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Message: <blockquote data-quote="clearstream" data-source="post: 8399966" data-attributes="member: 71699">I prepare an ambush. Remember the DM decides when initiative is rolled, and they don't need to start combat yet.If my foes perceived me - by seeing or hearing me, or sensing something was up - then they are prepared for an attack when they open the door, ergo I didn't and don't surprise them. On the other hand, if they didn't perceive me, it doesn't matter if they roll higher with initiative seeing as they can't act on their turn anyway.I think here you are concerned for meta-game information, right? This is a fringe-case because it only arises in the case of an assassin who has surprise and rolls low for initiative and sees no value in attacking without their auto-crit. (FWIW, the cause of this fringe-case is the assassin class feature, not the surprise rules.)From the point of view of NPC targets of a PC assassin - my game world assumption is that they don't know they are in combat or not in combat - so barring the Alert feat or successful perception, they don't know that a combat started. So yes, as you say they never know the assassin was there at all. Surprise is not something that "resets": rather it is something that is determined each time combat starts.From the point of view of PC targets of an NPC assassin, they will gain a piece of meta-information because perforce you called for initiative checks. Initiative is a Dexterity ability check, and the problem falls into the general class of ability checks called for that players should not be aware of, and is handled the same way. Whatever solution you apply to those, should apply here.What was the problem the game designers were trying to solve by removing the separate surprise round of 3rd-edition? How would you state the problem you are trying to solve?Declaring first runs into problems when the combat state shifts dynamically and a declaration is redundant. It's not necessarily wrong to do it that way, but it can feel pretty bad to your players. Declare at moment of action is robust, if you avoid time travelling intuitions.</blockquote>

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