When a combat starts, if you are not aware of your opponents and they are aware of you, you're surprised.
Determining Awareness
Sometimes all the combatants on a side are aware of their opponents, sometimes none are, and sometimes only some of them are. Sometimes a few combatants on each side are aware and the other combatants on each side are unaware.
Determining awareness may call for
Listen checks,
Spot checks, or other checks.
The Surprise Round: If some but not all of the combatants are aware of their opponents, a surprise round happens before regular rounds begin. Any combatants aware of the opponents can act in
the surprise round, so they roll for
initiative. In
initiative order (highest to lowest), combatants who started the battle aware of their opponents each take a
standard action during
the surprise round. You can also take
free actions during
the surprise round. If no one or everyone is surprised, no surprise round occurs.
Unaware Combatants: Combatants who are unaware at the start of battle don't get to act in
the surprise round.
Unaware combatants are flat-footed because they have not acted yet, so they lose any Dexterity bonus to AC.
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