I need clarification on the surprise condition. Can an entire party be surprised at the start of combat, and therefore all lose their first turn? I am planning on making an encounter for my party in which they come upon 3 large urns in a dungeon that have lids on them. Inside each urn are jewels and one spectre. The urns are not trapped in any other way, and as far as I can tell, if no one in the party casts Detect Good or Evil or uses Eyes of the Grave, then the party should not be aware the spectres are in the urns. So when a party member opens a lid and a spectre jumps out, can I declare the entire party surprised?
As written, the rules are that you roll the specter's Stealth (+2) against each party member's Perception. If the party is not being careful and suspicious when opening the urn, then I'd have them roll with disadvantage. Some might not be surprised, but I bet a lot will be.
As Harbinger pointed out the spectre rolls stealth against each PC's passive perception (1 roll). Only the ones it beats will be surprised.
It gets worse when there are multiple creatures trying get surprise (like say a party). Each creature doing the sneaking needs to roll stealth, compare those rolls to all passive perceptions, and only if the perception is lower than the lowest stealth check is that creature surprised.
This means in order for an assassin to use it's level 3 assassinate feature to auto crit for 1 turn, the whole party needs to beat usually around a 13 in stealth. Even the PCs in heavy armor with low DEX and no proficiency. Then the assassin needs to have higher initiative than any surprised creatures. And in order to even try the party needs to see the enemies without being seen.
In terms of surprising the whole party, yes it is absolutely within the rules and your power as DM to have the whole party surprised. That being said, applying the surprised 'condition' without any way to avoid it doesn't really add much fun for the players.
I would consider foreshadowing the link between these urns and spectres. Or add an ability check to avoid surprise. Religion maybe? "At the last moment you recognise the symbols in the urn as linked to such-and-such a curse", etc.
Surprise is a punishment, so it should be avoidable. Players should feel they deserve it somehow.
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I need clarification on the surprise condition. Can an entire party be surprised at the start of combat, and therefore all lose their first turn? I am planning on making an encounter for my party in which they come upon 3 large urns in a dungeon that have lids on them. Inside each urn are jewels and one spectre. The urns are not trapped in any other way, and as far as I can tell, if no one in the party casts Detect Good or Evil or uses Eyes of the Grave, then the party should not be aware the spectres are in the urns. So when a party member opens a lid and a spectre jumps out, can I declare the entire party surprised?
As written, the rules are that you roll the specter's Stealth (+2) against each party member's Perception. If the party is not being careful and suspicious when opening the urn, then I'd have them roll with disadvantage. Some might not be surprised, but I bet a lot will be.
Surprise is written kind of poorly.
As Harbinger pointed out the spectre rolls stealth against each PC's passive perception (1 roll). Only the ones it beats will be surprised.
It gets worse when there are multiple creatures trying get surprise (like say a party). Each creature doing the sneaking needs to roll stealth, compare those rolls to all passive perceptions, and only if the perception is lower than the lowest stealth check is that creature surprised.
This means in order for an assassin to use it's level 3 assassinate feature to auto crit for 1 turn, the whole party needs to beat usually around a 13 in stealth. Even the PCs in heavy armor with low DEX and no proficiency. Then the assassin needs to have higher initiative than any surprised creatures. And in order to even try the party needs to see the enemies without being seen.
In terms of surprising the whole party, yes it is absolutely within the rules and your power as DM to have the whole party surprised. That being said, applying the surprised 'condition' without any way to avoid it doesn't really add much fun for the players.
I would consider foreshadowing the link between these urns and spectres. Or add an ability check to avoid surprise. Religion maybe? "At the last moment you recognise the symbols in the urn as linked to such-and-such a curse", etc.
Surprise is a punishment, so it should be avoidable. Players should feel they deserve it somehow.