I may be wrong, but it seems the OP decided that the Wis/Con bonus of unarmored defense would remain in play during surprise, but he would take away the Dex bonus from all characters for being "flatfooted". While It isn't something I would do in my games, it is a little more balanced at least. And it shows that he was at least willing to listen to the objections mentioned in this thread to moderate his ruling.
Of course he still has to get buy off from his players. Unless he is doing the old, "I am the Dungeon Master! I control your world and you will submit to my whims!" trope, but I hope not.
I have made quite a few house rules of my own, but the players vetoed one of them. I personally hate the "I'm got better!" effect of a nights sleep and tried to rule that they needed to use Hit Dice and magical healing to restore Hit Points over night. To me this would allow for a slow wearing down of the adventurers over multiple days of fighting, exploring and adventure. It also puts a greater emphasis on healing resources. Also...
Well I'll stop there. I have lots of reasons why I like it. But it doesn't matter, because my players unanimously rejected the idea.
Ultimately they agreed that it didn't make sense to just sleep and get better, but they figured that magical healing and skills were assumed in the 8 hours of rest and the specifics could just be hand-waved. So I capitulated.
Of course he still has to get buy off from his players. Unless he is doing the old, "I am the Dungeon Master! I control your world and you will submit to my whims!" trope, but I hope not.
I have made quite a few house rules of my own, but the players vetoed one of them. I personally hate the "I'm got better!" effect of a nights sleep and tried to rule that they needed to use Hit Dice and magical healing to restore Hit Points over night. To me this would allow for a slow wearing down of the adventurers over multiple days of fighting, exploring and adventure. It also puts a greater emphasis on healing resources. Also...
Well I'll stop there. I have lots of reasons why I like it. But it doesn't matter, because my players unanimously rejected the idea.
Ultimately they agreed that it didn't make sense to just sleep and get better, but they figured that magical healing and skills were assumed in the 8 hours of rest and the specifics could just be hand-waved. So I capitulated.
