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A question came up in a new pathfinder 2e game I'm running, where a cleric rolled poorly at the start of combat and ended up at the bottom on the initiative order. When an enemy attacked, he claimed that since he was in a dungeon and knew it to be a dangerous area, he would have had his shield raised before combat started. Intuitively that sounds wrong, and I can think of a few narrative reasons it doesn't make sense, but if possible I like to have concrete evidence to back up my rulings.

Is this argument correct, or should he only get the benefit after his first round where he uses an action to raise his shield?

More generally, what would this mean for things like buffing cantrips (e.g. guidance) or having a weapon drawn?

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Pathfinder 2e has an entire Exploration Activities system for this!

While exploring dangerous places, players should indicate which of these approaches theyโ€™re taking. One of the options is:

Defend

[Exploration]
You move at half your travel speed with your shield raised. If combat breaks out, you gain the benefits of Raising a Shield before your first turn begins.

So the cleric can do this, but it comes at a cost and is something theyโ€™re supposed to indicate ahead of time. And there are other options that might be more useful for a cleric to do, depending on circumstance.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ This is a great answer but I'd consider adding something to address the extra general bit; since characters can definitely walk around a dangerous area with their weapons drawn, but probably can't always have guidance up (because of its one minute 'cooldown' per target). Stances are another specific ask that folks can't have up at the start of combat, because they have specific text detailing that you can't be in a stance outside of an encounter. \$\endgroup\$ Commented 4 hours ago
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    \$\begingroup\$ I'd add that in my experience as a GM, exploration activities are not something your party will think to tell the GM. In the PBD games I play, the common way to deal with this is to have everyone state up-front (in the equivalent of Session 0) what their default exploration activities are. If they want to have done something other than their default, its easier to say they should have told you that. \$\endgroup\$ Commented 1 hour ago

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