D&D 5E Assassinate

[Wik]

Ok. I think some people are a bit confused here.

"If you're surprised, you can't move or take an action on your first turn of the combat, and you cannot take a reaction until that turn ends."

So, if you sneak up on someone and pull the trigger on a crossbow before you're aware of them, you get the assassinate ability. If you bump into the guy in a hallway and he's surprised but beats you in initiative, you won't get it. The guy ceases being surprised as soon as he is able to take reactions.

Another reason to beef up your initiative, people!

 

[Lidgar]

Assassinate operates in two ways. Note there is no mention of "rounds" in the rule.

Under the first condition, the Assassin gets advantage on any creature that has not taken their turn yet in combat. As others have posted, there could be conditions where the Assassin could use this function more than once on his turn. Making multiple attacks is one of them.

The second condition is when attacking a surprised creature, the Assassin gets advantage on his attack and if he hits, it is a critical hit. Again, this could happen more than once on the Assassin's turn if he can make multiple attacks.

Basic Rules:
The DM determines who might be surprised...If you’re surprised, you can’t move or take an action on your first turn of the combat, and you can’t take a reaction until that turn ends.

Surprise essentially means the surprised creature misses its first turn in combat. So if the Assassin's turn comes before the turn of a surprised creature, he could make advantage/crit attacks in the Assassin's first turn when the creature is surprised, then make attacks with advantage during the Assassin's second turn when the creature is not surprised but has not taken its turn in combat yet.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Surprise does not work well in this edition. It is entirely problematic that a creature who is not expecting danger is not surprised anymore once an invisible rogue attacks with a lower initiative and no one of the group notices him. In the playtest there were better rules for such situations. There was readiness in addition to stealth.
In situations where an invisible assassins gets the drop on the enemies, I would just have him have a single readied action. This is what combat triggers.
I would then let everyone make a perception check. Those who beat the former assassins stealth check (which was high enough to beat everyone's passive perception) would not be surprised at the start of combat anymore.

 

[Paraxis]

Surprise essentially means the surprised creature misses its first turn in combat. So if the Assassin's turn comes before the turn of a surprised creature, he could make advantage/crit attacks in the Assassin's first turn when the creature is surprised, then make attacks with advantage during the Assassin's second turn when the creature is not surprised but has not taken its turn in combat yet.

This is wrong.

Everyone rolls for initiative at the start of any combat, even surprised creatures. When their initiative comes up the first time, they are surprised so can't take any actions or move, but it is still their first turn. Even if you can't do anything on your turn you have still taken a turn.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Once the mooks turn is over on 18 and it can take reactions it is no longer surprised.

Also there is no surprise round, everyone rolls for initiative at the same time.

So an invisible stealthed rogue perched on top of a building wants to shoot a wizard in the back of the head as he walks past.

Before he pulls the trigger on the crossbow initiative is rolled.

Wizard wins with an 18, rogue goes on 15.

On 18 the wizard takes his turn, can not move or take any actions. After his turn he can now take reactions.

On 15 the rogue takes his turn, he shoots only because he is stealthed does he get advantage, the assassinate feature doesn't apply since the wizard has had a turn. If the attack does hit, it doesn't do an automatic crit because the wizard is no longer surprised. The wizard can take reactions and if they wanted could cast a the Shield spell as a reaction to try and stop the attack from hitting.

This seems to be how it works RAW. I just don't believe it is a good rule in all circumstances. If the wizard has a chance to notice the flying bolt, yes, maybe. But otherwise... why should he be able to cast his spell... as he does not even know he is attacked.
So I stay with my ruling. The first attack may be fired to start the combat. If you chose to do so, everyone gets another chance to notice that someone is there possibly recovering from surprise immediately.
Another possible solution is just having the assassin attack first before anyone else. Because if there is no question who has the initiative, don't roll.
I do like the single readied action better, because it is an off turn attack, which does not allow bonus actions or extra attacks, so it is only really good for a pure assassin.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

This is wrong.

Everyone rolls for initiative at the start of any combat, even surprised creatures. When their initiative comes up the first time, they are surprised so can't take any actions or move, but it is still their first turn. Even if you can't do anything on your turn you have still taken a turn.

The problem here is: what starts the combat? Just because the rogue suddenly decides to possibly attack...
Imagine: rogue wants to attack. The wizard beats his initiative. Then the assassin says. OK I don't attack and stop combat.
Combat is over. No one noticed the rogue. Ok. Next attempt.
Of course it is possible to play that way and have the rogue make an extra stealth check for each time he tries an attack, and every time the wizard beats his initiative he notices that it is not the best opportunity to attack just then but better wait a little bit more...
Yeah. Maybe this would be a fair ruling too.
Would give the assassinated people also fair chances to be not surprised at the start of combat. You could call for an int or perception check on the assassins behalf to notice that it is not the best opportunity right now and wait for a while instead.

 

[garnuk]

Keeping track of each surprised creature to know if its still surprised on any particular player's turn seems like too much of a headache to make it worth while.
Unless the target attacked/ran before the assassin goes, I give the assassin advantage.
If a creature was surprised, I allow the first hit against it by the Assassin to be a crit.

 

[garnuk]

Surprise does not work well in this edition. It is entirely problematic that a creature who is not expecting danger is not surprised anymore once an invisible rogue attacks with a lower initiative and no one of the group notices him.

I don't agree with that RAW interpretation, nor that being RAI.

 

[Paraxis]

I don't agree with that RAW interpretation, nor that being RAI.

The RAW on the issue is pretty clear. As with everything as a DM disagreeing with the rules and changing them to better fit your game and group is encouraged, but that doesn't change how the rules as written work.

There can not be attacks outside of initiative, all participants in the combat roll for initiative at the the start, it is pretty clear.

Now fully endorsed by RAW initiative is just like any other ability check and can be subject to advantage/disadvantage, so if the DM in the before mentioned hypothetical situation wanted to apply disadvantage to the wizards initiative and give the assassin advantage that is up to them and not even a house rule.

 

[garnuk]

The RAW on the issue is pretty clear. As with everything as a DM disagreeing with the rules and changing them to better fit your game and group is encouraged, but that doesn't change how the rules as written work.

There can not be attacks outside of initiative, all participants in the combat roll for initiative at the the start, it is pretty clear.

Now fully endorsed by RAW initiative is just like any other ability check and can be subject to advantage/disadvantage, so if the DM in the before mentioned hypothetical situation wanted to apply disadvantage to the wizards initiative and give the assassin advantage that is up to them and not even a house rule.

There is no doubt that everybody rolls initiative even those who are surprised.

What I don't agree with is the interpretation which reads, "that hasn’t taken a turn in the combat yet." doesn't include people who have not acted on their turn. If you can not act on your turn, then I say your turn has not been taken, it has in fact been skipped.

Furthermore, at no point do the rules say that a creature is no longer surprised before the next opportunity they have to take a turn. It even specifies that they can not take reactions until their next turn.