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How Does Surprise Work in D&D 5E?
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<blockquote data-quote="Ancalagon" data-source="post: 8399203" data-attributes="member: 23"><p>Now the trickier question is, how would a group check work in an ambush?</p><p></p><p>Let us say we have 5 foolhardy goblins, A B C D and E, and 3 PCs, Bob, Jane and Lucy. Their plan is to hide in some bushes then fire arrows at the PCs.</p><p></p><p>Bob has a passive perception of 12, Jane has 14 and Lucy has 16. The goblins get stealth rolls of 12, 13, 15, 17 and 21. 15 is the "central" value, so Bone and Jane are surprised, but Lucy isn't.</p><p></p><p>Easy peasy!</p><p></p><p>But what isn't easy peasy is determining which goblin gets advantage on their attack because they are attacking from stealth. For example, goblins A and B (with stealth results of 12 and 13) firing upon Jane would not get advantage because she has seen them, ...but she still is surprised? That seems... janky, and complicated.</p><p></p><p>I think at this point the best thing to do, for simplicity's sake is to just use the GROUP stealth value and run with that. The GM can, if they want, keep track of individual results, but it sounds like it's more headache than it's worth.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ancalagon, post: 8399203, member: 23"] Now the trickier question is, how would a group check work in an ambush? Let us say we have 5 foolhardy goblins, A B C D and E, and 3 PCs, Bob, Jane and Lucy. Their plan is to hide in some bushes then fire arrows at the PCs. Bob has a passive perception of 12, Jane has 14 and Lucy has 16. The goblins get stealth rolls of 12, 13, 15, 17 and 21. 15 is the "central" value, so Bone and Jane are surprised, but Lucy isn't. Easy peasy! But what isn't easy peasy is determining which goblin gets advantage on their attack because they are attacking from stealth. For example, goblins A and B (with stealth results of 12 and 13) firing upon Jane would not get advantage because she has seen them, ...but she still is surprised? That seems... janky, and complicated. I think at this point the best thing to do, for simplicity's sake is to just use the GROUP stealth value and run with that. The GM can, if they want, keep track of individual results, but it sounds like it's more headache than it's worth. [/QUOTE]
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