[RPG] How does initiative work when teleporting into combat

combatdnd-5einitiativeteleportation

A Wizard PC Teleports their party from a safe place directly to the location of a group of foes, who the party intends to attack.

If the foes did not know this was about to happen, they should be surprised.

How does initiative work in this situation – does the Teleport take place on the Wizard's first turn in combat, or prior to combat entirely? To illustrate why I am confused, there are a few possible adjudications below.

  1. The moment the Wizard decides they want to Teleport into combat, initiative is rolled. The Wizard casts Teleport on their turn, which may be after the turns of their companions, and teleports to the foes' location. Any foes who rolled higher initiative will no longer be surprised. The Wizard takes their next turn in the second round, in which no foes will be surprised.
  2. At the point the Wizard casts Teleport, they are not in combat. After the spell is cast, (since the party intends to immediately attack) the combat begins, and initative is rolled. The Wizard takes their next turn in the first round, while some foes may still be surprised (depending on their initiative).
  3. Case #1, but the Wizard can use Ready-ing the Teleport spell to effectively turn it into case #2.

Best Answer

I think you are confused about how surprise works:

The GM determines who might be surprised. If neither side tries to be stealthy, they automatically notice each other. Otherwise, the GM compares the Dexterity (Stealth) checks of anyone hiding with the passive Wisdom (Perception) score of each creature on the opposing side. Any character or monster that doesn’t notice a threat is surprised at the start of the encounter.

If you’re surprised, you can’t move or take an action on your first turn of the combat, and you can’t take a reaction until that turn ends. A member of a group can be surprised even if the other members aren’t.

The GM decides who is surprised, not the initiative roll.

So here is how that event would play out.

  1. Wizard teleports into combat
  2. Everyone rolls initiative
  3. Turns start in initiative order
  4. Everyone who is not surprised gets to act while people who are surprised skip their turn
  5. Assuming the PCs have not teleported again before the end of round 1, round 2 of combat would start
  6. Turns begin to take place in initiative order; no one is surprised anymore

For scenario 3:

The wizard cannot ready an action outside of combat, so he could not ready the teleport spell until combat has begun.

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