[RPG] When exactly does combat start and surprise take effect

combatdnd-5einitiativesurprise

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.

  1. 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.
  2. 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:

The DM determines who might be surprised. If neither side tries to be stealthy, they automatically notice each other. Otherwise, the DM 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.

Surprise occurs within initiative, as noted in the "Combat Step-by-Step" sidebar in the "The Order of Combat" section:

  1. Determine surprise. The DM determines whether anyone involved in the combat encounter is surprised.
  2. [...]
  3. Roll initiative. Everyone involved in the combat encounter rolls initiative, determining the order of combatants' turns.
  4. [...]

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.