Mercule
Adventurer
At some point, my group got into a disconnect about how things work for surprise rounds. With the holidays and a couple of personal events, it's been almost a month since the last game, and we had a difference in recollection, last night. My main goal is in fairness and knowing the RAW. With that in mind, I'm asking folks to help me out, here.
A couple of players (specifically the rogue) recall me giving advantage on attacks made against surprised enemies. This is, understandably, important to the rogue, to help with sneak attack.
My recollection is that the rogue was usually hiding/scouting, so was getting advantage from that, not from surprise. In this particular case, the enemy was 30 feet away, and the rogue wanted to engage in melee, so I ruled that charging across an open room negated any advantage from being hidden, so no advantage. Now, I do allow PCs and NPCs to take a "5 foot step" out of cover to shoot/swing as part of the attack, while retaining hidden status -- it's a way of giving the feel of being mugged/ambushed. That's very, very different from a 30 foot charge, though.
I can also find no rule that grants any sort of bonus to the attacker during the surprise round. The best I've got is that the defender doesn't get a reaction during the surprise round. But, it's possible I'm just not remembering a rule that I'd applied, previously.
A couple of players (specifically the rogue) recall me giving advantage on attacks made against surprised enemies. This is, understandably, important to the rogue, to help with sneak attack.
My recollection is that the rogue was usually hiding/scouting, so was getting advantage from that, not from surprise. In this particular case, the enemy was 30 feet away, and the rogue wanted to engage in melee, so I ruled that charging across an open room negated any advantage from being hidden, so no advantage. Now, I do allow PCs and NPCs to take a "5 foot step" out of cover to shoot/swing as part of the attack, while retaining hidden status -- it's a way of giving the feel of being mugged/ambushed. That's very, very different from a 30 foot charge, though.
I can also find no rule that grants any sort of bonus to the attacker during the surprise round. The best I've got is that the defender doesn't get a reaction during the surprise round. But, it's possible I'm just not remembering a rule that I'd applied, previously.