Quote Originally Posted by Talakeal View Post
But, the players didn't say "What if the enemy has AOEs?" They didn't discuss tactics or communicate with one another in any way.
That's not really germane to a tactical analysis. Actually, one of the big mistakes I see players make is forgetting that NPCs are around them when they discuss their plans, leading to either an agreement 'okay, we'll hold that this is entirely OOC discussion but IC its just thoughts going through your characters' heads and not actual communication' or a lot of situations collapsing into bad positions. Openly speculating 'Do you think they have AoEs? Is that the bigger threat than their bruisers? Should we get in close formation or scattered formation? Bob, if we attack, why don't you lead with a Stinking Cloud?' during a tense negotiation is likely to lead to the other side initiating violence in the same way that blinding the PCs led to Bob initiating violence.

Even if the party has some kind of private comms, I occasionally have NPCs point out long gaps in the conversation where the players have been talking - IC - for 30+ seconds without saying anything out loud. It's particularly awkward with telepathic NPCs, who legitimately could be following the party's conversation about exactly how to screw them over.

So I'd consider not devolving into a 10 minute discussion of tactics during the 3 seconds of surprise to actually be quite reasonable. I might expect players to do that anyhow (and, for sake of making the game a better experience for the players over making the game realistic, basically let them talk it out even though they don't have the time IC), but I'm not going to be unpleasantly surprised if players are willing to decisively act in the moment during a sudden surprise. If I were playing in a system with more free-form initiative rules, I'd tend towards giving advantage to players who can immediately say what they want to do over players whose first reaction is to discuss what happened.

The real killer was initiating a fight in the dark and then continuing to fight in the dark, neither attempting to light a torch or withdraw to a location with better visibility. Simply casting continual flame on the fighter's sword, a tactic which Bob has used many time in the past, would have been immensely helpful.
I don't disagree with this.

Again, from my perspective, Bob shows weird double think, plunging the party into darkness is a huge threat, but seeking to create another source of light is not a priority.
Nor do I necessarily disagree with this.

But, by now, you should know enough to expect Bob to behave this way. It should have been predictable to you, whether you personally would behave the same way.