Alright so here's the story. My kitsune cleric was attacked in the first round of combat and crited to death in our campaign. As a cleric with the Subdomain of Love I should have been able to use Adoration the moment I was targeted unless flat footed. The issue here is that the creature that attacked was in disguise but I realized something was amiss and before it attacked made a Perception check that positively identified the creature. Since this was made the round before it attacked my cleric should not have been taken by surprise and thus considered flat footed right? Seeing as the round before I did see it coming.
Thank you for any and all responses! ^^
I would say that most of this depends on your GM. Because you were able to identify it as an enemy before combat actually started, I would say that there shouldn't be a surprise round, or that you should at least be able to act in it if there was. At the same time, however, you would still be considered flat-footed until you actually acted in the initiative order. That means, regardless of surprise round, if the enemy was able to act before you, then you'd be dead. If you were able to act before the enemy, then you should get your ability.
Again, this has a lot of GM fiat. Just because you recognized the thing as an enemy, doesn't mean you were ready for it to jump you, for instance...
Thanks for the response but now another question if ya dont mind my GM decided on a surprise round. Since there was one and my character should have been prepared for it should my sharacter get to roll initiative indepndantly from the rest of the group seeing as he was the only one to see it coming? This giving me a 10% chance of living cause I'd have to roll a 19 or 20 to match its initiative @.@
That is the way I would have run it.
Since not everyone in your group knows what's happening (assuming you didn't have time to shout a warning before initiative is rolled), then they are surprised. The monster would not be since attacking was his idea, and you would not be since you identified the threat in the nick of time (for you, if not for your friends).
So, yes, surprise round and yes, you should have rolled initiative. At least, that's how I would have done it based on what you've written here.
And as El Cubano said, you're still flat-footed until it is your turn to act, regardless of whether it's a surprise round or not.
During the surprise round, if the monster wins initiative, I would expect it to act against the only threat who recognized it. If your cleric (or your cleric's player) claims that you want to hide your reaction so the monster cannot tell you recognized it, then you Bluff and it Senses Motive. If it knows you recognized it, you are top of the list for it's first target. Of course, it only gets one attack during a surprise round. If that one attack is a crit and you die, well, them's the breaks.
Although, I personally would question the motives, or at least the story-telling ability of a GM who crits PCs to death in surprise rounds, but I'll give yours the benefit of the doubt that you all like to play sudden-death hardcore games and you're all OK with this kind of thing and your GM knows that - or that he has a different plan for you...
That is the way I would have run it.
Since not everyone in your group knows what's happening (assuming you didn't have time to shout a warning before initiative is rolled), then they are surprised. The monster would not be since attacking was his idea, and you would not be since you identified the threat in the nick of time (for you, if not for your friends).
So, yes, surprise round and yes, you should have rolled initiative. At least, that's how I would have done it based on what you've written here.
And as El Cubano said, you're still flat-footed until it is your turn to act, regardless of whether it's a surprise round or not.
During the surprise round, if the monster wins initiative, I would expect it to act against the only threat who recognized it. If your cleric (or your cleric's player) claims that you want to hide your reaction so the monster cannot tell you recognized it, then you Bluff and it Senses Motive. If it knows you recognized it, you are top of the list for it's first target. Of course, it only gets one attack during a surprise round. If that one attack is a crit and you die, well, them's the breaks.
Although, I personally would question the motives, or at least the story-telling ability of a GM who crits PCs to death in surprise rounds, but I'll give yours the benefit of the doubt that you all like to play sudden-death hardcore games and you're all OK with this kind of thing and your GM knows that - or that he has a different plan for you...
Hey thank you so much for the reply this answered all my questions and more and should give my character a very slight chance of surviving which I would love since I poured over 10 hours into his creation ^^' So truly thank you for this answer. As far as sudden death goes? Well it didn't come up as to whether or not we agreed to it but I probably would have I just wouldn't have expected the death of my character in the very first combat roll. Honestly I think my GM is an amazing storyteller and that's why I joined her campaign I just got bad luck with the crit. She seemed really sad about it and everything. But because I adore this character I wanted to make sure if there was anything I could do within the rules to give him a slight chance. Now he has one if my GM agrees to this and that is to say like a hair's fraction of a chance but its still better than just plain dead and I want to thank you for that truly. ^^
You're welcome.
If nothing else, let your GM know what you said here, that you'd like her to find a story way to bring him back. He is a cleric, maybe his god is not done with his mortal body and sends him back, perhaps with a divine geas on him. Or maybe a wealthy NPC uses Speak With Dead to chat you up and get you to promise to work for him for a year and a day if he raises you. Or whatever.
Even at first level, death is not necessarily permanent.
My personal take is that if the GM kills a PC, then the GM should find a way to fix it. But, if a PC dies because he does something stupid/suicideal, like wandering away from his party or leaping off a cliff to try to land on a flying monster (but misses), etc., then I let the player deal with the consequences. Not all GMs see it this way, but it's always worked for me, and maybe it will for your GM too.