Are you flatfooted to summons right after they are summoned?

Question

In a game session I played over the weekend, I had some summoned creatures wink into existence and then attack me. My understanding of the rules are that since they were not part of combat before, I would be flatfooted to their first attack or until my turn. The group has gone the other way and feel that since I am not flatfooted for the combat as I have already had a turn, I am not flatfooted to them.

I have looked at the rules for combat and stealth but neither really support either side. Can anyone help me and link me to some rules for this?

Answer 1

There are a multitude of situations where you can be denied your dexterity bonus to AC. Technically you are only "flat footed" in the first round of combat but many people use the term "flat footed" to refer to all of the other cases too.

So the most usual case is during a surprise round or the first few rounds of combat where you have not yet had a turn:

Unaware Combatants: Combatants who are unaware at the start of battle don't get to act in the surprise round. Unaware combatants are flat-footed because they have not acted yet, so they lose any Dexterity bonus to AC.

Note that Unaware Combatants refers to people completely unaware of a fight happening, it does not mean being unaware of specific targets in the fight. The rules for that are covered under stealth, invisibility and concealment.

There are in fact a large number of other situations which also deny you your dexterity bonus. A list can be found here: In what situations would a target be denied a Dex bonus to AC?.

Looking through this list you can see that none of them cover "creature just appeared next to me" so unless the summons were invisible or concealed in some way you would not be flat footed.

To give a more flavorful and less rules based answer: You would see and hear the summons appearing and hence be able to respond to them and defend yourself even if it is not your turn yet.

Answer 2

You are not flat-footed towards those summoned monsters, unless of course you haven't acted yet in combat. If you have had a turn, you have acted, and thus are not flat-footed

Flat-footed

Unaware Combatants: Combatants who are unaware at the start of battle don't get to act in the surprise round. Unaware combatants are flat-footed because they have not acted yet, so they lose any Dexterity bonus to AC.

I would like to clarify that acting in combat basically means "having a turn"

Source: Initiative

At the start of a battle, each combatant makes an initiative check. An initiative check is a Dexterity check. Each character applies his or her Dexterity modifier to the roll, as well as other modifiers from feats, spells, and other effects. Characters act in order, counting down from the highest result to the lowest. In every round that follows, the characters act in the same order (unless a character takes an action that results in his or her initiative changing; see Special Initiative Actions).