D&D 5E (2024) How do you handle surprised but won initiative?

[Distracted DM]

I've definitely run surprise 5e14 RAW, and I've house-ruled it on the fly, and I've basically said "ok you, the fighter, get advantage on initiative because you were the one that decided to draw steel first."

I think I actually like 5e14 RAW the best, because yeah it really does reward ambush play. It rewards strategic and tactical thinking. It is, yes, very powerful. I don't think there's anything wrong with that if you want to make scouting and such intelligence-gathering and planning more immediately incentivized. Yes, by scouting you can see that it's a red fire drake in the next room ... so you can save a round warding vs. fire. OR you can lure the thing into an ambush and get a free round of attacks on it. That's going to be more immediately valuable to a party's reckoning than a little extra prep time.

 

[BigMac75]

Reading all this made me think that there may be options for the surprised people who win initiative that simply limits their actions. I know it would not be RAW but letting someone run 20' and attack while a leopard is mid-air coming out of the tree does not seem realistic. However, snapping off a shot with a loaded crossbow, or even knocking and firing an arrow for an experienced archer (or getting off a Fire Bolt or Eldritch Blast) seems more realistic.

For those that win initiative over the surprise-attacker:

• Would it be too much to only allow bonus actions or reactions in response to a surprise attack?
• Or allowing attacks if an enemy is in range but not allowing any movement till the surprise attack itself resolves?
• Or maybe reducing the number of attacks available by 1 for those that win initiative (to take into account superior fighting prowess that is apparent in those that have multiple attacks per round)?

I think that even if these things might seem to penalize the characters that win initiative (since they cannot do as much as their slower colleagues) it is actually letting them do something before the surprise attack resolves, which is what is actually important. However, it is also still giving a realistic benefit for surprise.