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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ridley's Cohort" data-source="post: 2202589" data-attributes="member: 545">I believe the most playable definition of "awareness" for purposes of Surprise is "aware and (theorectically) capable of attacking".Awareness is only relevant when resolving the start of Initiative.  If no one can actually fight then you would normally not begin Initiative yet and therefore there is no Surprise possible within the RAW.The idea behind surprise is that a only a subset of potential combatants are involved the fighting at first because the others completely lack plausible targets.  In the simplest example, if I am an Invisble Rogue and I successfully sneak up on you, I should get my first attack for "free".  The Surprise round is a logical extension of this "free" attack to multiple combatants.If the spectre's opponents are on the other side of the door, he is not in Initiative yet.  He lacks a plausible target.  When the door opens the spectre has no automatic advantage with respect to awareness anymore.  Roll Initiative.It is important to look at the overall tactical situation.  Resolving surprise primarily on some vague definition of "awareness" leads to gibberish.  If the Spectre detects half the party, does the other half get to surprise the spectre?  If the party had cast Detect Evil and detected the Spectre, can the golems surprise the party?  Is Detect Evil sufficient to be aware?  What if they expected an evil spectre and open the door to be greeted by an evil dragon?  What if the Arcane Trickster casts Ghost Sound and fools the Fighter into believing there is an enemy behind the door?  Is the Fighter not surprised when it turns out to be true?We can meditate over D&D rule koans like "Perfect knowledge without awareness", "Combat without fighting", "Acting without action" and pretend we understand them, only to trip over the Surprise rules when everyone understands differently in the next game session.  Or we can use a simpler and more narrow definition of awareness that is actually workable.  Choose wisely.</blockquote>

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