Musings on dndnext surprise

"The same way, I am not a fan of the surprise system. Just going last seems a tad lame if you are ambushed, and it also creates combats where you have 7 monsters going together every round, something which I have worked hard to avoid since 2e, since that usually leads to a higher number of TPK’s in my games. And as my players will tell you, even if not asked, there are more than enough TPK’s in my campaigns."

After thinking about it for a couple of days, I figured I wanted to expand on my thoughts about surprise.

As I see it, the problem with dndnext surprise is two-fold. As mentioned earlier, the -20 penalty to those surprised will cause PCs and monsters to act in bundles. While is is certainly easy to track and speeds up combat somewhat, it also risks creating static combats with some nasty focus fire. Don't get me wrong, I am all for intelligent monsters using focus fire on PC's, but I also firmly believe that the PC's should be able to do something about it. I also don't find it realistic (always a dangerous word to use when talking about D&D rules) that we have a lot of combats where you have one side acting, then the other. There should be greater variety. And having monsters act in bundles does have a tendency to create TPKs, simply because if 4 smart monsters can act without any PC being able to interfere, chances are that they can do some very, very nasty things a PC. At least that's how it's been for a long time in my campaigns.

Another issue I have with the new surprise is that it creates weaker ambushes.

Lets make an example. 4 PCs and 4 monsters. The monsters are ambushing the PCs. For the sake of the examples, everyone has the same modifier.

Assuming all 4 PCs are surprised. Monsters roll 12, 14, 16 and 18, PC's roll 13, 15, 17 and 19.
In 4e:
1st round (Surprise): All monsters act once
2nd round: PCs and monsters alternate their turns

In Next:
1st round: All monsters act once, then all PC's act
2nd round: All monsters act once, then all PC's act

So, in the first example, the monsters will have one round of focus fire, then one of them get to act before a PC gets to re-act, and presumably do something that changes the course of battle. In the second example, the monsters will act once, then all the PC's can re-act and change the battle. Clearly, the 4e surprise round is more unforgiving, especially if the monsters roll higher initiative than the PCs, you could easily have a situation where the monsters get to act twice before any PC's get to act.

In my book, that is a good thing. Ambush should lethal. It should be an option to put pressure on players, so that when they are ambushed by goblins they are in for a fight, and when they are ambushed by a dragon, they shit their pants. Ambush in dndnext seems a bit meh. I mean, being surprised is no different than rolling lower than your opponents. Imagine a fight where the PCs turn a corner and run into a dragon.

Dragon rolls a 20
PCs roll 8, 12, 13 and 17

And the situation is exactly the same as if the dragon had been hiding and sprung an ambush on them. I definitely do not like that.

Summing up:
Pro's:

• Very easy to understand and use
• Speeds up combat

Con's:

• Makes for a weak ambush
• Makes groups go in bundles, creating static combats
• Makes it hard to re-act to what happens, especially considering that dndnext seems to remove out-of-turn actions.

There more I think about it, the more I do not like the new surprise. I am however looking forward actually playtesting it (in 1 week!), to see if I was right or not.