Suprise Attack

[Crom]

Is it possible to attack enemies by suprise in this game?

Because, what i tried to do is. I discovered bandit camp. So i went into sneak mode with entire party, I put them behind enemies and launched attack.

Result was this:

Attack with Karlach: Miss, Second attack critical for 3 damage.

Then Bandits - All of them attacked my entire party.

Before i could play with any othe character, Lazlel was dead, and all other with 90% health loss.

Strategicly i did everything right.

And still lost battle before first round.

Bandits are lvl 5. Im lvl 4.

[Captain_Narol]

It's easier if you have a Gloomseeker and/or an Assassin in the group, they get huge boosts on first round.

Only the character with who you attack first has the advantage of surprise, but if your team members have high initiative, it's possible to have them all attack before the ennemy reacts and neutralize a few of them from the get-go.

[Pan Darius Cassandra]

There's a bandit camp?

[wtiger27]

Yes it is. Alert is one perk, I get for all my companions as soon as they turn level 4. Going first in a fight, is very beneficial.

[JuX]

To trigger ambush, you need to be sneaking and attack enemy while within their vision. So you need to succeed a stealth check.

Once you done the surprise you can bring your party in to combat.

[Favonius]

Depends what difficulty you're playing, but yes it's possible and a valid tactics. Not sure it can be done for every encounter though.
To have a chance to surprise the opponents, i think you must hide first. Better to do that with your highest-init character anyway.

If ennemy is surprised, you have a whole free round.
If not, but you have hiden and split your group, you have the possibility, for each other character entering fight, to deliver an attack as if you had initiative. But you can do this only when it's the turn of your already-engaged character.
On lowest difficulties this attack is free i think (to be confirmed). Otherwise that first attack will spend your action.
Assassins always have a free-action in this case, and above some level auto-crit on surprised ennemies (they're pretty op when it comes to assassination, surprisingly)

Note that in your case (you're in the zenth hideout i guess), what kills your group is likewisely the tons of gunpowder barrels around the place... better not be there when the first fire arrow will fly, and better not use fire yourself without some care

[Crom]

So if i understand it correctly, all i can do is, i have 1 action with one character as a "Suprise" and then normal combat rules comence, right?

[Riley]

Originally posted by Crom:

So if i understand it correctly, all i can do is, i have 1 action with one character as a "Suprise" and then normal combat rules comence, right?

Not exactly. When you sneak around, areas where enemies might see you show up in red. If you attack someone without going into this red area, then your first attack happens immediately but nothing else changes. (If you're dual-wielding, your bonus action attack will also happen immediately.) If you go into the red area, you have to make a Stealth check to avoid detection, but if a character succeeds on that check and then attacks, your enemies won't be able to act in the first round of combat. Does that make sense?

Here's[bg3.wiki] what the BG3 Wiki says about this.

[Crom]

Mmmm, i think i slightly understand, I think i will try to make Sneaky character on some another walkthrough to experience that.

My party now is Cleric, Karlach, Shadow, Lazel

[Riley]

BTW, the entire party has to be sneaking, but only 1 person has to go into the red area, succeed on a stealth check, and attack. Once they do, all you have to do is make sure everyone else attacks before you pass the turn.

[Riley]

Oh, and 1 more thing. The best way to make a character for this is taking 5 levels in Gloomstalker and 4 in Assassin. Here's a guide where I go in-depth on making a sneaky character who deals 4-digit damage in a surprise round.

[Crom]

Sounds like fun, i will definetly try something sneaky in a future :))

[armyissue69]

Tactics, when employing tactics against a larger foe, try pulling. I will give you an example. The Bridge to the goblin camp; Set up a couple of oil/fire barrels, send a scout forward to initiate the pull and have everyone else stealthed to the rear across the bridge. once the horde arrives, have someone light the bridge on fire while your tanky/zerker awaits there arrival at the start of the fire. Once everyone is in the fire zone, light em up with your support members.

Anytime you stumble into something that seems overwhelming, fall back/pull. You need to put the enemy into a dash so they cannot attack and need to catch up to the closer members. This allows you to focus on destroying as many targets/whittle down enemy as quick as possible.

Some of the toughest fights can be mitigated by making them chase you through a doorway. A lil blade barrier also goes a long way.

[Raz]

If the enemy gets the buff "Temporarily Hostile" they cannot get the Surprise round because they are aware of you seeking since they see you as an ally. There are some groups of said enemies that are exceptions to this such as Goblins. Don't ask me why, I don't know, and ones who are not, like the Duergar with Nere.

If you one shot the target then you won't get Surprise neither because the initial target doesn't get the chance to become aware of you and subsequent enemies find you because of investigating the new body on the floor.

[alanc9]

Originally posted by JuX:

To trigger ambush, you need to be sneaking and attack enemy while within their vision. So you need to succeed a stealth check.

I never understood this part of the design. You outmaneuver the enemy completely, so you can't get a surprise round?

[Raz]

Originally posted by JuX:

To trigger ambush, you need to be sneaking and attack enemy while within their vision. So you need to succeed a stealth check.

Once you done the surprise you can bring your party in to combat.

You got it backwards. You need to not trigger a stealth check. If you succeed the stealth check, they go into investigation mode which is where they can directly spot you without Surprise round.

Surprise round is triggered from the enemy becoming aware of you IMMEDIATELY after taking damage which means they succeeded the stealth check and if you triggered a stealth check, this also means you attacked the enemy outside of their vision cone as a Stealth Check is only triggered outside of their vision, not within unless the target you hit outright died from your sneak attack.