Temporal Celerity (Su): Whenever you roll for initiative, you can roll twice and take either result. 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). At 11th level, you can roll for initiative three times and take any one of the results.
If (for example) i am walking around a corner, and me and some other guy walk into each outer. There is no "ambush". Do I still get a surprise round? (This effectively allowing me to always have surprise round).
Do you think thats how it works?
Per the rules, when both sides are equally surprised there's no surprise round for anyone.
Yeh, but this skill seems to be made to negate that fact. It makes you roll more for initiative, and it looks like, it makes you always have surprise round. Because technically, there's always a surprise round, but if everyone is surprised then no one acts in it. But what if there's a spider on the wall that no one notices, but he notices everyone. The spider gets a surprise round (and just sits there), while I get to act last in said surprise round.
Technically you're wrong, Renen.
]If some but not all of the combatants are aware of their opponents, a surprise round happens before regular rounds begin.
If all combatants are aware of each other, or all combatants are unaware of each other there is no surprise round. It's not a case of there being a surprise round that nobody gets to act in. There is no surprise round.
The point of that part of Temporal Celerity is so that you can you can act in the surprise round, even if you are surprised (although you go last).
Yeh, but this skill seems to be made to negate that fact.
No, it isn't.
Either there is a surprise round, or there isn't (others have quoted the conditions that must be met to have a surprise round).
If there is a surprise round, then you get to act in it, even if you should have been surprised. If there isn't a surprise round, then you don't get to automatically create one and then act in it - there just isn't a surprise round for anyone, including you.
It makes you roll more for initiative,
Correct. You're quick, so quick that you usually go first or nearly first in any combat.
and it looks like, it makes you always have surprise round.
Nope. Only if conditions would already have a surprise round.
Because technically, there's always a surprise round, but if everyone is surprised then no one acts in it.
No, technically there isn't.
If someone is aware of the others before combat, THEN there is a surprise round (unless everyone is aware in which case there is no surprise round). That's it.
"Temporal Celerity" - look those words up. It means you're fast. Very fast. It doesn't mean you're able to predict the future, able to see around corners, or in any other way able to know a combat is about to start. You're just fast. So fast that you often go first, and so fast that even when others are surprised, you get to act.
But not so fast that you get to automatically surprise everyone else, even though you were just as surprised as they are.
But what if there's a spider on the wall that no one notices, but he notices everyone. The spider gets a surprise round (and just sits there), while I get to act last in said surprise round.
You're obviously not talking about a monstrous spider that is about to ambush you, you're talking about a normal spider on the wall watching your hypothetical double-surprise with that other guy coming around the corner, right?
Until this last bit of cheese, I assumed you were just trying to figure out how a rule worked. But really, really, REALLY? You brought up this "spider on the wall" crap?
Did you bring the crackers for that cheese?
I brought cheese cake.