Surprise (game mechanic)

Surprised

 Surprised is a special condition that can affect creatures during the first round of combat. When one side of a combat encounter is unaware of the other side, they may be Surprised. A Surprised creature cannot take any Actions or Reactions for one combat round. Characters with the Alert feat, the Feral Instinct feature or under the effects of certain items (like the Elixir of Vigilance) cannot be Surprised.

Certain combat encounters, especially ones that occur after an in-game cutscene, are set to always  Surprise the party. These can usually be countered by utilizing conditions such as  Invisible or hiding in heavily obscured areas with spells such as  Darkness before triggering them.

Surprising a group of enemies can be challenging and kind of unintuitive. To simplify it:

• First, put the ENTIRE party in stealth including pets. If a member pulls before you and is noticed, your entire party maybe noticed.
• Second, break up the party, including pets, and move the surpriser into position, make sure your pets don't follow you.
• Third, with your party and pets behind, your surpriser needs to first approach the enemy while Stealthy and while outside enemy vision cones. Fire a ranged attack while you are within sight of them but not within the vision cone. Apparently, the game does a Stealth check vs Perception the enemy: if you are successful, the enemies will not notice you and start panicking and running around until they find you, if they do, you will NOT trigger Surprised (Condition). If you fail the check, the enemy will notice you and trigger surprised (assuming they don't have the alert feature). If you manage this in melee range, it seems it will always trigger surprised (not tested).

This means that if your Stealth is way too high, you may fail to trigger Surprised (Condition). However, this opens some ranged builds where, if you manage to stay hidden from the enemy, you can get several shots before being pulled into combat, even allowing you to assassinate a creature without retaliation. This can be achieved by having a high Dexterity score, having Proficiency and Expertise in stealth, Advantage in dexterity or stealth checks, and, if you have it in your party, using the spell Pass Without Trace.

Other observations with the stealth and surprised mechanics are that they will also apply to some spells. If you cast from enough distance from outside the vision cones of the creature and your Stealth is high enough, you may get either get a surprise round or even a free cast without being pulled into combat (by way of the Stealth vs Perception check), particularly useful with Area of Effect spells, whether damage or control.

If you really, really want to trigger surprise and don't want to build a high Stealth character, you can always use Invisibility to open the fight, weather by using potions, the spell, or items (like Shadow of Menzoberranzan) and surprise will always trigger. Invisibility from the Quasit and Imp pet will also work, but be advised that, if a creature has Alert, they will react to your pet and most likely kill it before you can benefit from surprised. The druid Wild Shape: Panther will also help, but in the same vein, you will need to make sure your druid survives the retaliation from the creatures with alert.

Once surprised is trigger, you can start moving up your group, one by one, into the fray. Be wary of vision cones: once a member of your party is within the vision cone of creature, if they fail the Stealth check, they will be pull into combat. This can be used to your advantage, before entering a vision cone, you can use jump, fly or teleportation (Misty Step effects) to start combat wherever you want your unit to be. If you avoided detection altogether, you could even cast a spell or attack before being pulled into the initiative order. This will aid you to kill an enemy even before the surprise round is over. Moreover, you can even cut vision of the enemy by using Fog Cloud, Darkness, Arrow of Darkness and Blinded (Condition) (from many sources), allowing free passage to reach priority targets. Remember you can stop concentrating in spells whenever you want, so once everyone is in position you can release concentration on Fog and Darkness, and if you avoided detections casting it may have even not costed you an action.

List of Surprise encounters

• Sneaking into the Overgrown Ruins Refectory will leave Andorn  Surprised.
• Interacting with certain caskets in the cave inside the Apothecary's Cellar will cause an Agile Guardian to burst out and  Surprise the party.
• Attacking the bloated hyenas along the Risen Road will leave them  Surprised.
• Magma Mephits will  Surprise the party if they approach the mithral vein closest to the Adamantine Forge.
• All Mimic combat encounters will always  Surprise the party when interacting with them in their disguised form. Attacking them from range will start the battle without being surprised.
• In the Underdark, approaching the Petrified Battlefield will initiate combat with a Spectator, triggering a cutscene which leaves the party  Surprised.
• Approaching the Underdark Beach will trigger a conversation with a Duergar. If attacked immediately, the whole Duergar party will be left  Surprised. If Gekh Coal is called and he turns hostile, the player's party will be  Surprised instead.
• At the end of "Dribbles'" performance at the Circus of the Last Days, the party will be left  Surprised unless the ambush is observed through passive Perception checks, in which case the ambushers will be  Surprised instead.