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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jon Gilliam" data-source="post: 8037162" data-attributes="member: 6920404">As to why player's decide pre-combat if they will be hiding, that's because players should have autonomy over their character's actions.  I suppose you could have a house-rule that if an encounter is laid out as an ambush, that this means the players automatically hide, but I think my players would find that unacceptably controlling :  "Huh, my barbarian, Throng, certainly wouldn't hide from a threat!"As for the DM determining who will be surprised, that's taken almost verbatim from PHB p. 189Remember, we're not trying to re-write the Rules as Written, we're trying to decide what the Rules as Written mean, based only on the primary sources : the WOTC published rule books, the errata, the Sage Advice compendium, and possibly other Sage Advice tweets from recognized WOTC experts.</blockquote>