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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Arkhandus" data-source="post: 2111874" data-attributes="member: 13966">Get someone in the party to take 10 levels in the Divine Oracle prestige class; it's in Defenders of the Faith, dunno if it's been reprinted in Complete Divine or not, though.  10th-level D.O.'s are never surprised and never flat-footed, so if they have a good Initiative bonus (say, 18 Dex and Improved Initiative), they can act on the surprise round and cast something like Hold Person, Calm Emotions, Evard's Black Tentacles, Wall of Force, Blade Barrier, Flame Strike, Command, or whatever, to halt the attacker while everyone else gets ready and moves in to catch/slay the assassin/whatever.No, they aren't flat-footed and there's no surprise round.  As per the DMG, the characters are aware of the enemies around them, so they are not caught by surprise if someone there attacks them.  It doesn't matter if they were expecting an attack or not, they are aware of the creatures so they will see if those creatures suddenly begin to attack.  Unless the opponent materializes from nowhere, the PCs are not caught flat-footed and there is no surprise round.  Shadowdancers and folks with Invisibility are generally the only ones that can pull off the thing you describe, because they can hide before the PCs arrive and then just "appear" right behind the guy they just gutted, with that invisible attack being their surprise round.  After this, everyone rolls initiative normally as they begin to react; since the attacker was unknown before, he/she does get surprise, so everyone's flat-footed (except any folks who knew the invis/shadowdancer was there before and expected the attack might come), but his/her surprise round was already spent on the invis/hide-in-plain-sight attack.As above, unless the opponent appeared from nowhere unexpectedly, the PCs will be aware and neither flat-footed nor surprised, so they'll get AoOs.  Also unless the foe appeared from nowhere, the PCs will get to roll initiative as soon as the opponent takes an aggressive action (draws a weapon, for instance), so someone might beat him/her on initiative and strike the would-be attacker down with a fast response born from years/levels/whatever of adventuring and facing dangers.If the King has guards in his throneroom, or anywhere around his person, it is 100% certain that they are all readying actions to shout and strike down anyone who so much as draws a weapon within the presence of the King.  Archers will be readying actions to shoot down anyone who makes a threatening move, unless the King shouts soon enough an order to hold fire.  As soon as that PC assassin begins to move quickly towards the King, you can bet that every guard with a clear path will be using their readied action for a partial charge, moving in 20-30 feet and attacking the would-be assassin before he gets more than a few steps.  The rest will be taking their partial actions to move in front of the King and surround him so no one could get close enough to hurt their liege, just in case other assassins are waiting in the wings to spring out from behind or beside the King.  This is why an assassin is better off waiting until they're right up next to the King and then using the Quick Draw feat to pull out a dagger and sneak attack him or something, after using the Improved Feint feat to 'feint in combat' as a move-equivalent action by distracting the King with some words so he isn't watching their hands/belt at the moment.If the PCs are unaware of the bandits before the arrows come raining down on them, then yeah, the bandits have quite a head start advantage.  That's why ambushes are good tactics.  As for the 1st normal round, that's why high Dex and Improved Initiative are good.  PCs venturing in the wilderness or roads should, in any case, have their resident rogue/ranger/monk/barbarian/bard out ranging a little ways ahead and to the sides, or even behind the party a ways sometimes, to keep an eye out and alert the party with a shout (or better yet, a Whispering Wind or Message sort of spell, or Rary's Telepathic Bond).  Such characters are likely to be fast movers and have good Spot/Listen checks.If your group has at least one high-Intelligence or high-Wisdom PC with any sort of combat focus or background (i.e. a monk or ranger, and the few barbarians/bards/rogues who are particulary wise/smart), you should probably mention to them as they travel that these kind of tactics come to mind from their training.  Maybe just roll a clandestine Int or Wis check for them to see if their characters would realize or recall such tactics from their training.Have everyone take a few levels in Barbarian or Rogue for Uncanny Dodge.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /></blockquote>

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