if a spell-caster could take out a number of foes with a spell, you had to consider whether the melee attackers could get to the spell-caster and attack him before the spell went off. But movement, and swinging weapons consumed time too. For instance, my chainmail clad character with a 9" base movement could move at most 9feet per segment (18 ft if charging), so that the distance separating the melee types from the spell-casters and archers bought the latter some time to act…

Whatever you rule is fine with me Burbage, but I’d like to understand the underlying reasoning so I can plan my actions accordingly in the future, assuming there will be one for Ella… :-P

I stated above that I was closing into combat. I will target Roskelly. You are the DM, so you decide EVERYTHING, but the OSRIC rules (2.2) do say say on pg. 127 that "When faced with more than one opponent, it is not possible to pick which opponent will be the one receiving the attack; in the rapid give and take of melee, any one of the opponents might be the one to let down his guard for a moment.

When a character is in melee with multiple opponents, the target of an attack roll must be determined randomly, but note that characters or creatures with multiple attacks that are part of the same routine (such as a bear with a claw/claw/bite attack or a character wielding a sword and dagger) must make all attacks against the same opponent unless otherwise specified in the relevant monster’s entry."

Also subject completely to your discretion, Zach has bastard sword double specialization, which means he gets multiple attacks, now 3/2 (unless he is fighting creatures of < 1 HD, in which case he gets one attack per fighter level or 2/1) so every odd round he attacks twice, which, according to the rules on p. 14, means he attacks BEFORE everyone and AFTER everyone on odd rounds and in his initiative slot on even round.