At 7th level, the temporal celerity revelation of the oracle's time mystery offers the following advantage:
At 7th level, you can always act in the surprise round, but if you fail to notice the ambush, you act last, regardless of your initiative result (you act in the normal order in following rounds).The rule on the surprise round states:
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.
Here is my question: Does the 7th level temporal celerity revelation power offer any advantage when no one or everyone is surprised?
My guess is that the answer is: No. If no one or everyone is surprised then no surprise round occurs, and, when no surprise round occurs, the 7th level temporal celerity revelation power has no effect.
One could, however, argue that because a 7th level oracle with temporal celerity "can always act in the surprise round" then there is always a surprise round when that oracle starts a battle. If no one or everyone is surprised then the oracle is the only one to act during the surprise round.
What are other people's thoughts? Thank you.
No surprise round, therefore no benefits in the surprise round.
I really think it's as simple as that.