D&D 5E I think I miss flat-footed, talk me out of it?

[GX.Sigma]

How do people feel about including disadvantage to dexterity saves as part of being blind or surprised? It counters nicely with the dodge action, note, which gives you advantage on them.

Totally. I didn't even know this wasn't already a thing.

 

[Starfox]

generally the high armor, low-dex types like defensive warriors suffered the most from being surprised. .

Depending on what you mean, this is the start opposite of my experience, which is that nimble dodgers are the ones who suffer from surprise. The penalties associated with surprise are lower to a character without a Dex bonus - a character without a Dex bonus basically is not penalized at all when surprised (except for being subject to Sneak Attack and not getting an action - which everyone suffers from).

Do you mean that tanks were surprised more than others because of lower Perception? I find that unrelated - perception is not a Dex thing in 3E. (Though flat-footedness due to losing the first turn's initiative is related to Dexterity). Also, it depends on whether the DM plays surprise as an individual or team condition - can those who make their perception rolls to avoid surprise warn others? All editions of 3E are very vague on this point. We play that they can warn the team (in most cases), to make perception skills less mandatory.

 

[Sunseeker]

Depending on what you mean, this is the start opposite of my experience, which is that nimble dodgers are the ones who suffer from surprise. The penalties associated with surprise are lower to a character without a Dex bonus - a character without a Dex bonus basically is not penalized at all when surprised (except for being subject to Sneak Attack and not getting an action - which everyone suffers from).

Do you mean that tanks were surprised more than others because of lower Perception? I find that unrelated - perception is not a Dex thing in 3E. (Though flat-footedness due to losing the first turn's initiative is related to Dexterity). Also, it depends on whether the DM plays surprise as an individual or team condition - can those who make their perception rolls to avoid surprise warn others? All editions of 3E are very vague on this point. We play that they can warn the team (in most cases), to make perception skills less mandatory.

No you're right, I got it totally backwards in my head. Gah, this is what not having a regular group does to me! It makes me dumb!