A band of adventurers sneaks up on a bandit camp, springing from the trees to attack them. A gelatinous cube glides down a dungeon passage, unnoticed by the adventurers until the cube engulfs one of them. In these situations, one side of the battle gains surprise over the other.
The DM determines who might be surprised. If neither side tries to be stealthy, they automatically notice each other. Otherwise, the DM compares the Dexterity (Stealth) checks of anyone hiding with the passive Wisdom (Perception) score of each creature on the opposing side. Any character or monster that doesn't notice a threat is surprised at the start of the encounter.
If you're surprised, you can't move or take an action on your first turn of the combat, and you can't take a reaction until that turn ends. A member of a group can be surprised even if the other members aren't.
That's how it is in 5e. 1DnD doesn't provide any. Rules imply that there might not even be such thing.
I imagine this is all there will be to Surprise in the next edition. It played pretty well in my test games. It's an elegant solution to the 'surprise round' problem that many people had. The end result is close to the same without any of the things that confused players. And it leaves enough wiggle room to not catch every PC or monster completely flat-footed every time. It felt a little more natural, was very easy to use, and didn't turn encounters into the completely one-sided affairs they can sometimes be with the current 5e rules if one side got the effective 'double turn.'
What will this mean for the Assassin Rogue and their auto crit on a surprised target.
I have no idea. I imagine they could just say you get to auto crit in the first round of combat if your initiative is higher than your target's. That would certainly help the assassin get more use out of it.
That's another good way they could word it. Fair and easy to use. That probably fits the theme better than my guess too, even if it won't come up quite as frequently. Sounds like a good balance.
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Definition of Surprised condition
That's how it is in 5e. 1DnD doesn't provide any. Rules imply that there might not even be such thing.
I imagine this is all there will be to Surprise in the next edition. It played pretty well in my test games. It's an elegant solution to the 'surprise round' problem that many people had. The end result is close to the same without any of the things that confused players. And it leaves enough wiggle room to not catch every PC or monster completely flat-footed every time. It felt a little more natural, was very easy to use, and didn't turn encounters into the completely one-sided affairs they can sometimes be with the current 5e rules if one side got the effective 'double turn.'
What will this mean for the Assassin Rogue and their auto crit on a surprised target.
I have no idea. I imagine they could just say you get to auto crit in the first round of combat if your initiative is higher than your target's. That would certainly help the assassin get more use out of it.
That's another good way they could word it. Fair and easy to use. That probably fits the theme better than my guess too, even if it won't come up quite as frequently. Sounds like a good balance.