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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ilbranteloth" data-source="post: 7158435" data-attributes="member: 6778044">Still digging through the thread, but this is a great post.While I'm not a fan of any rule that guarantees success (I prefer advantage on surprise situations, but RAW doesn't have a surprise check), the most important thing here is to not get caught up on the "meaning" of the word surprised within the game rules.What is surprised?It means you can't move or take an action on your first turn of the combat (which in 3.x would have been called flat-footed), and you can't take a reaction until that turn ends.The "immunity to surprise" is really more about reflexes than it is about being surprised. So somebody with the alertness feat is simply faster at reacting to the unexpected. It's not really about educated guesses, it's about training your body to react without conscious thought in my mind.For the musicians out there, think of it like learning to play a fast line in a piece of music. Your fingers move faster than your brain. This is the same thing, the body acts instinctively.An example:One of the few uses of a reaction is the shield spell. So the assassin is hidden and undetected. We'll say he's using a bow. Normally, the conditions are perfect, the assassin is undetected, and he takes his shot. Because they are surprised, they are unable to react. But somebody with Alertness picks up the slightest clue - a glimpse of the arrow from the corner of their eye, sort of an innate sense, and reacts, casting their shield spell.Yes, the assassin was undetected, and remained so. But as soon as the arrow was loosed, there was something new to detect. Most people miss it altogether, but somebody with alertness picks up and reacts instinctively.And bows don't creak. But that does allow a real life example. Bow hunters typically don't like their chances from anything more than about 30 yards out. One of the reasons why is because the bow string (and other pieces of equipment) does. There are mufflers available, but it still makes noise. And a deer has amazing senses and reflexes, and that is enough to make the difference between a kill shot and a deer being injured with an arrow. The deer could have been standing with 10 of its human friends, and it would be the only one that would have reacted - without even thinking about it. That to me is alertness in action.</blockquote>

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