If a feather falls in front of your face while you are doing jujitsu you might flinch even while throwing your opponent and fully encumbered by their weight. However, during an attack move your mind will be completely blank and if police sirens are going off, or shouts from blowhorns reach you, you can't understand the meaning of the noise until the beginning of the next action phase. ^/s

Eventually, our 3rd edition group just migrated away from all the rules, unless there was a dispute that needed settling. It's a better game when it's about pure story telling, and rule of cool. It's a boring piece of shit I'd never ever play again sitting around a table with little miniatures and some seamstress tape measures while micromanaging the actions, ranges, and all other sorts of crap.

"Roll for initiative." How about, no. You flip a coin and I'll call it to see if the enemy attacks first. We all agreed I'm going first in this party, so the same series of absolutely lethal actions we always do will work. I'll get the spell going and try to time it so it hits as the fighter gets into the fray. The archer is going last, trying to time it so their arrow hits about when the slow fighter is grappling with the dork we're about to annihilate... [raise eyebrow] You can complicate our actions by throwing in enemies at any time or override that coin toss if you like, but if it's going to be a forced initiative thing, then we're going to be rolling initiative for individual footfalls and breathing motions later, dork.