General discussion

I should have summoned a riding horse instead, then we could have shared. Then again most if the PC's don't have mounts. It's a 5-hour march.

There's always Iskandill's cart to ride it.

Thanks for mentioning that. :-) I think I'll take that offer of that's ok.

How many animals are you going to give me to slaughter?! Ok...just kidding...

Katerina is suprised by the wolves but rolled a natural 20 on initiative. Would she be able to draw her swords as a bonus action before the wolves attack her in the surprise round?

No - it just means you act first in round 2. The only time a crit/fumble counts is attack roll , though I sometimes throw in a drawback/bonus for other checks

ARGH the time zone difference has bitten me in the ass. I was going to have Grizel use Divine Sense next to make sure we don't get ambushed but now I see it's too late for that as we're already under attack. Oh well :-P

I don't know much about mounted combat in this edition so I've just consulted the PHB and it turns out you don't get advantage for fighting from horseback unless you have the Mounted Combatant feat. I don't really see Grizel fighting from horseback a lot, maybe just her initial charge into melee (again, no benefits to charging in this edition unless you have the appropriate feat). PHB also says that while mounted, the steed can only Dash, Dodge or Disengege (not Attack). So when Grizel's turn comes up she will dismount and attack the nearest wolf. Does that then free up the warhorse to Attack? Does it have to roll its own initiative or can I just have it act on Grizel's turn to keep things simple?

Only beastmaster pets can be controlled by the player - all others are considered NPCs/followers unless you are mounted

Fair enough. The steed can act independently of course, and a combat-trained warhorse will probably fight without direction from the rider. Find Steed says the steed is a loyal mount and that rider and steed can communicate telepathically. Can a rider conceivably communicate "Help me fight!" to the steed? Not that the steed would be obligated to comply.

Based on spell description you should be able to control your summoned steed on your initiative. I will rule that a normal warhorse will certainly defend itself if attacked, but they have very low intelligence and may still flee if threatened, but with a low DC for morale checks. With a normal horse, you can calm it using an action to give it advantage on this throw. Object interaction for warhorse. (It will attack on DC20, or flee on lower than 10 or 15)

I've paced the intro a bit fast to get the game running, but will prob drop to 2 posts/day

Re warhorse: Cool, down with that :-)

Biscuitfiend - I'm curious about some of the rolls you made, specifically at Sindar & Iskandil's save vs prone checks. You applied a -1 to the d4 roll. While the -1 did not have much of an effect on the results since Sindar's d20 was so low and Iskandar's d20 was so high, I'm still curious...why is there a penalty? Is that something we should be aware of in character?

If some affect gives a negative to saving throws, shouldn't the penalty be to the d20 roll? And if it is applied already, (I can't see either Iskandil or Sindar's character sheets) why would it be applied to the Bless effect also? If it is directly related to the Bless spell, should the penalty be applied to the attack roll bonus as well?

I'm just asking because there hasn't been a stated reason. I accept that you have a reason and I am not upset, just asking the question so I have as much information as I can get.

I tried to post 1d20+1d4-1. It was a strength saving throw hence the -1 for both chars (forgot to check proficiency tho). Turns out the forum roller isn't that advanced! So I added the dice and modifier manually

Makes sense. I just wanted to make sure it wasn't something weird.

Grizel hasn't acted this encounter and so is still mounted. She isn't in the habit of naming her steeds or of keeping them long. Normally she dismisses the steed when the group makes camp and summons a new one in the morning. Ok I just reread the spell text and it says the steed can take the form that the character chooses (such as a warhorse) but is in reality a celestial or fey or fiend. Let's just say celestial. Grizel will telepathically ask its name. Ok he says his name is Alastor.

I think I'm a bit lost as to who's turn it is, Biscuit just posted wolf 5, so are we at the top of round 2 now?

Top of first regular (non-surprise) round, I think.

No, this should be the second round unless we're still waiting on a few more actions from the first round.

Sindar and Grizel did not act yet for the first round.