Why can't you surprise the enemy? (Update)

[gusngregg]

"A magic missile hit me out of the blue, no biggie"

[TheScavv]

I noticed this too. I guess you actually need the enemy to be able to see you immediately after the hit lands to trigger the surprise effect and initiate combat. This would definitely qualify as a bug. Certainly it should be better to ambush an enemy and remain unseen.

[heartoffire]

Making sure they see who attacked them in order to get the drop on them seems a little counterintuitive, but from an under-the-hood mechanical point of view I see how it makes sense. Thank you for sharing - had a lot of similarly confusing situations in my playthroughs.

[regeman]

i don't even try to surprise the enemies in bg3. Which is sad because it is one of the main components of planning a fight in DnD games

[petermaguire]

Science at work - observing what happens, making hypothesis, testing them out and uosating them based on new findings - goid going!

[SumoChild]

Wow i'm glad I found this thought I was going crazy. I've seen so many videos explaining how to do surprise rounds and most have stated to just make sure turn based is on then you're good to go. I knew something else was up as I've been getting inconsistencies. Well done brother.

The only other problem now is when you attack an enemy with a yellow outline and the narrator goes "YoU WeRe SeEn AtTaCkInG SoMeOnE." Yes Ma'am! I did please lordy gimme my surprise round.

[Thegafarov]

Thanks for the simple and precise explanation. When I search for a question like this, I usually get 15 minute “explanations”, which is the last thing I need. I immediately knew from the duration that this was the right video. Kudos to you!

[alyoshamikhaylov]

Okay so it wasnt just me.

Everybody remember the first "big" fight with the goblin in front of the druid groves yeah?

So i ungrouped the crew, and just let Astareon sneaking in front and kill one of the goblin. Because the goblin was instantly killed, Astareon was not being seen immediately. After that, the rest of the enemy were "looking" for the attacker and spotted Astareon which instantly started the fight without surprised.
Weird thing is, the rest of the crew, which were far away from the area and SNEAKING as well, also got spotted

[davidmills]

Excellent! Nonsensical combat mechanics, but excellent you figured it out. I do feel like I don't get surprise in Moonrise and in the Adamantine forge area on the Duergar there. I feel like something about the "you've attacked someone" cutscene/dialogue glitches surprise... sometimes, especially in those two areas. I've gotten that dialogue and surprise, but usually don't. Even when not killing the enemy and having line of sight, and of course being stealthed.

[xVoidBerry]

this is super interesting, was wondering why it wasn't working

thanks for the information :)

[Ovenman]

Maybe I'm missing something due to no D&D experience but it is annoying when this happens. I can sneak up on an enemy, attack them, and be killed before I get to finish that character's turn and walk away. Or, if I do survive, I've lost the action for that turn. You might as well walk into the encounter normally if you can't surprise them & benefit from more knowledge about the enemy's actions.

[ВладиславБулаев-лэ]

Dude, your Dragonborn looks awesome! Sorry, I just like to see how people customize them. The best looking race, in my opinion.

[SuperEffector]

Yep this is what I found out last week, I was testing an Assassin build and decided to try it on Aylin at camp, I realised something was up immediately when I attacked from behind a rock and didn’t get surprise. First thing I thought of was sight.

[Azrael]

Just learn the cheeky quasit spell to a wizard and have free guaranteed suprise rounds on every combat you initiate.

[redelephantsdotnl]

The most reliably way to get it, is to get a summon [Basketshovelfork is excellent at this], make it invisible and have that one attack someone. It'll die, but you can now sneak everyone into position and use the surprise round.

[lendial]

this is amazing, surprise is such a weird mechanic to master and one of the most important. I am guessing some encounters are impossible to get surprise on such as the windmill battle in blighted village.

[themanthemyth]

I surprised duergars in the underworld ambush cause i didn't go straight down, instead i went on the second path to the right, went inside the cabin which made them surprised

[pauleugenio]

Makes so much sense now 😆
I was wondering wtf was happening. I thought it was a hidden initiative check of something 🎲

[fritness]

Is the case with mephit on 1:16 with line of sight? It might work that way because your character succeded a stealth check. In that case you never surprise enemies, 'cause they don't know you're there yet. They just investigate where the attack came from, then they see a character and a fight begins without surprise.

[SLEEPYDOGINU]

Can you surprise bosses? You're able to sneak around even the most major big bosses before combat so I wonder?