Hi guys,
My group of 4 friends and I just started playing D&D with zero past experience. Our first session went really well, but our second a couple of nights ago came to a a standstill with a bit of an argument as to how encounters and iniative order works for non-combat actions. I'm praying someone can give a definitive response. The details are below.
4 players encounter 5 bandits on a road. The bandit leader demands surrender and the players response is to attack. Initiative is rolled, with the NPCs going first and the players following behind.
Several rounds of combat later, its looking very bad for the players (due to a series of terrible rolls). The last player in initiative order spends his turn yelling out "Are you prepared to accept our surrender?". The bandit leader says "throw down your weapons, but any other action will be met with your death". The last player in initiative order throws down his weapons.
Here's where it got messy...does the decision by the other 3 players to surrender or not happen within the initiative order of the encounter or not?
- If the decision DOESN'T occur within initiative order, and the 3 remaining players refuse surrender, the NPCs go next and try to wipe them out.
- If it DOES follow iniative order, the bandit leader has just had his turn responding(?) and the rest of the bandits would spend their turn waiting to see the response from the surrender demand (and obviously would ready a reaction), but the players would then take their turns in normal order and either surrender or attack again.
What is the correct way to resolve this? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
The correct way would be to decide if the other bandits really believe the PCs are going to surrender. All of the combatants at the beginning of the initiative order either holds their action (take the Dodge action, or whatever) or move in amongst the PCs to see if they will attack. If none of the PCs attack, are the bandits really going to accept their surrender, or just kill them once they are all in position to get easy hits in?
Also of concern: the PC who threw down his weapons might be the only one who is willing to surrender, so the other PCs might continue to be hostile.
There are a few 'if's and 'or's here.
So, best course of action: as the DM, ask if the party, as a whole, is surrendering. If so, then end combat with the PCs all dropping their weapons and being taken captive.
Thanks very much for the response 
The key issue was exactly what you mentioned - the other two PCs didn't know if they were going to surrender, and part of that decision was based on whether the encounter pauses to let the party decide as a whole (and if they decided not to surrender, the DM could continue attacking). The problem is, it didn't feel realistic: the DM asks the players to make a decision, and then uses that OOC information to decide what the NPCs were going to do next (before the PCs had their turn due to initiative order), but how did the NPCs know that?
You can ready an action. The Bandits would likely ready an attack action with the trigger being that the other players attack them. Or the bandits would take a dodge action, or simply pass their turn (maybe positioning themselves in a defensive manner around their leader.
The possibilities are only limited by your imagination. Think like the bandits. Their leader and one fo the player's party members worked out a tentative deal, What would they do if they overheard that exchange? would they attack regardless, prepare to attack if the stipulations aren't met? You decide. Think like a bandit that has heard what went down and play that out.
Its also fine to let the players talk for a minute about what they all want to do, and then resume the encounter if appropriate.
I would just stop everything for a second and ask the party, "Do you guys surrender?" If they do then we are shifting out of "combat time" and into a narrative or social encounter. If someone isn't going to give up then I'd assume that all of the bandits used Ready as their action, with attacking triggered by any PC that doesn't throw down their weapon.
There is no 'correct way'' to handle this. The only thing I would say is to not let the rules get in your way too much.
Don't forget about being able to Ready and action, and using Insight.
I agree with the others who are saying that the bandits would all Ready their actions, to be triggered on any PC attacking any bandit; in this case, the bandits would still attack first (interrupting the PC's attack), including the bandit leader (since talking isn't considered an action).
Awesome, thanks very much for the replies guys. Much appreciated.