[RPG] How do creatures moving on the same initiative handle the effects of Sleep and Hypnotic Pattern

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Imagine a small group of goblins moving on the same initiative that are hit by hypnotic pattern.

When one goblin that was not affected uses its action (or an attack) to wake its ally that failed the save, can that awoken ally in turn wake another affected ally, effectively ending the spell with a chain of actions in a single turn?

Or, instead, is only one goblin able to be woken up that turn, with the waking goblin having no action to use on the next sleeping ally?

Best Answer

RAW:

The DM decides what order creatures act when the operate on the same initiative. Therefore, the DM could rule that an awaken creature still has it's turn, and can still wake up the next one (spending 1/2 their movement to stand up, and an action to wake them up).

So: Yes, provided all creatures are all within 1/2 their movement of each other, the DM could decide (as the question suggests) that the group could end the spell on each other if even one character isn't affected.

RAF

However, if you are a DM, consider what this looks like to your players if you do this. Your player just spent a resource and their action trying to take opponents out of the fight. You then made a ruling that reduced the effect of that resource to only lasting a single turn. If I was a player and a DM did this, it would make me feel like I was really fighting the DM, rather than the goblins that the DM has put in our way. This is already a problem at a multiplicity of tables, and does not need to be exacerbated.

As a DM, if I were presented with this situation, I would say that each creature wakes up with their action already spent. They could still stand up and move 1/2 of their movement, but they could not awake another creature. This, I believe, is a more balanced approach. It allows the effect of the spell to be more powerful, but does not trivialize the encounter.

However, I suggest that you run your NPCs with no more than 2-3 creatures per initiative order, and at least 2 initiatives for each creature type. This reduces some of the swingyness of combat. You will less often have situations where all members of one side go first, and the other side is killed before they get to act.