It took me 11 Levels to figure out, why my Assassin cant assassinate.
0:00: Thief attempts a sneak attack. No refresh of Actions, Combat is initiated and the Thief can only play out the remaining Actions. Just as it should be 0:24: Assassin attempts the same from Real Time Mode. Actions are refreshed, but the Surprised Condition is not applied. 0:45: Assassin attemts a Sneak Attack from Turn Based Mode. This time the Surprised Condition is applied AFTER the attack and after the Dialogue. Surprised is then available for the second attack available through Assassin Initiative.
In each example the NPC initiates a dialogue and is clearly aware of my presence, so they should not be Surprised anymore. Instead, the first attack which was actually a surprise should trigger the Effect. It is also bugged since the Condition cant be applied outside of TBM, and lets be honest, how many fights are initiated that way? Up to that point i had not a single one, thats why i learned the way to trigger it that late.
Suggestion for a Fix: Any NPC not in Combat should have the Surprised Condition by default if the Assassin was not spotted in the last 10 Turns or so. That way the first Attack which initiates Combat would trigger all 3 Assassin Abilities. Well kinda.
1) Assassin Initiative would have no effect as an attack from Stealth has Advantage anyway. It would still work for the following Turns. 2) Assassin Ambush would deal the critical hit on the first attack, no matter if the attack was made from RTM or TBM. It happens before a Dialoge and before Turn Based Combat starts automatically. It would fit better for an "assassination", take out the Enemy before they can call for help. 3) Assassin Alacrity would then trigger afterwards. If the target survives, it can enter its "Alert Mode", play the Dialogue, and the Assassin gains the additional Turn, at which point combat is initiated already and nearby hostiles become aware of what happened.
