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<blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 7051704" data-attributes="member: 7006"><p>First off, there is no surprise round. There's only the first round of combat.</p><p></p><p>You then roll Stealth checks for the goblins and wolves, as many or as few as you prefer... so you can do it where every single creature makes a check, or every couple make a check, or all goblins as one group and all wolves as another each make group checks for a total of two checks, or the entire group of enemies make a single group check using whichever Stealth mod you prefer.</p><p></p><p>You compare the one to X number of Stealth checks against the passive perceptions of each member of the party. Any party member whose passive perception is less than any of the Stealth checks does not get to act in this first round of combat because they were unaware of every single threat out there. But those PCs whose passive perception were higher than at least one of the Stealth checks does get to act in the first round because they saw/heard/smelled/noticed at least one threat out there. Not all of them obviously, but at least one-- and that put the PC on alert and allows them to act in the first round of combat (along with all the monsters who were already aware of the PCs).</p><p></p><p>That's how it's meant to work. The biggest question as the DM though is deciding just how many Stealth checks you make for your monsters. The more rolls you make, the more likely you are going to roll poorly on at least one of them and thus alert ALL of the PCs and thus nobody is surprised. In your particular case... most DMs would probably roll a single check for all the goblins and a single check for all the wolves (since they have two different Stealth check modifiers.) But you are also within your right as the DM to roll a single Stealth check for the entire group of enemies, doing exactly as you suggested... using the higher modifier, the lower, or split the difference. It's really up to you.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="DEFCON 1, post: 7051704, member: 7006"] First off, there is no surprise round. There's only the first round of combat. You then roll Stealth checks for the goblins and wolves, as many or as few as you prefer... so you can do it where every single creature makes a check, or every couple make a check, or all goblins as one group and all wolves as another each make group checks for a total of two checks, or the entire group of enemies make a single group check using whichever Stealth mod you prefer. You compare the one to X number of Stealth checks against the passive perceptions of each member of the party. Any party member whose passive perception is less than any of the Stealth checks does not get to act in this first round of combat because they were unaware of every single threat out there. But those PCs whose passive perception were higher than at least one of the Stealth checks does get to act in the first round because they saw/heard/smelled/noticed at least one threat out there. Not all of them obviously, but at least one-- and that put the PC on alert and allows them to act in the first round of combat (along with all the monsters who were already aware of the PCs). That's how it's meant to work. The biggest question as the DM though is deciding just how many Stealth checks you make for your monsters. The more rolls you make, the more likely you are going to roll poorly on at least one of them and thus alert ALL of the PCs and thus nobody is surprised. In your particular case... most DMs would probably roll a single check for all the goblins and a single check for all the wolves (since they have two different Stealth check modifiers.) But you are also within your right as the DM to roll a single Stealth check for the entire group of enemies, doing exactly as you suggested... using the higher modifier, the lower, or split the difference. It's really up to you. [/QUOTE]
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