Pollen_Golem wrote:^I think Siegurt means that monsters just step around them as if they are a simple obstacle.
Orbs move only after you take an action??!!
Yes, both of those are accurate.
Basically the way it works is you take an action, it takes up X aut, that's amount of aut is added to an 'energy' counter for each creature (plus or minus 1 due to energy randomization), then each creature does things until they run out of energy, each monster action takes up an amount of energy, and if they don't have enough energy to take another action then they stop. Orbs of destruction take 3 energy to move 1 square (IIRC) and most "normal speed" monsters take 10 energy to move 1 square. (Note that a monster's leftover energy carries over from prior turns, that's why they occasionally get double moves or miss a move due to energy randomization)
For the purposes of movement and action, orbs of destruction are creatures. Although since they can't be attacked, they pretty much function like simple obstacles when it comes to monster's turns. (You can try this yourself as the player, if you get an orb of destruction cast at you, and it ends up next to you, you can't move into it's square, even if you want to keep moving in that direction, Sometimes this causes me great annoyance in spider when I have to non-optimally step around a OOD while trying to chase down an orb spider, which is annoying, because i know it's going to explode on me even if I step around it, but I can't walk forward into it, because it's not a creature I can attack or a cloud, but it does occupy that square)
Note that the action of casting the spell itself gives them an initial bit of energy, that's why they move at the outset when you cast the spell.