Surprise Attacks and Initiative
Surprise Attacks and Initiative
When the PCs surprise a group of adversaries, or vice versa, the surprised party may not be able to react immediately. In this case, the attackers should get one or more "free turns." The GM is responsible for determining when the attackers have achieved surprise.
A character with Combat Reflexes is rarely surprised, and will never "freeze." He also gets +6 on all IQ rolls to recov- er from surprise. Note that many wild animals have Combat Reflexes.
Total Surprise
When the defenders are taken completely by surprise, they "freeze." The GM rolls 1d. This is the number of seconds that pass before the defenders can react at all. Until that time is up, they are mentally stunned and must take the Do Nothing maneuver. Exception: Those with Combat Reflexes never freeze, and treat total surprise as partial surprise.
Adventurers, guards, etc. rarely suffer total surprise unless they are actually asleep. But total surprise would be appropriate if a group of werewolves came charging through the door of the local library. (In fact, such an extreme case might justify a Fright Check – at least for the librarian.)
After the initial "freeze" ends, each defender must roll against his basic IQ at the start of his turn until he recovers. On a success, he must take Do Nothing that turn, but can act normally for the rest of the combat. On a failure, he is still mentally stunned; he may roll again at the start of his next turn. A low-IQ character, taken totally by surprise, could miss the whole combat!
Partial Surprise
This may occur when the defenders were expecting trouble ... or when each party surprised the other! The GM should require each side to roll for initiative.
To determine who gets the initiative, the leader of each side rolls 1d. A leader with Combat Reflexes gets +2, or +1 if he doesn't have Combat Reflexes but someone else on his side does (this bonus is not cumulative for more than one character). The leader with the higher IQ gets +1. Having even one point in Tactics skill gives +1 on initiative rolls; Tactics at level 20+ gives +2. The GM can apply other modifiers as he sees fit; e.g., if he thinks one side was more alert than the other.
If one side is totally leaderless, the GM rolls for them. They get an automatic -2 to initiative. (This does not apply to animals or any other group with IQ 5 or less.)
The side that gets the highest roll gets the initiative, and can move and act normally. Everyone on the other side is mentally stunned, and must make IQ rolls on their turns, as described for total surprise, to snap out of it. However, with partial surprise, there is a +1 bonus to IQ on the second turn, +2 on the third turn, and so on ... even low IQ characters catch on after a few seconds. Note that animals often have Combat Reflexes, which counteracts their low IQ.
If the initiative roll is a tie, nobody was taken by surprise.