D&D 2024 PHB Suprise Rules

[alvaconklin]

Does anyone know of a smooth way to handle the new surprise rules from the new PHB. It doesn't seem like there is a way to make the auto initiative roll with disadvantage. This leaves you with adding them to the tracker and rolling individual initiatives for each enemy, which is time consuming.

[Moon Wizard]

There is nothing yet that I've seen; and it's not something we've had time to look at. I assume it would need a mechanism to set whether PC/NPC surprised before NPCs added (i.e. init auto generated on add) or PCs roll their initiative.

Regards,
JPG

[Vass_Dts]

You can create an effect with a 1-round duration in the effects panel, that gives that disadvantage to Init. So, when you as the DM determine surprise, select any character, have them target all surprised characters (including themselves if necessary), and apply the effect. Then roll init. (you can also drag the effect directly to the surprised characters from the effects window if we are talking about a few chars. But if there's a lot of them, select=>targeting is faster IMO).

Do note that you don't have to roll each individual NPC for init. In the CT menu, under Initiative, there is a 'Roll NPC Initiatives' option, which will roll all initiatives for all NPCs that are in the CT. You can still do that even if you have the setting to have the NPCs be assigned an auto init score on CT add (which is a setting I personally have set to off. I often have NPCs in the CT that are not in combat, and if we are not in combat, there is no reason to have Initiative--but that's just my personal preference).

EDIT: Pro-tip: have the Surprised effect expire on ROLL, so as soon as they roll initiative, the effect will expire, to reduce effects clutter and you don't have to wait 1 round for that thing to expire.

[johnecc]

And for clarity, the effect you need is: DISINIT