1. Initiative being called for no discernible reason as far as the players are concerned. (breaks immersion, spoils events for the players themselves, causes confusion, etc..)
Initiative is never called for no discernable reason. You narrate what triggered initiative and then roll it.
If a hidden archer attacks the party, you dont say 'You notice nothing - roll initiative'. You also dont resolve the attack and then roll initiative. What you do is:
'An arrow flies out from the darkness (you hear the creak of a bow). Roll initiative.'
2. Players being told they are surprised during round 1 for no reason they understand (or in fact no mechanical reason) because the person initiating combat (for example), in other words causing the surprise, has not yet acted or had a turn. (players questioning what's happening, confusion, having to tell them they can't do anything until the triggering creature has had a turn, assigning surprise for no actual reason since nothing has happened, etc..)
Thats your fault as a DM who cant narrate what is happeneing properly. I hope that doesnt sound snarky (im trying not to be). Its
your job to provide the information.
If an invisible stalker ambushes the party, taking them totally by surprise you say:
'You all feel the wind whip up around you disturbing the dust, and sense an evil presence lurking nearby - roll initative - and you're all surprised on turn one'
Players being told they can't do anything until the person causing surprise has acted.
Thats how surprise
works. You cant act on turn one if youre surprised.
Youre doing the exact same thing - youre just doing to everyone on turn 'zero'
4. Narrative issues because the person initiating combat might be required to perform certain actions for story purposes, which gets you into simply giving the NPC / PC the first position in the initiative. (story line events can be disrupted, PC plans disrupted,
What? This makes no sense. Theyve just chosen to attack the PC's. If they didnt want to attack dont attack.
The party is moving on a trail in the woods, they enter the kill zone of a goblin ambush without noticing the goblins since they are hidden (either passive or active perception failed to beat stealth). The goblin leader then fires an arrow at one of the PC's to initiate the attack (or yells out in goblin, or whatever prompts combat. Could be many things, such as triggering a trap. But let's say for the sake of the example it's an attack.)
The party are surprised and cannot act on turn one in this example.
So (as a DM) I would say
'As you walk down the trail, suddenly a hail of goblin arrows fills the sky!' Roll initaitive - youre all surprised on round 1'
I would then proceed to resolve the actions of the parties in turn order (with the PCs unable to act on turn one, seeing as they are surprised). Any Monks who rolled high enough Dex [initiative] checks could use deflect arrows, as could any spellcasters pop up a shield spell (assuming they rolled high enough initiative check).
What is your problem with this (RAW) approach?
I would resolve the attack first, then determine who hadn't noticed the goblins before the triggering event (the attack) to apply surprise as appropriate, and finally I would have everyone roll initiative and start at the top of the initiative order.
So the Goblins get
two- three lots of surprise attacks. One during turn 'zero' (before initiative is rolled) then again on turn 1 (vs any surprised PCs) and then possibly
again on turn 3 before teh PCs assuming they rolled a higher initaitive?
I would promptly walk out of such a game where a creature pretty much always got 2-3 turns on me before I could act.
So what happens if we go by the RAW only? First, if the triggering event is a goblin triggering a trap / making an attack that would meet your hostile intent requirement so you would roll initiative before that happens.
Yep initiative is rolled BEFORE any attacks are
resolved. You can narrate the events leading up to them just fine. Arrows in the air, orcs running from the bushes, creak of armor, clash of steel, chanting arcane words, whatever.
That means that if the goblin triggering the trap / making an attack is low on the initiative order. The party is presumably surprised for no reason they understand since nothing has happened.
This isnt a flaw with the rules - Its a flaw with your ability as DM to narrate the action.
You just say
'You see a Goblin spring up and reach to trigger a trap, as a hail of goblin arrows fills the sky - roll initiative, you're all surprised on turn one'
And then proceed in initiative order, with the PCs surprised on round one.
The trap / attack that was the "hostile intent" and the "triggering event" doesn't actually follow the narrative.
It does if you narrate it properly. Again - the prolem lies in your ability to narrate, not in the rules.
For me, telling people "ok roll initiative" is less fun and interesting as narrating the event, "an arrow flies out of the bushes at you", and then asking for initiative from the party.
But you're supposed to do the latter - you're just not supposed to resolve the attack itself until the archers first turn, otherwise youre granting the archer an entire additional turn.
You dont just say 'roll initiative' and sit there with a blank look on your face when your players ask 'Why - whats going on'? Your job as DM is to narrate the action accordingly.
'The Ogre you were talking to snarls and raises its club, charging the fighter - roll initiative'
Then, on the Ogres turn, you resolve the attack. If the Ogre cant do that action anymore (say the Cleric rolled a higher initaitive and charged him first), you narrate it accordingly: 'The Ogre and the Cleric meet with a clash in the centre of the room, weapons locked together in a mighty battle'
Its no different to:
'From the darkness you hear the creak of a bow, and the twang of an arrow being loosed - roll initiative'
'You kick in the door and see 5 orcs scrambling for their weapons - roll initaitive'
etc