Surprise question

[dnd2016]

If a party successfully surprises a foe, why does he roll for initiative if he can't move even if he gets the highest roll?

[RickAllison]

If a party successfully surprises a foe, why does he roll for initiative if he can't move even if he gets the highest roll?

It represents getting his crap together faster. He is then ready to use his reaction.

[PeteNutButter]

It also means that even if the assassin managed to get his surprise off he might not get to assassinate his foe, as he still needs to beat them on initiative.

[DivisibleByZero]

Because after his turn he is no longer surprised.
So if he gets surprised, and then he wins initiative, he goes first, can't act, is no longer surprised, and then the next person acts.

[Zanthy1]

If my players even surprise a foe (or are surprised), I give the surprising party one round of action before rolling initiative. Obviously there are some circumstances where this varies, such as if the whole party is far away and one member surprises an enemy, but otherwise its pretty straight forward the way i do it. I have been thinking about having everyone roll initiative first, but just having the surprised thing not able to use an action, but still get a possible reaction, but ultimately I've decided to just stick with what I've been doing.

[Dalebert]

If my players even surprise a foe (or are surprised), I give the surprising party one round of action before rolling initiative. Obviously there are some circumstances where this varies, such as if the whole party is far away and one member surprises an enemy, but otherwise its pretty straight forward the way i do it. I have been thinking about having everyone roll initiative first, but just having the surprised thing not able to use an action, but still get a possible reaction, but ultimately I've decided to just stick with what I've been doing.

It's awesome for your players when they have surprise and sucks for them when they don't. I'm sure the assassin likes it. Surprise is already pretty powerful. I don't really think it needs any more buffing.

[dnd2016]

So any who are surprised cant take an action, reaction and attackers can move in and out of his square without an attack of opportunity?

[RickAllison]

So any who are surprised cant take an action, reaction and attackers can move in and out of his square without an attack of opportunity?

If they beat him in initiative, yes. They lose the action and movement on the first turn, but they do gain their use of reaction. So if you want to dance in without the risk of opportunity attacks, it would be wise to have high Dex, advantage on Dexterity checks, Alert, or any other way to improve your odds of having a higher initiative.

[Dalebert]

I believe his question was directed at Zanthy1 and her home-brewed version of surprise.

[Zanthy1]

So any who are surprised cant take an action, reaction and attackers can move in and out of his square without an attack of opportunity?

Essentially yeah. Why would a goblin get an attack of opportunity if he was quick hit in the back from an unknown aggressor? I play it like, the first surprise action is totally undetectable by said goblin, and the rest of the surprise round still happens, but by then the goblin would be able to do something, such as a reaction.

[Dalebert]

I had a DM who thought surprise was way overpowered as it is. He would only ever let one person get an attack off before combat began with everyone getting actions. It was very frustrating for me when I would cast Pass without Trace, the primary purpose of which is to get a surprise round. He would 4shur hate your version. :)