Sneak Attack into Initiative and combat.

[Gwiber]

Situation I came up to recently, that I found rather odd.

I was in stealth as a Rogue. My enemy by passed my hiding place, missed its perception roll, and allowed me to make a sneak attack before initiative.

That resolved. The DM made us roll initiative, and I, of course, was beaten in the initiative order (my luck, and all).

When the enemy turned to attack me, The DM asked me my Armor class: flat footed.

That's my issue. If I got the jump on him, why am I flat-footed?? I initiated the combat with my sneak attack. I;m pretty sure, I knew he was there, and he wasn't getting the jump on me in combat

The DM insisted the rules state after a ambush. you proceed with combat as normal, is this really what happens in this particular situation, or is there a rule about it we have missed?

[The Elusive Jackalope]

You shouldn't have been flat-footed. You had a surprise round in which you attacked and therefore had already acted during the combat. You are only flat-footed until you have taken an action. Your GM is an idiot; his ruling makes no sense from either a logic or a rule standpoint.

[A Snooty Gnome]

The Elusive Jackalope wrote:

You shouldn't have been flat-footed. You had a surprise round in which you attacked and therefore had already acted during the combat. You are only flat-footed until you have taken an action. Your GM is an idiot; his ruling makes no sense from either a logic or a rule standpoint.

And, we're done. End of thread.

[Karlgamer]

You can't attack outside of initiative... Unless you're a trap.

If you attacked and the other person didn't see you. You attacked in the surprise round. One standard action.

[Ninja in the Rye]

Quote:

Surprise

When a combat starts, if you are not aware of your opponents and they are aware of you, you're surprised.

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 Perception 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. In initiative order (highest to lowest), combatants who started the battle aware of their opponents each take a standard or move 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.

The surprise round is part of the combat, so if you've acted in a surprise round you're not flat footed once everyone else joins the Initiative.

[StreamOfTheSky]

What the Ninja said.

He's the subject matter expert, after all. Not that anyone he attacks lives long enough for the OP's issue to spring up.