I have a question about how you all would rule in a situation that I have encountered the past couple of sessions. For some of my encounters, the party has been in the position of being able to ambush the monsters. This ultimately triggers the surprised condition for the monsters. However, the trouble comes because the party will plan to cast a spell like "entangle" in order to get the jump on the monsters, but the caster will roll low on the initiative order, thus ruining their plan. I have so far allowed the spell caster to act first, but their turn during the first round of initiative gets skipped over. Overall I am not completely happy with this ruling as it can make the encounter a little too easy for the players, but it allows the party's plans to be enacted without feeling screwed by a dice roll.
Here is a summary of the Actions leading up to the ruling:
- Party finds and decides to ambush group of monsters
- Party decides that caster will use spell like Entangle in order to get the jump on creatures
- Caster uses Entangle to initiate combat
- Monsters have surprised condition applied
- Party rolls for initiative and caster rolls lower than majority of other group members
- DM rules that Caster can move first , but goes back into proper initiative during second round of combat
Any advice you all can send my way is greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!
I think that's the best way to handle it. I wouldn't let players decide this after combat is started, but if they clearly convey that this is their plan it makes sense to treat it that way. Plus it's better than giving the caster essentially a free action at the start of combat by letting them still take a turn, or force everyone to use some combination of Held Actions to actually do what they intend to do.
This is one of the rules where an older variation was much more favored by some. It was an actual Surprise Round and it ran pretty much as you described your own handling of a surprise scenario. Almost every ambush we've played out hinged on one character being chosen to start off the attack for some tactical advantage and the rest of the group holding an action as TransmorpherDDS has said earlier.
Every time you give out something nice, if you want to be fair, everyone else has to get something nice as well. The ability to ignore the rules isn't something to hand out lightly. It was absolutely intended that ambushes would be largely a matter of luck and that nothing could be done about it. This proves to be a benefit to the players. The bad guys have just as much problem getting an ambush to work.
So what do you plan to give out to the non-casters?
Thanks all, seems like it may be alright as I have been running it. And as TransmorpherDDS surmised, these calls have been after the party has declared the intent to use a spell to start the combat.
Geann, to answer your concern, I think what my ruling is "giving" at that point to the non-casters is that they are able to take advantage of whatever tactical advantage the caster created through their spell. I am not saying it is the right ruling by any means, hence why I am asking to see how other DMs rule in this situation. Obviously, as DM/GMs, we walk the fine line of creating meaningful combat, being fair, and making sure the party feels like they have meaningful choice. My gut feeling was that something was amiss in my ruling and I just am reaching out to see if that is the case.
You've given them the ability to enjoy being dependent on the caster going first in an ambush? Wow. A bet an Assassin is going to love having to wait until a caster sets things up, so that they can never use their signature ability. I'm glad I play a Fighter.
Geann, I guess I am a little confused as it seems like you are coming at this with a lot of hostility and I really am just asking for help/advice from other DMs. The party is the one who is coming up with the plan and they are the ones deciding to have the caster use the spell to start things off- certainly isn't me. I was just reacting to what the party did and made a ruling on the fly, after which, I came here to ask about what others would do if they were in my shoes because I wasn't feeling great about the ruling. If you have some advice (and maybe it is just make everything random) I would greatly appreciate it!
how did the party spot the foes and get a chance to ambush/surprise? did you give the foes an equal chance to surprise ? this is what was nie in older version there were real rules for surprise and a surprise round before initiative started. What your doing seems reasonable if you've given the foes an equal chance and they lost the opportunity to surprise - or to spot the surprise as they approached the ambush. a good perception check for the lead foe or two is always a good way to kill an ambush before it hits.
Admittedly, I am hostile to the idea. I haven't been at all hostile to you. My advice is that you shouldn't give an advantage to casters and not to non-casters. Admittedly, all classes have a caster variant, but some of us out there don't want to play them. The top choice in the Fighter forum is the Battle Master. Would your rule give them any benefit? Enjoying letting the caster go first every time seems difficult to me.
I said I was glad I play a Fighter. I play a Battle Master. I won't enjoyhaving the casters always going first, but at least it doesn't stop me from using my Maneuvers. Well, that is, if any of the enemies reach me. When the casters get to go first, that means the Wizard can finally use area of effect spells without risk of hitting the other members of the party.
Perhaps I might suggest this. Allow one caster in the party this ability, and only once per combat.
Apologies if I misread your intent, tough to do over the forums where I am admittedly not very active. I have no problem if the fighter wants to take the lead.
The situation was that the group had decided that they would like their first move to be the caster using this particular spell (in this case, Entangle) in order to get the jump on the enemies and surprise them. After which, everyone rolled initiative, and the fighter, the bard, and ranger actually rolled really well, and the caster rolled poorly, in this case a 1. Given that the party had said that they wanted the caster to cast entangle to help them get the tactical advantage, I ruled that in this case, the caster was allowed to go first, but would not be able to act at the bottom of initiative in the first round, and would then reprise his low initiative at the second round- basically, he was able to act first as part of the party's plan but then had to wait two rounds of combat to have his turn again.
The fighter, ranger, and bard all got to act according to their initiatives.
If the party did not get the surprise, we would have rolled initiative as normal and the caster would have been acting last behind the all the other party members and very well could have had to deal with casting Entangle with his allies in the spell.
Wi1dBi11, we are currently playing through Tyranny of Dragons and are in Greenest during the raid. They encountered these particular enemies during the middle of the raid and in my estimation, earned the surprise condition from the enemies without a roll needed based on the situation. It is quite possible, that I was being too lenient with the party, and I sometimes think that I am. But yes, a perception check/passive perception check vs their ambush quite possibly could have put the squash on it.
Ultimately, based on the replies, I think I am feeling better with how I ruled given the situation. To Geann's concern about non casters, that is something I will keep in the back of my mind if and when this situation comes up again. All in all, thank you all for the replies and advice!
…the caster will roll low on the initiative order, thus ruining their plan.
Remind the players that initiative is an ability check. Things like guidance and enhance ability and bardic inspiration exist.
Get the other players to use Ready to go after the spell goes off.
Finally, remind them that things are random. Sometimes their plan works and they get the drop on their foes, sometimes they don't. Make sure to stress that this works the other way as well. After all, as players, how happy would they be if the GM ran an encounter where the foes got the drop on the PCs and defeated them all without the players getting a chance to roll any dice?
Admittedly, I am hostile to the idea. I haven't been at all hostile to you. My advice is that you shouldn't give an advantage to casters and not to non-casters. Admittedly, all classes have a caster variant, but some of us out there don't want to play them. The top choice in the Fighter forum is the Battle Master. Would your rule give them any benefit? Enjoying letting the caster go first every time seems difficult to me.
I said I was glad I play a Fighter. I play a Battle Master. I won't enjoyhaving the casters always going first, but at least it doesn't stop me from using my Maneuvers. Well, that is, if any of the enemies reach me. When the casters get to go first, that means the Wizard can finally use area of effect spells without risk of hitting the other members of the party.
Perhaps I might suggest this. Allow one caster in the party this ability, and only once per combat.
You seem to be arguing a different point than the discussion is actually reaching for. The point was that the entire party came up with a plan built around the idea of one specific player using a specific ability to start off combat, but the more specific rules of dnd surprise round don't allow everyone to hold off their full turns until the designated first attacker uses their unique skill. The situation described here is for a magic using first attacker, but the idea isn't to give all magic users an improved surprise round... It's just a question if it's reasonable to let players enact a plan that, on some level, defies the written rules of how combat is meant to run.
…the caster will roll low on the initiative order, thus ruining their plan.
Remind the players that initiative is an ability check. Things like guidance and enhance ability and bardic inspiration exist.
Get the other players to use Ready to go after the spell goes off.
Finally, remind them that things are random. Sometimes their plan works and they get the drop on their foes, sometimes they don't. Make sure to stress that this works the other way as well. After all, as players, how happy would they be if the GM ran an encounter where the foes got the drop on the PCs and defeated them all without the players getting a chance to roll any dice?
Yeah, I’d run it this way - if the caster is slow on the mark with the ambush then the other PCs only get a brief second to use Ready actions instead of full actions. Otherwise, it goes exactly as they planned.
This adherence to the rules as written also encourages spellcasters to diversify and improve their initiative as needed, which I do like to see.
My concern is always the monsters in my campaigns - they abide by the same combat rules as the PCs, and I’d hate to see what a monster ambush could do with these types of rules.
I like to think about the rules as an engine that makes games run. They are complicated, difficult to manage, and when you tinker with a running engine you are liable to break something. The initial post suggested intentionally breaking a large part of the combat engine.
I have tried to be helpful. I pointed out that if you want to be fair, if you give something out to one, you must give everyone else something similar. When I asked what non-casters got, I got told they would get the satisfaction of seeing their tactics put to use, and that's fine I suppose, but what if I wanted my own chance to do something special? The ability to enjoy looking at someone else who has gotten a gift gets old pretty quickly unless you get a gift too.
The most extreme example is the Assassin subclass of Rogue. They have a very hard time getting their signature ability to automatically crit on a sneak attack to work, as it depends on them winning the Initiative. What do they get? I play a Battle Master. What do I get?
My final suggestion, and you quoted it, is to allow a single caster the ability once per combat. I didn't specify any mechanics, as this isn't the forum that that. Honestly, I think this is powerful enough to be a Feat, with a duration of one minute and one that only recharges after a Short Rest. Obviously there must be a non-caster variant, so maybe the poor Assassin could take a Feat and finally be assured of getting to Assassinate someone once per combat. I'm not sure that Feat would help my Battle Master much, so I'd want something else.
You are still arguing against a point that No One is making. The point isn't to give One Spellcaster a unique ability to jump ahead in initiative. The Point is, if a group of people are preparing a sneak attack, can they choose to allow a specific character to take the first turn in the round. This is NOT specific to spellcasters. The specific situation that cardinal mentioned is an individual situation where the "trigger" for the sneak attack is intended to be a spellcaster, but the exact same scenario could potentially be "We wait until the Assassin attacks" or "We wait for the Barbarian to push over this boulder". So please keep that in mind... this isn't a discussion about whether or not spellcasters should be given special rules in Initiative, it's question on how to handle a Surprise round if the players have a specific plan that doesn't totally work with how initiative is normally intended to work.
Okay? Are we good? You are making good points, but you are inventing an argument that nobody is making and then disproving it.
This isn't the rule section, this is for DM input. You can just straight up decide you want to let the party ambush the enemy. Maybe it's even part of the plot. As was mentioned by others we usually play whatever the players can do the enemy can do.
As far as arguing about who gets what out of the ambush scenario, if the party has already agreed on what they're going to do as a group, why be concerned?
If there were different class mechanics involved it sounds like the OP would allow for some discussion for a consensus to be reached for a different plan of action.
If the enemy are truly unprepared and unaware of the party in a peaceful situation, then there's nothing wrong with allowing the caster to cast a silenced Entangle to start the fight.
If the caster has to use verbals or wave arms around to cast the spell, then this is a reason to use initiative. Perhaps the enemy aren't so slow when they hear a spell being cast and decide to rush the group - so initiative determines whether the caster can really get his spell off before the enemy are through the choke point.
In various combats where a PC has initiated a combat, I've described how the PC (or NPC) has gone for their weapon and is starting to move forward aggressively, but then initiative is rolled to see who reacts quickly to this situation.
During the 1st round of combat, surprised creatures can't act until after their turn. Other creatures act normally. It's important not to skip initiative because even surprised creatures can act during the first round. So how i would handle it is to have all creatures roll initiative and go in order. Non-surprised creatures that their turn comes up can take any actions, including Ready an action when Entangle erput. When the spellcaster's turns comes up, he can cast Entangle and other PCs that Readied can react to it. So are any creatures that was previously surprised who's turn have come up already. Afterall, an enemy could react to Entangle with some reactions ability, Counterspell etc. Even an hidden ambusher firing an arrow at unsuspecting PCs can have a possibility of reaction to it, rarely so interrupting even the attack! Playing outside initiative remove such possibilities.
Only if i really wanted no one to possibly react to an action or event would i ever make it resolve before initiative. But it'd take extraordinary circumstances. Initiative and Ready an Action exist especially for that, and likewise Delay doesn't anymore for many reasons.
When i wish someone to possbly act first in initiative because of "triggering event", i make it so or may give it advantage to initiative to make sure it lands at the top, when i don't want randomness to determinte initiative outcome.
This is exactly how I run this myself, as an example last session party arrived at the doorway to a room, all stealth checks had been high, the occupants had no idea they where there so I allowed the party to decide the order they did things in, who went through the door first etc. we then played out the first round in that order. Then I had them all roll initiative, in that case the bad guys rolled really high but that worked, they had been surprised but then reacted really quickly to the situation.
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Hi all,
I have a question about how you all would rule in a situation that I have encountered the past couple of sessions. For some of my encounters, the party has been in the position of being able to ambush the monsters. This ultimately triggers the surprised condition for the monsters. However, the trouble comes because the party will plan to cast a spell like "entangle" in order to get the jump on the monsters, but the caster will roll low on the initiative order, thus ruining their plan. I have so far allowed the spell caster to act first, but their turn during the first round of initiative gets skipped over. Overall I am not completely happy with this ruling as it can make the encounter a little too easy for the players, but it allows the party's plans to be enacted without feeling screwed by a dice roll.
Here is a summary of the Actions leading up to the ruling:
- Party finds and decides to ambush group of monsters
- Party decides that caster will use spell like Entangle in order to get the jump on creatures
- Caster uses Entangle to initiate combat
- Monsters have surprised condition applied
- Party rolls for initiative and caster rolls lower than majority of other group members
- DM rules that Caster can move first , but goes back into proper initiative during second round of combat
Any advice you all can send my way is greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!
I think that's the best way to handle it. I wouldn't let players decide this after combat is started, but if they clearly convey that this is their plan it makes sense to treat it that way. Plus it's better than giving the caster essentially a free action at the start of combat by letting them still take a turn, or force everyone to use some combination of Held Actions to actually do what they intend to do.
Watch Crits for Breakfast, an adults-only RP-Heavy Roll20 Livestream at twitch.tv/afterdisbooty
And now you too can play with the amazing art and assets we use in Roll20 for our campaign at Hazel's Emporium
This is one of the rules where an older variation was much more favored by some. It was an actual Surprise Round and it ran pretty much as you described your own handling of a surprise scenario. Almost every ambush we've played out hinged on one character being chosen to start off the attack for some tactical advantage and the rest of the group holding an action as TransmorpherDDS has said earlier.
Every time you give out something nice, if you want to be fair, everyone else has to get something nice as well. The ability to ignore the rules isn't something to hand out lightly. It was absolutely intended that ambushes would be largely a matter of luck and that nothing could be done about it. This proves to be a benefit to the players. The bad guys have just as much problem getting an ambush to work.
So what do you plan to give out to the non-casters?
<Insert clever signature here>
Thanks all, seems like it may be alright as I have been running it. And as TransmorpherDDS surmised, these calls have been after the party has declared the intent to use a spell to start the combat.
Geann, to answer your concern, I think what my ruling is "giving" at that point to the non-casters is that they are able to take advantage of whatever tactical advantage the caster created through their spell. I am not saying it is the right ruling by any means, hence why I am asking to see how other DMs rule in this situation. Obviously, as DM/GMs, we walk the fine line of creating meaningful combat, being fair, and making sure the party feels like they have meaningful choice. My gut feeling was that something was amiss in my ruling and I just am reaching out to see if that is the case.
Again, thanks in advance to any replies!
You've given them the ability to enjoy being dependent on the caster going first in an ambush? Wow. A bet an Assassin is going to love having to wait until a caster sets things up, so that they can never use their signature ability. I'm glad I play a Fighter.
<Insert clever signature here>
Geann, I guess I am a little confused as it seems like you are coming at this with a lot of hostility and I really am just asking for help/advice from other DMs. The party is the one who is coming up with the plan and they are the ones deciding to have the caster use the spell to start things off- certainly isn't me. I was just reacting to what the party did and made a ruling on the fly, after which, I came here to ask about what others would do if they were in my shoes because I wasn't feeling great about the ruling. If you have some advice (and maybe it is just make everything random) I would greatly appreciate it!
how did the party spot the foes and get a chance to ambush/surprise? did you give the foes an equal chance to surprise ? this is what was nie in older version there were real rules for surprise and a surprise round before initiative started. What your doing seems reasonable if you've given the foes an equal chance and they lost the opportunity to surprise - or to spot the surprise as they approached the ambush. a good perception check for the lead foe or two is always a good way to kill an ambush before it hits.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
Admittedly, I am hostile to the idea. I haven't been at all hostile to you. My advice is that you shouldn't give an advantage to casters and not to non-casters. Admittedly, all classes have a caster variant, but some of us out there don't want to play them. The top choice in the Fighter forum is the Battle Master. Would your rule give them any benefit? Enjoying letting the caster go first every time seems difficult to me.
I said I was glad I play a Fighter. I play a Battle Master. I won't enjoy having the casters always going first, but at least it doesn't stop me from using my Maneuvers. Well, that is, if any of the enemies reach me. When the casters get to go first, that means the Wizard can finally use area of effect spells without risk of hitting the other members of the party.
Perhaps I might suggest this. Allow one caster in the party this ability, and only once per combat.
<Insert clever signature here>
Apologies if I misread your intent, tough to do over the forums where I am admittedly not very active. I have no problem if the fighter wants to take the lead.
The situation was that the group had decided that they would like their first move to be the caster using this particular spell (in this case, Entangle) in order to get the jump on the enemies and surprise them. After which, everyone rolled initiative, and the fighter, the bard, and ranger actually rolled really well, and the caster rolled poorly, in this case a 1. Given that the party had said that they wanted the caster to cast entangle to help them get the tactical advantage, I ruled that in this case, the caster was allowed to go first, but would not be able to act at the bottom of initiative in the first round, and would then reprise his low initiative at the second round- basically, he was able to act first as part of the party's plan but then had to wait two rounds of combat to have his turn again.
The fighter, ranger, and bard all got to act according to their initiatives.
If the party did not get the surprise, we would have rolled initiative as normal and the caster would have been acting last behind the all the other party members and very well could have had to deal with casting Entangle with his allies in the spell.
Wi1dBi11, we are currently playing through Tyranny of Dragons and are in Greenest during the raid. They encountered these particular enemies during the middle of the raid and in my estimation, earned the surprise condition from the enemies without a roll needed based on the situation. It is quite possible, that I was being too lenient with the party, and I sometimes think that I am. But yes, a perception check/passive perception check vs their ambush quite possibly could have put the squash on it.
Ultimately, based on the replies, I think I am feeling better with how I ruled given the situation. To Geann's concern about non casters, that is something I will keep in the back of my mind if and when this situation comes up again. All in all, thank you all for the replies and advice!
Remind the players that initiative is an ability check. Things like guidance and enhance ability and bardic inspiration exist.
Get the other players to use Ready to go after the spell goes off.
Finally, remind them that things are random. Sometimes their plan works and they get the drop on their foes, sometimes they don't. Make sure to stress that this works the other way as well. After all, as players, how happy would they be if the GM ran an encounter where the foes got the drop on the PCs and defeated them all without the players getting a chance to roll any dice?
You seem to be arguing a different point than the discussion is actually reaching for. The point was that the entire party came up with a plan built around the idea of one specific player using a specific ability to start off combat, but the more specific rules of dnd surprise round don't allow everyone to hold off their full turns until the designated first attacker uses their unique skill. The situation described here is for a magic using first attacker, but the idea isn't to give all magic users an improved surprise round... It's just a question if it's reasonable to let players enact a plan that, on some level, defies the written rules of how combat is meant to run.
Watch Crits for Breakfast, an adults-only RP-Heavy Roll20 Livestream at twitch.tv/afterdisbooty
And now you too can play with the amazing art and assets we use in Roll20 for our campaign at Hazel's Emporium
Yeah, I’d run it this way - if the caster is slow on the mark with the ambush then the other PCs only get a brief second to use Ready actions instead of full actions. Otherwise, it goes exactly as they planned.
This adherence to the rules as written also encourages spellcasters to diversify and improve their initiative as needed, which I do like to see.
My concern is always the monsters in my campaigns - they abide by the same combat rules as the PCs, and I’d hate to see what a monster ambush could do with these types of rules.
I like to think about the rules as an engine that makes games run. They are complicated, difficult to manage, and when you tinker with a running engine you are liable to break something. The initial post suggested intentionally breaking a large part of the combat engine.
I have tried to be helpful. I pointed out that if you want to be fair, if you give something out to one, you must give everyone else something similar. When I asked what non-casters got, I got told they would get the satisfaction of seeing their tactics put to use, and that's fine I suppose, but what if I wanted my own chance to do something special? The ability to enjoy looking at someone else who has gotten a gift gets old pretty quickly unless you get a gift too.
The most extreme example is the Assassin subclass of Rogue. They have a very hard time getting their signature ability to automatically crit on a sneak attack to work, as it depends on them winning the Initiative. What do they get? I play a Battle Master. What do I get?
My final suggestion, and you quoted it, is to allow a single caster the ability once per combat. I didn't specify any mechanics, as this isn't the forum that that. Honestly, I think this is powerful enough to be a Feat, with a duration of one minute and one that only recharges after a Short Rest. Obviously there must be a non-caster variant, so maybe the poor Assassin could take a Feat and finally be assured of getting to Assassinate someone once per combat. I'm not sure that Feat would help my Battle Master much, so I'd want something else.
<Insert clever signature here>
You are still arguing against a point that No One is making. The point isn't to give One Spellcaster a unique ability to jump ahead in initiative. The Point is, if a group of people are preparing a sneak attack, can they choose to allow a specific character to take the first turn in the round. This is NOT specific to spellcasters. The specific situation that cardinal mentioned is an individual situation where the "trigger" for the sneak attack is intended to be a spellcaster, but the exact same scenario could potentially be "We wait until the Assassin attacks" or "We wait for the Barbarian to push over this boulder". So please keep that in mind... this isn't a discussion about whether or not spellcasters should be given special rules in Initiative, it's question on how to handle a Surprise round if the players have a specific plan that doesn't totally work with how initiative is normally intended to work.
Okay? Are we good? You are making good points, but you are inventing an argument that nobody is making and then disproving it.
Watch Crits for Breakfast, an adults-only RP-Heavy Roll20 Livestream at twitch.tv/afterdisbooty
And now you too can play with the amazing art and assets we use in Roll20 for our campaign at Hazel's Emporium
This isn't the rule section, this is for DM input. You can just straight up decide you want to let the party ambush the enemy. Maybe it's even part of the plot. As was mentioned by others we usually play whatever the players can do the enemy can do.
As far as arguing about who gets what out of the ambush scenario, if the party has already agreed on what they're going to do as a group, why be concerned?
If there were different class mechanics involved it sounds like the OP would allow for some discussion for a consensus to be reached for a different plan of action.
To the OP, you are doing fine, keep at it.
If the enemy are truly unprepared and unaware of the party in a peaceful situation, then there's nothing wrong with allowing the caster to cast a silenced Entangle to start the fight.
If the caster has to use verbals or wave arms around to cast the spell, then this is a reason to use initiative. Perhaps the enemy aren't so slow when they hear a spell being cast and decide to rush the group - so initiative determines whether the caster can really get his spell off before the enemy are through the choke point.
In various combats where a PC has initiated a combat, I've described how the PC (or NPC) has gone for their weapon and is starting to move forward aggressively, but then initiative is rolled to see who reacts quickly to this situation.
During the 1st round of combat, surprised creatures can't act until after their turn. Other creatures act normally. It's important not to skip initiative because even surprised creatures can act during the first round. So how i would handle it is to have all creatures roll initiative and go in order. Non-surprised creatures that their turn comes up can take any actions, including Ready an action when Entangle erput. When the spellcaster's turns comes up, he can cast Entangle and other PCs that Readied can react to it. So are any creatures that was previously surprised who's turn have come up already. Afterall, an enemy could react to Entangle with some reactions ability, Counterspell etc. Even an hidden ambusher firing an arrow at unsuspecting PCs can have a possibility of reaction to it, rarely so interrupting even the attack! Playing outside initiative remove such possibilities.
Only if i really wanted no one to possibly react to an action or event would i ever make it resolve before initiative. But it'd take extraordinary circumstances. Initiative and Ready an Action exist especially for that, and likewise Delay doesn't anymore for many reasons.
When i wish someone to possbly act first in initiative because of "triggering event", i make it so or may give it advantage to initiative to make sure it lands at the top, when i don't want randomness to determinte initiative outcome.
This is exactly how I run this myself, as an example last session party arrived at the doorway to a room, all stealth checks had been high, the occupants had no idea they where there so I allowed the party to decide the order they did things in, who went through the door first etc. we then played out the first round in that order. Then I had them all roll initiative, in that case the bad guys rolled really high but that worked, they had been surprised but then reacted really quickly to the situation.