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<blockquote data-quote="Jon Gilliam" data-source="post: 8039930" data-attributes="member: 6920404">You might think that if the designers meant for &quot;a threat&quot; to just mean an opponent or a foe, that they would have clarified that, maybe in the second edition or the errata. But, I think they did in fact clarify that - they just did it in the Sage Advice Compendium.The original wording in the PHB was : &quot;Any character or monster that doesn't notice a threat is surprised at the start of the encounter.&quot;The Sage Advice Compendium in response to the question about surprise, used the following language : &quot;You can be surprised even if your companions aren't, and you aren't surprised if even one of your foes fails to catch you unawares.&quot;Notice how the Sage Advice restates the same thing that the PHB did, but uses the word &quot;foes&quot; instead of &quot;a threat&quot;.It does it again in this sentence: &quot;In other words, once a fight starts, you can't be surprised again, although a hidden foe can still gain the normal benefits from being unseen.&quot;That clearly implies that what initiates surprise is &quot;a hidden foe.&quot; In fact, the Sage Advice response meant to clarify surprise doesn't use the language &quot;a threat&quot; at all.Read the last sentence of that response : &quot;You can still try to hide from your foes and gain the benefits conferred by being hidden, but you don't deprive your foes of their turns when you do so.&quot; That clearly is presuming that you gain surprise by being hidden.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Jon Gilliam, post: 8039930, member: 6920404"] You might think that if the designers meant for "a threat" to just mean an opponent or a foe, that they would have clarified that, maybe in the second edition or the errata. But, I think they did in fact clarify that - they just did it in the Sage Advice Compendium. The original wording in the PHB was : "Any character or monster that doesn't notice a threat is surprised at the start of the encounter." The Sage Advice Compendium in response to the question about surprise, used the following language : "You can be surprised even if your companions aren't, and you aren't surprised if even one of your foes fails to catch you unawares." Notice how the Sage Advice restates the same thing that the PHB did, but uses the word "foes" instead of "a threat". It does it again in this sentence: "In other words, once a fight starts, you can't be surprised again, although a hidden foe can still gain the normal benefits from being unseen." That clearly implies that what initiates surprise is "a hidden foe." In fact, the Sage Advice response meant to clarify surprise doesn't use the language "a threat" at all. Read the last sentence of that response : "You can still try to hide from your foes and gain the benefits conferred by being hidden, but you don't deprive your foes of their turns when you do so." That clearly is presuming that you gain surprise by being hidden. [/QUOTE]

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