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<blockquote data-quote="BoldItalic" data-source="post: 6820374" data-attributes="member: 6777052">It's so simple. You tell the players about the threat first. Then the players know what is going on, even if their characters don't.DM: TWANG! Some goblins hidden in the trees are about to ambush you. You haven't spotted them and you don't know how many there are. The first thing you are aware of, is the twang of an arrow as a goblin darts out from behind a tree and starts shooting. Please roll for initiative. The cleric is not surprised because he has the alert feat, but everyone else is going to be.See? Vanilla 5e, no house rules necessary. It's all honest and above board, and the DM is not trying to wrong-foot the players. The goblins might be trying to wrong-foot the PCs in-game, but OOC, the DM is playing fair.If the DM were to say, for no apparent reason, &quot;As you move through the wood you are suddenly hit by arrows, take 4 damage each.&quot; then that is a gotcha. It makes no difference if combat is subsequently started - it was already a gotcha. Such a DM might reasonably be said to be vindictive.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="BoldItalic, post: 6820374, member: 6777052"] It's so simple. You tell the [I]players[/I] about the threat first. Then the [I]players[/I] know what is going on, even if their [I]characters[/I] don't. DM: TWANG! Some goblins hidden in the trees are about to ambush you. You haven't spotted them and you don't know how many there are. The first thing you are aware of, is the twang of an arrow as a goblin darts out from behind a tree and starts shooting. Please roll for initiative. The cleric is not surprised because he has the alert feat, but everyone else is going to be. See? Vanilla 5e, no house rules necessary. It's all honest and above board, and the DM is not trying to wrong-foot the players. The goblins might be trying to wrong-foot the PCs in-game, but OOC, the DM is playing fair. If the DM were to say, for no apparent reason, "As you move through the wood you are suddenly hit by arrows, take 4 damage each." then that is a gotcha. It makes no difference if combat is subsequently started - it was already a gotcha. Such a DM might reasonably be said to be vindictive. [/QUOTE]

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