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Message: <blockquote data-quote="redrick" data-source="post: 6675678" data-attributes="member: 6777696">Not quite.You certainly don't learn of a hidden character's location just because your turn has come up. Until that character has done something to reveal his or her position, or you have taken an action to search for that character (which you can't do on your turn if you are surprised), the character remains hidden. So, in your scenario above, as you outline it, the assassin would still have advantage, because the assassin is hidden. So sneak attack, but no auto-critical hit. That's all very clear in the RAW.Now, as to the specific case of:1. Assassin is perfectly hidden2. Target is unaware3. Allies of assassin are either far away or also perfectly hidden, waiting for the assassin to take a shot4. Assassin fires at the targetHere, one of the core rules of 5e, common sense has to come into play. When everybody agrees that something should happen a certain way, that is how it should happen. Those are, in effect, the rules. In the situation above, the question is all about when does combat start.I would say, combat starts, in this case, when the arrow hits the target. Until that point, there have been no hostile actions. So there is no initiative roll, because, until that arrow punched through the back of his neck, that target hasn't had any reason to do anything.Now, once the target gets hit (and is surprised, so advantage, sneak attack, auto-crit), combat begins. Everybody rolls initiative. The target isn't surprised anymore (if he's still alive), because the attacking assassin has revealed him or herself before the upcoming combat round. Combat proceeds as normal, and the allies of the assassin can now take actions, in initiative order, along with everybody else.Remember that, in general, a combat turn includes not just an attack impact, but some degree of movement leading up to that impact. On most cases that surprise comes up at my table, a lot of things happen during that first round of combat other than actual weapon impacts. Characters charge out of hiding. Swords are raised above the head (in order to be lowered onto unhappy victims). Information is exchanged. All of this can happen, but, if the targets were unaware before the start of combat, they can still be surprised. Usually, the party would sneak up to within 25 feet of their targets (or let their targets get within 25 feet of them), and then CHARGE! At this point, the targets know the party is there. But, they're still surprised, so they aren't able to take full actions. They're caught off guard. However, if they are sufficiently quick on their feet (luck and natural initiative bonus), they might be able to at least react before their flat-footed ambushers can act fully. Hence the initiative roll. (And yeah, the potential nerfing of a 3rd level power for the assassin that can be used every combat without any need to short rest, that yields 6d6 of damage, and scales as the assassin levels up.)Now, all of that feels very complicated as I write it out, and maybe it is. The point is that I started with two things. The rules and common sense. I applied the rules and common sense to situations (at my table), and the above is what I came up with. You might come up with something different. So my ruling, and therefore my interpretation of the rules, is based on my base rule, whatever happens at the table has to make sense. The rules aren't there to override that. They are there to support that and provide consistency to that.</blockquote>

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