It's Thursday morning (1 AM), and I'm gonna post this and try for an update later today ...
Image
Encounter start
Unless I seriouly misread the posts ...
Image:
After first round
Things to note: For me, introducing players to the game at first level is simpler if some details of the game are not strictly adhered to. For example:
For spells, while I do pay attention to casting times, vocal/somatic/materials/focus are optional
If a player doesn't state an action during combat, I still assume that the character has taken a defensive posture with weapon readoed.
Also in combat, there are multiple strike attempts by opponents during a round. The move/die-roll/hit/damage sequence for each character represents a successful (or another unsuccessful) attack during that round. It indicates one successful contact out of many attempts to ger through an opponents defenses.
Mounted archers firing at mounted targets can fire over the heads of melee combatants between them without penalty, since the line of fire is well over the melee combatants head(s). Well, unless it's a critical miss ...
While 3e5 doesn't allow for "caled shots", as such. I still take them as stated and adjust for size of called target, AC (i.e. helm or hauberk in the case of a head shot), or at the very least I will use a DC check.