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Message: <blockquote data-quote="howandwhy99" data-source="post: 5890531" data-attributes="member: 3192">During the standard Move & Sense phase of exploration in D&D we often get the chance to surprise or be surprised by creatures and traps. However, the Surprise Check has been subsumed in the skill list as Spot or Perception thereby removing it from an exploration system to a list of non-referential terms.My question is, should we take system rolls out of the skill list? We already do so with rolls like attacks, damage, saving throws, and the like. The focus they receive during play and custom variations because of it seems obvious.For the sake of an example for discussion, I thought we could use checking for potential surprise prior to an encounter. With the element of surprise a party could hide, move to avoid, set up an ambush, get early attacks, or even ignore a potential threat (like when arguing on what to do while the seconds tick by). While surprise is in part related to encounters and their difficulty, I find surprise also relates to how the potential for encounters affects players game play during exploration and what they do to handle it. An environment full of difficult to notice traps and surprising creatures increases its difficulty to explore, even if those challenges are weaker when finally confronted.The difficulty to gain surprise on a particular creature or find a particular trap factors into their individual difficulty too, but this only relates to prior-encounter play - just like evasion, pursuit, and likelihood to take prisoners relate to post-encounter play - both squarely in the exploration phase.</blockquote>

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