Everyone, gather around! I’m going to tell you a little story. A barbarian, a rogue, and a bard walk into an abandoned house. Well, that’s not quite right. It’s more like they are planning to walk in to save their friend, who is being kept hostage by a band of orcs. But, when they reach the door handle, they realize that the enormous wooden door is locked. Also, on further inspection, they figure out that the band of orcs vastly outnumbers them and will kick their behinds unless they catch them by surprise. So our merry little group decides to sneak in the house through a window that the orcs left ajar and yell “Surprise!” or “Aaaagh!” or whatever else you yell at people when you charge at them.
This leads us to today’s topic – the Surprise Round. You might be surprised (pun intended) to hear that these aren’t a thing anymore in D&D 5e. They were a staple of 3e and 4e, but if you decide to play the current edition, you only have the option of the surprised condition, the mechanics of which might confuse some players. In order to clear everything up, I’ve prepared a quick and easy guide to Surprise Rounds in D&D 5e, so let’s go through all the steps together.
Firstly, how does this sort of round occur? Like in our story, you can surprise your opponents and make them unable to perform an action, move, or even react if you sneak up on them and they don’t see you coming.
Okay, fair enough, but how does that work with in-game mechanics? Well, if your party wants to sneak in, they all need to perform a Stealth (Dexterity) check, which the DM will then compare to the passive Perception (Wisdom score) of the creatures you are trying to sneak up on. Orcs (from our story up above) have a Wisdom score of 11 in 5e, so if our barbarian, bard, and rogue roll a higher number, they will manage to pull a fast one on these creatures and sort of stun them for the first round of combat.
This is the point where things can get complicated because we have to figure out what happens if one of them rolls a lower number. Imagine a huge barbarian moving with zero grace, like a bull in a china shop. He would most likely accidentally step on a creaky wooden board or even knock something over. Would he be the only one noticed, and would the others still be able to surprise the orcs? Well, the general consensus is that when one person is noticed, everyone is too, and you can’t have a surprise round since the opponents will become super vigilant and aware of their surroundings.
The way to sidestep this, especially if you have a very large party (there is no way that ten people would all roll a number higher than 11, even if the statistics gods blessed you), is to do a group check. This means that everyone does roll a die, but if half the group passes the Stealth check, everyone does. It’s sort of a win-together, lose-together situation, but it still gives you a better chance than the individual rolls do. This will come down to the DM, so pray that they are feeling generous. Otherwise, there is very little chance your party can ever surprise their enemies.
Okay, for the sake of this guide, let’s say everyone passed the Stealth check. Now, the DM will decide who is surprised. Keep in mind that even one member can be surprised while others aren’t.
Next, the DM will tell the players where they and their opponents are located and how close they are to each other or simply give them a position on the battle map.
The third step is to roll initiative, and finally, each player takes a turn in combat according to their initiative score. Just keep in mind that the surprised creatures skip their first turn. At the end of the Surprise Round, everything goes back to normal, and combat continues with standard rules.
I hope that this quick and easy guide has clarified the Surprise Round rules in D&D 5e for you and that you’ll have fun using it in the future!
