Rogue's assassinate: ambush working as intended?

[Apakawata]

Assassinate: Ambush - "Any successful attack roll against a surprised creature is a critical hit."

If you hide, sneak up on an enemy, then attack them this ability does not trigger. After the attack the creature gains the surprised condition and the ability will then guarantee a critical on a follow-up attack.

I would expect that if you sneak up on an enemy and attack them before they've even rolled initiate then it would be treated as an attack against a surprised enemy. This does not seem to be the case, is this intended?

[Robin]

Yeeeeah, that doesn't seem to be the intended way for that to work. Also though, if an assassin is out of combat, sneaks up while the barbarian has already started combat, and surprises the enemies? Not only does it not get the critical hit, the assassin doesn't regain their action/bonus action like the class feature says they should due to it being a combat that had already started.

So that feature only works if you have them be the one to initiate combat. No talking first, then having the rogue come from stealth as a surprise ambush. No barbarian charging in as a distraction before the rogue assassinates someone while everyone's eyes are on the big guy. It makes the subclass option feel like not having taken a subclass in more than half the situations it should shine.

[Apakawata]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3016165828

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3016165758

[Andrey]

Well the part that it doesnt work on an enemy that is already in combat makes sense, since they are awake that theres present danger, its more of the unawake target that was not expecting any hostile action. Like a dozing gaurd or an enemy that never saw you approach.

But yeah the fact that it doesnt even trigger on opener is just wrong. There seems to be lot of enemies that are just immune to the surprised condition. Like the goblins in the cave near the grove, they instantly engage on a stealth attack

[Brother FatBoi]

The Assassin: Ambush feature is bugged and is currently not working at all, making the most popular Rogue subclass useless

[Lasermormor]

It is working, just not the way its seemingly intended to work. There's also other bugs involved by the looks of it.

- If you open up on an enemy with the rogue, the dmgevent comes before the surprise status is set, and thus it doesnt trigger on the first attack, it will however trigger on the 2nd attack. (tho, because you're no longer in stealth, and noone else is near the mob, you dont have advantage and you cant sneak attack)

- The surprise status itself is inconsistent when opening up from melee in stealth, if another mobs line of sight cone covers your position when you open up, mobs seem to just instantly engage after you've done dmg, and no surprise status is set at all. (Im guessing its related again to the surprise status being set after the dmgevent, and because you unstealth prior to sneak attacking, the other mobs see you before the dmgevent happens, and thus surprised isnt set at all)

- Assassin's alacrity is also bugged when the rogue enters an ongoing battle from stealth. If you start combat with a different partymember and trigger the surprised status, while the rogue remains in stealth, the rogue sneak attack from stealth will trigger Assassinate: Ambush, but it will not refresh the action/bonus action upon entering combat with the sneak attack.

So to make this 'semi-work', you make sure no other mobs have their line of sight cone aimed at the mob you want to assassinate, you open up with sneak attack, which wont trigger Assassinate: Ambush, but will trigger suprise and refresh your action/bonus action, and then step afew yards off, restealth with Cunning action: Hide, and sneak attack the mob again which will trigger Assassinate: Ambush.

This is also easiest done with turn-based mode turned on as you engage. Hopefully Larian fixes this before long.