I cant help the feeling that starting a combat could use rework as whole ...
Seems weird that when you engage your combat with single character (for example failed sneaking) ... and then rest of your group reach the battle, they have to skip their first turn no matter what intiative they have. O_o
I mean what is reasoning there? They certainly cant be surprised, unless i once again understand the rule wrong.
Simple: characters who weren't present when combat started should take time to actually reach the combat, represented by them missing the first turn of combat. Realistically they should be entered into combat regardless of their location, but this could result in them having to spend many (possibly 5-10 or more) turns just dashing toward the combat. Allowing them to enter combat with only a 1-turn penalty is a compromise.
Alternatively, Larian could expand the combat-pausing radius so that these characters can still act on the first turn they enter combat, but are so far away that they have to spend a turn dashing to be within fighting range. Though this would nerf melee characters compared to ranged ones, since melee characters would always have to spend more turns dashing to be able to hit something...
