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How Does Surprise Work in D&D 5E?
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<blockquote data-quote="Lyxen" data-source="post: 8399958" data-attributes="member: 7032025"><p>You do, in the sense that if you are preparing for something, you are watching for that trigger specifically, and therefore are more likely to be surprised by something else "you were watching the leader so intently that you did not see the assassins sneak in").</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>It really depends on the situation (like everything in D&D, really it's good that 5e acknowledged that fact), but not every one is prepared for something specific, as there are disadvantages, see above. Second, you might be preparing for something that never comes, or comes too late. The best example of this is tough discussions with an enemy party, where people don't really want to be the ones to start hostilities (because of the bad reputation that might spread, we get that a lot in our Odyssey of the Dragonlords campaign where we are the heroes of the prophecy but our opponents always look for opportunities to slander us, and where the words spread quickly), and therefore some people prepare for a hostile act from specific people, while others prefer a kind of general awareness and position themselves in consequence, but where, often, the hostilities start from an unforeseen angle (like an assassin from the shadows).</p><p></p><p>We also use it an ambush situations, where we decide that someone is going to shoot first, and the others prepare to shoot right after him. This works for NPCs ambushers really well too. And we use it for assassination (in particular the assassin gloomstalker in my Avernus campaign) to attack the target at the right moment, assuming that the assassin can predict what the target is going to do.</p><p></p><p>But in the case of the bard, he was sort of crazy anyway, and not really preparing anything, just reacting to moods and (we later suspected) some kind of external godly influence that made him angrier and angrier. And at the same time, he was surrounded by satyrs and fauns and other more or less nasty beasties, that we did not want to attack as we certainly did not want to antagonise the fair folk, who we are trying to have as allies against the titans. So in that case, I was IIRC one of the only two people being specifically prepared, the other one being the medusa ranger who was particularly wary of the elementals at the back and who thought they would be the ones attacking as being linked to the titans. The bard did not prepare anything, at some point something triggered him and he decided to smash the harp rather than giving it to us like he was saying a heartbeat before.</p><p></p><p>Of course, if everyone prepares and counterprepares, I suppose it could lead to complex situations, but really it does not at our tables, just rewards preparedness at the expense of general awareness.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Lyxen, post: 8399958, member: 7032025"] You do, in the sense that if you are preparing for something, you are watching for that trigger specifically, and therefore are more likely to be surprised by something else "you were watching the leader so intently that you did not see the assassins sneak in"). It really depends on the situation (like everything in D&D, really it's good that 5e acknowledged that fact), but not every one is prepared for something specific, as there are disadvantages, see above. Second, you might be preparing for something that never comes, or comes too late. The best example of this is tough discussions with an enemy party, where people don't really want to be the ones to start hostilities (because of the bad reputation that might spread, we get that a lot in our Odyssey of the Dragonlords campaign where we are the heroes of the prophecy but our opponents always look for opportunities to slander us, and where the words spread quickly), and therefore some people prepare for a hostile act from specific people, while others prefer a kind of general awareness and position themselves in consequence, but where, often, the hostilities start from an unforeseen angle (like an assassin from the shadows). We also use it an ambush situations, where we decide that someone is going to shoot first, and the others prepare to shoot right after him. This works for NPCs ambushers really well too. And we use it for assassination (in particular the assassin gloomstalker in my Avernus campaign) to attack the target at the right moment, assuming that the assassin can predict what the target is going to do. But in the case of the bard, he was sort of crazy anyway, and not really preparing anything, just reacting to moods and (we later suspected) some kind of external godly influence that made him angrier and angrier. And at the same time, he was surrounded by satyrs and fauns and other more or less nasty beasties, that we did not want to attack as we certainly did not want to antagonise the fair folk, who we are trying to have as allies against the titans. So in that case, I was IIRC one of the only two people being specifically prepared, the other one being the medusa ranger who was particularly wary of the elementals at the back and who thought they would be the ones attacking as being linked to the titans. The bard did not prepare anything, at some point something triggered him and he decided to smash the harp rather than giving it to us like he was saying a heartbeat before. Of course, if everyone prepares and counterprepares, I suppose it could lead to complex situations, but really it does not at our tables, just rewards preparedness at the expense of general awareness. [/QUOTE]
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