Originally Posted by
Coffee_Dragon
No, I understood you then, if I understand you now. You're saying the DM is refusing to represent combat as having started until the initiative count reaches that of the aggressor(s), thereby robbing the non-aggressor(s) of any meaning in winning initiative, right? Which is nonsensical, since turns aren't consecutive chunks of time that together linearly make up the round. Every turn overlaps, and initiative decides who takes effective action first. Refusing those who win initiative to act even when they're not surprised reveals a misconception of the whole combat time abstraction and initiative mechanism.