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I am advocating nothing of the sort. The narration works just fine my way, thank you very much. If you don't like it, fine, but if you can't understand it, that's entirely your problem. At least my method doesn't require stealing a reaction from a character that the rules plainly say he gets.

Nonsense. The stealth/perception check determined that the target was not aware of the assassin before he started attacking. No attack is instant. Just because the assassin wants to attack the target quickly is no guarantee that is what happens. The assassin must do something to attack and...

Wow, thanks for posting and setting everyone straight! Where were you 47 pages ago? Seriously though, it works better the other way. My way solves all the problems too. Get a life, indeed.

By the time the assassin gets around to attacking, the cleric is no longer surprised. A spell preventing the cleric from taking a reaction is irrelevant.

That seems pretty extreme since the rules clearly say the character is entitled to a reaction. Shield even says it even protects against the triggering attack. I would not do that.

That's it in a nutshell. The end result isn't very different either way, namely whether or not an assassin hitting after the target has taken his turn gets an auto critical or not. Just curious, how would you describe narratively what happens when a target wizard beats an assassin on initiative...

That is one interpretation. There are others.

It depends on how you read it. You are reading them in isolation. I read the "in addition" to mean the second part is on applied on top of the first but only to surprised creatures, meaning it doesn't happen if the first part isn't active, i.e. if the surprised creature has already taken its...

The assassinate ability IS linked to initiative. It plainly says so right in the description of the assassinate ability: You have advantage on attack rolls against any creature that hasn’t taken a turn in the combat yet. In addition, any hit you score against a creature that is surprised is a...

Ending surprise with the end of the target's first turn is slightly less clunky to run too. Assassin attacks before target's turn = Advantage plus critical hit. Assassin attacks after target's turn = Normal attack. If you run surprise until the end of the round: Assassin attacks before...

Of course you are entitled to feel that way. I do not understand that viewpoint in the slightest though. 1) Orcs are inherently evil 2) Herores kill orcs because they are inherently evil (or just sitting on some good loot). 3) Problem? I wonder if maybe the problem is identifying Orcs as...

(Side note: I'm not sure China is a great example of numbers because it is a privileged few who actually make the descisions there.) I think this is drifting off topic, but I only mostly agree. Numbers are still important. A democracy is a delicate balancing act that is obliged to protect the...

There are purple gremlins hiding in the pages of the PHB. I would tell you where they are, but you would just say they aren't there, so I won't. Meanwhile, I think it is a moral imperative that we remove all traces of gremlins from the PHB. :p

If you allow initiave to determine when surprise ends, then it isn't literally hearing the "Bang" that allows the target to be unsurprised if he beats the assassin's initiative. Narratively it's perfectly acceptable to suggest the assassin gave himself away during the process of attacking. So...

I'm reminded of: http://www.mortaljourney.com/2011/01/1950-trends/phone-booth-stuffing :p

It's not that simple. It is all subjective. Your argument relies on the assumption that anyone being offended is being reasonable. That is not always the case. Unreasonableness can exist on both sides of the fence. If I am being reasonable (in my mind, of course) and someone takes what I see...

Lots of good ideas people. Having the player point out the square isn't really possible in my games as we do not use miniatures or a map. This does complicate things a bit because I have to somehow generate the probability the archer is shooting in the right direction. If he has a spotter, or...

Normally you cannot target something with total cover. But there are situations where it might make sense to allow a ranged attack against a target with total cover. Imagine a group of monsters behind a high wall, but some distance away from it. A character on the opposite side wants to fire...

Imposing disadvantage on initiative for surprised creatures seems like it might be reasonable, and less disruptive than giving advantage to the assassin's initiative.

That's the second time by my count you've trotted out 'slippery slope' to discount arguments you disagree with. To quote a famous spaniard: "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means." Let me put it this way: There are people, real people, who find D&D...