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In D&D 5e, if a Gloom Stalker Ranger uses their Dread Ambusher feature's secondary attack on a creature during a surprise round (whether on the same target or a different one), is that creature still considered surprised?

This is important if the character is multiclassed with Assassin rogue, because Assassins auto-crit when hitting a surprised creature.

V2Blast
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Ecnerwal
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    Welcome to RPG.SE! Take the [tour] if you haven't already, and check out the [help] for more guidance. I'm slightly confused by the question; what does the additional attack from the Dread Ambusher feature have to do with whether the creature is surprised? How would that attack be different from any other attack against a surprised creature? (Also, what do you mean by "surprise round"? Have you read the rules on how surprise works?) – V2Blast Jun 08 '20 at 02:14
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    @V2B I think their question is whether a creature remains surprised even after you hit it with an attack, thus potentially allowing the Assassin Rogue's Assassinate feature to trigger multiple times in one turn when used alongside features such as Dread Ambusher – Exempt-Medic Jun 08 '20 at 02:27
  • @Medix2: Ah, okay. I'd probably suggest that Ecnerwal edit the question to focus on that issue in particular, then. – V2Blast Jun 08 '20 at 03:40
  • @Ecnerwal do you know how the surprise state works normally? Should I include clarification in my answer? – user-781943 Jun 08 '20 at 04:44
  • You might be confusing surprise with being unseen. The latter is ended usually by making an attack. – Szega Jun 08 '20 at 08:51

2 Answers2

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A surprised creature remains surprised until the end of their turn on the first round of combat

Related:

and especially:

If you take from these one thing and one thing only it should be this:

There is no "surprise round" in D&D 5e!

There is only the first round of combat during which none, some or all combatants may be surprised until the end of their turn.

When it is the Gloom Stalker ranger/Assassin rogue's turn during the first round there are only two types of creatures:

  1. creatures who are surprised - meaning they were surprised at the start of the combat and their turn comes after the Gloom Stalker ranger/Assassin rogue.
  2. everyone else - which includes both those who were surprised but are no longer surprised because they have had their turn already, and those who were never surprised.

If the Gloom Stalker ranger/Assassin rogue chooses, on their turn, to attack a surprised creature, then that creature remains surprised because they haven't had their turn yet. It doesn't matter if the Gloom Stalker ranger/Assassin rogue attacks once, twice or seventy-three times - the creature is surprised during each and every attack.

Community
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Dale M
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The creature remains surprised.

There aren't any special rules on the Dread Ambusher or Assassinate features that would cause a creature to stop being surprised. Since there aren't any special rules, the creature remains surprised until the end of their turn as normal.

If you aren't sure what the surprised state is, please refer to this question:
At which moment does the 'Surprised' state disappear?

V2Blast
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user-781943
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    Since OP's confusion seems to originate from their misunderstanding (or unawareness) of the surprise rules, you may want to point out what the surprise rules actually say, and point out that the state of surprise isn't affected by whether the surprised creature is attacked or not. – V2Blast Jun 08 '20 at 04:13
  • @V2Blast I'm not sure I'm seeing that in the question, but I added a link anyway. – user-781943 Jun 08 '20 at 04:43