1. The enemies are no longer flat-footed, and all future rounds will be regular combat rounds. However, the enemies still lose their Dex modifier to AC against attacks from a successfully stealthed attacker.
2. The enemies should act as they logically would. It would presumably take several minutes before they would determine that the PCs were no longer nearby, and return to their previous location. However, now being aware that something knows where they are and seems intent on attacking them, they'll likely be more vigilant, keep better lookout, and (if applicable) inform some higher authority of the issue.
Assuming the PCs then successfully sneak up on them again, a new combat will begin, with a new surprise round.
3. All of the combatants who are aware get to act in the surprise round. After the surprise round, the regular rounds begin, where everyone gets to act (including those who were not aware earlier). There's no "standard action only" penalty for being unaware. Rather, the penalty was "you didn't get to act in the surprise round".
As in #1, enemies will still lose Dex to AC against stealthed/invisible/etc opponents, regardless of their flat-footed status.
Awareness is kind of confusing, here's how I personally handle it.
If stealth is not involved, then I use the following rule :
Assume the perceptor's take 10 on perception. Assume the DC to notice someone is 10. That means they will see someone when their take 10 can get 10 with distance penalties. So how far away that is depends on the distance. It's a -1 per 10 ft, so at 100ft, the 'take 10' is used up. What this means is, it works out that they spot someone at a distance of 10ft * Perception. So if they have a perception of 8, they notice people at 80 ft. Obviously terrain can effect this (flat open plains can give a bonus, forests or canyons a penalty).
DC 10 = 10 + Ranks - (Ft/10)
0 = Ranks - (Ft/10)
Ranks = (Ft/10)
Ranks*10 = Ft
Now, if we're talking bout stealthing with guards or ambushers, I tend to use the following, which is related. Basically, they get noticed at a distance of (Perception - Stealth) * 10 ft. If Stealth is higher than perception, then the stealth person can sneak up to within 50 feet, at which point they have to start making rolls every round, and so does the observer. This works, I've found, pretty good for quick dirty 'how far can someone sneak up before being noticed'.
Do remember that any bonuses (for the observer or the stealth person) basically add to their effective rank.
DC 10 + Stealth = 10 + Perception - (ft/10)
Stealth = Perception - ft/10
ft/10 = (Perception - Stealth)
ft = 10*(Perception - Stealth)
Are is mostly right. Any effect that causes an opponent to lose its Dex bonus to AC is the definition of flat-footed. Also note that a surpirse round ONLY consist of a single action (standard OR move) and does not allow any action that would require a full-round action.
Any effect that causes an opponent to lose its Dex bonus to AC is the definition of flat-footed.
That's not the case. The flat-footed condition only applies to characters who haven't yet acted in a combat.
There are multiple other ways to make someone lose Dex to AC (such as through stealth, via feint, etc), but those don't actually make you flat-footed. This distinction is important for a couple of reasons, for instance because you can't use immediate actions when you're flat-footed.
You are correct. Apalogies. I was thinking all the way back to 3.5 when flat-footed simply meant no Dex to AC.
|
The stealth rules are confusing and unpleasant regarding creatures with unusual senses. Paizo tried to clean them up, but abandoned the project when it turned out that changing stealth enough to make it really work, would alter the page numbering in the CRB (causing references in other books to become incorrect). Apparently that was sufficient reason to scrap the attempt.
Fortunately, those rules can still be found in for example this book, which I recommend. It outlines the basic stealth rules, the interaction with exotic class abilities and monster senses, and gives enough examples to clarify it all.
All of these things are very helpful, thank you all. I wish that the rules for surprise and awareness were covered more in depth in the books.
3. All of the combatants who are aware get to act in the surprise round. After the surprise round, the regular rounds begin, where everyone gets to act (including those who were not aware earlier). There's no "standard action only" penalty for being unaware. Rather, the penalty was "you didn't get to act in the surprise round".
The standard action question was because in the surprise round you're allowed only a standard action, or a move action, so my question was really about if some opponents are unaware of a hidden PC, should I only treat them as lacking the DEX bonus if the PC takes the move or standard action?
You could have asked me to edit it the original post so that people would still know what the question was. Someone flagged dat?