D&D 5E Do I Understand Rogue Features Correctly?

[GameOgre]

The critical hit part of assassinate only works with surprise and that only works at the beginning of the encounter. The advantage part of assassinate work until the enemy gets a turn (whether or not they can act on that turn).

Does surprise really say only at the beginning of a encounter? I can think of tons of times that I think it should apply mid encounter. If by raw it's only at the start of a encounter that limits surprise a lot.

For instance if a combatant ran away from a battle and the enemy chased him....right into a preset ambush. no surprise? That seems weak......

 

[fjw70]

Does surprise really say only at the beginning of a encounter? I can think of tons of times that I think it should apply mid encounter. If by raw it's only at the start of a encounter that limits surprise a lot.

For instance if a combatant ran away from a battle and the enemy chased him....right into a preset ambush. no surprise? That seems weak......

Yep.

Any character or monster that doesn’t notice a threat is surprised at the start of the encounter.

But no surprise doesn't mean no ambush. The ambushers could still attack from a hidden position with advantage and with a readied action. No surprise just means the target can still act that round.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

It would be far easier just to stay near a ally and sneak attack, bonus disengage, move away. Then use partial move, sneak attack, bonus disengage, partial move away. This way they could use sneak attack every round and not face return strikes unless the enemy closes with them(hopefully drawing attack of opportunity from the rogues ally).

Unless the enemy is smart enough to hold their action. Some enemies will be, others won't.

 

[ccooke]

For rogues using cunning action to hide, I've been ruling that after the first attack with advantage due to being hidden, creatures get advantage on their perception checks unless the rogue hides in a such a way that they could attack from at least three different places (or, for grid mechanics, the target making a perception check needs to have lost the rogue in an area that covers 15'. Small rogues moving behind the legs of their companions, any rogue ducking behind a couple of trees or around a corner... the point is, the target knows that they have lost track of the rogue. However, they know where the rogue was. If there's only one 5' space the rogue could pop out from, it's much easier to detect them as they pop out. If the target has to scan several places and keep track of everyone else on the battlefield, it's believable that the rogue can pop out and make a (ranged) attack before being spotted (making a melee attack would, as usual, require getting within 5' of the target without being detected, which there are rules for already).

This seems to be a lot easier to explain at the table than to type - the above looks overcomplicated. If I recall correctly, I've just been saying to the rogue players "Make sure you could attack from anywhere in a 15' area and don't behave predictably and I'll give you a standard perception check. Otherwise the enemy gets advantage after the first time".

Of course, with creatures of INT 3 or lower, I assume they don't have object permanence and simply allow any successful hide check to work

 

[Psikerlord#]

I generally rule as follows for hiding in combat:

1. Once the enemy knows you're around, if you are in their front or side arc, if hiding is possible (with a barrel, wall, whatever) it's at disad.
2. Even if you do hide successfully, you may or may not get adv from your follow up attack, depending on the situation, and how distracted your target is. If you pop out or peek out to attack in his front arc, no adv bec he sees you, but otherwise you should be good for adv.