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Post by Scott on May 5, 2008 10:15:53 GMT -5
Here's a situation that has always confused me: Party A surprises Party B for 2 segments. One member in Party A has a bow ready, and unloads on mulitple members of Party B with the surprise RoF. One of his targets has a high dex that negates the surprise. How is this situation handled?
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dcas
Warlock
Duke of Pennsylvania, Knight Commander
Posts: 481
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Post by dcas on May 5, 2008 10:33:02 GMT -5
Doesn't high Dex only negate surprise in individual circumstances (e.g., scouting ahead?).
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Post by Scott on May 5, 2008 10:35:52 GMT -5
No, just for that individual, per the text.
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Post by geneweigel on May 5, 2008 11:04:22 GMT -5
He's not subject to the surprise round because he can't give the opponent's surprise.
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Post by Scott on May 5, 2008 11:10:48 GMT -5
But how do you handle that in game? Do you tell the archer that you can't target a certain individual durig surprise?
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Post by geneweigel on May 5, 2008 11:17:37 GMT -5
Yeah, I just subsume it with a quick interpretation (he quickly ducked, etc.) if asked for clarification.
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Post by grodog on May 6, 2008 22:27:47 GMT -5
Hmmmm. Perhaps if the surprising party targets the non-surprised (due to Dex) party, the surprising party loses the rest of his surprise round RoF, since the unsurprised party requires too much focus/concentration/whatever to keep track of, versus the rest of the dupes sitting there with their mouths hanging open?
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Post by geneweigel on May 7, 2008 8:18:59 GMT -5
Yes, I'd say that is true if the mass melee random determination is disregarded by the player to try and single out the unsurprised opponent however it would ultimately be a fruitless attempt. But why would even an "unexperienced" character (read: characters start with some know how that sets them above a "man-at-arms") throw away what they know to be a great chance for extra attacks? Some asshat DMs like to "dim out" the rules and let new players live and learn but thats not in the spirit of the game to me. Unless people prefer to spend several hours playing a game of unheroic bungling but that shit isn't for me. Theres enough margin for falling flat on your face without emerging cloaked rules to show some kind of D&D eruditeness. In the Weigel book of DMing, all arcane rule log jams must fall in favor of the players otherwise you're gonna send them running back to their poker chips.
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Post by GRWelsh on May 22, 2010 19:49:19 GMT -5
Scott, do you do the multiple surprise segments? Or just one surprise segment?
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Post by Scott on May 22, 2010 19:51:38 GMT -5
Multiple.
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Post by Scott on May 23, 2010 6:14:35 GMT -5
Generally, multiple segments of initiative aren't as overwhelming as you might think, at least not for most of the parties I've DMed. Usually, the first segment is spent closing. Sometimes both segments are if the party gets unlucky on the distance and they have slow movement rates, and surprise is used to set up a tactical advantage. In dungeons, where most of the PCs I've DMed want to get man-to-man with the enemy as soon as possible, the RoF advantage hasn't come up often; it's been an advantage more often in the wilderness, where a much greater encounter distance is assumed.
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