Say I'm going to ambush an orc. I successfully sneak up on him and I attack. The DM determines that the orc is surprised. The orc happens to get an initiative roll of 19, while I get a 10. How would this work? I can only think of two reasonable resolutions to this.
- The orc, having a higher initiative, goes first. Since he's surprised, he does nothing. Then it's my turn. If the orc survives my attack, it is now his turn, and being that the orc has already gone through his round of surprise, he can now attack me or whatever, and combat proceeds as normal.
- I, having started the combat, go first. If the orc survives my attack, but he is surprised, so he does nothing. It is now my turn again, I attack again. If the orc survives my second attack, it is now his turn, and being that the orc has already gone through his round of surprise, he can now attack me or whatever, and combat proceeds as normal.
Which one of these is correct? neither? Does starting combat secure me a turn/action at the start of initiative order like in option 2? If option 1 is correct, could I ready an action to shoot the orc, effectively granting me a similar first attack as in option 2?
Sorry if this makes no sense.
Best Answer
Interpretation 1 is correct.
The rules for surprise state:
Surprise occurs within initiative, as noted in the "Combat Step-by-Step" sidebar in the "The Order of Combat" section:
If you declare a combat action (e.g. an attack), you roll initiative before the combat action is resolved. If a creature is surprised, that simply means it can't take actions (or bonus actions, since "anything that deprives you of your ability to take actions also prevents you from taking a bonus action") on its first turn of combat, and it can't take reactions (such as opportunity attacks) until its first turn is over.
Any combat action would occur within initiative. You can't ready an attack outside of combat; otherwise, literally every character would have an attack readied as they wander around a dungeon. The point of initiative is to resolve the order in which creatures that are prepared for combat (i.e. not surprised) act.