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Infinite Karma
Oct 23, 2004
Good as dead





Tactical Bonnet posted:

I was assuming that the wizard isn't a total fucko and used the spell to make the person who sneaks better at sneaking.

"Between your skills at sneakthievery and also being invisible there is rougly zero chance of you being seen."
Why not make someone invisible to go with the sneakthief? Sending someone in alone is a recipe for bad times. This is a cooperative game, after all.

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MonsterEnvy
Feb 4, 2012

Shocked I tell you

P.d0t posted:


I think people are expecting "Heavily Obscured" (invisible or not) to impose some sort of penalty to perception on the perceivers. But it doesn't; it just allows you to become hidden.

But what does hidden do...? :confused:


Hidden means creatures don't know you are there. As I mentioned in the past being invisible does not make it harder to detect a creature. If the stealth roll fails to beat the passive perception they know something is there. They just can't see it. However you can become hidden again easily making it very hard for them to attack the hidden target.

RPZip
Feb 6, 2009

WORDS IN THE HEART
CANNOT BE TAKEN

MonsterEnvy posted:

The basic rules say there are group checks. Were if half the party makes it they all make it.


There is also the option of certain members of the party surprising the enemies but not the entire party.

quote:

Otherwise, the DM compares the Dexterity
(Stealth) checks of anyone hiding with the passive
Wisdom (Perception)
Meaning that even if half the party is not hiding you can still get surprise. It's just only the members that were hiding get it.

Going for the important part, because you don't understand the Surprise mechanic. Let's go through an example.

The players, Alice, Bob, and Charlie, are sneaking up on a Goblin and a Hobgoblin. Alice is a sneaky rogue and rolls well, getting a 17. Bob is a wizard and also rolls pretty well, getting a 14. Charlie is a dumb idiot fighter and rolls a 3. Despite the fact that both Alice and Bob beat the Passive Perception checks of the Goblin and Hobgoblin, neither of them gets a surprise round because a surprise round isn't something an individual character can get.

In previous editions of D&D, the way surprise rounds worked was that characters who managed to stealth into combat got a special Round 0/Surprise Round that only they could act in if the ambush went off properly. This surprise round was usually more limited (in 3.5 you could only take a partial action; in 4e you could take a Standard, Movement or a Minor, but not all three like you normally could), which was a good balancing move, but for the moment that's neither here nor there. There is no situation in which Alice, Bob and Charlie are trying to ambush enemies in which Alice, the sneaky Rogue, will get to act in the surprise round where Bob and Charlie won't because those are not the surprise round rules. What the rules, and the stealth scores, dictate is if the Goblin and Hobgoblin see a single member of the enemy party - if they see anyone, then they are not Surprised. If everyone's stealth score exceeds their passive perception, then they are Surprised and cannot act in that first round.

There is no mechanic for "only the members that were hiding" to get to act in a surprise round whereas the rest of the party doesn't, not least of which because the concept of a surprise round doesn't exist. If a single party member or enemy is visible, either by flubbing their Stealth roll or just by not trying to hide, then nobody on their side can generate Surprise.

e:

MonsterEnvy posted:

Hidden means creatures don't know you are there. As I mentioned in the past being invisible does not make it harder to detect a creature. If the stealth roll fails to beat the passive perception they know something is there. They just can't see it. However you can become hidden again easily making it very hard for them to attack the hidden target.

You can't become hidden 'very easily' because there's no advantage being Invisible gives you on Hide checks (meaning you have exactly as good a chance as you normally would to go into Hiding) and you have to give up your Action to Hide. That means no attacking and hiding, even if you're invisible; it's one or the other.

e2:

quote:

Uh RPZip Hoard of the Dragon Queen is out, that's an official published adventure.

Good point, I should see how they handle stealth in that.

RPZip fucked around with this message at 05:13 on Sep 18, 2014

MonsterEnvy
Feb 4, 2012

Shocked I tell you

RPZip posted:

Meaning that even if half the party is not hiding you can still get surprise. It's just only the members that were hiding get it.

Going for the important part, because you don't understand the Surprise mechanic. Let's go through an example.

The players, Alice, Bob, and Charlie, are sneaking up on a Goblin and a Hobgoblin. Alice is a sneaky rogue and rolls well, getting a 17. Bob is a wizard and also rolls pretty well, getting a 14. Charlie is a dumb idiot fighter and rolls a 3. Despite the fact that both Alice and Bob beat the Passive Perception checks of the Goblin and Hobgoblin, neither of them gets a surprise round because a surprise round isn't something an individual character can get.

In previous editions of D&D, the way surprise rounds worked was that characters who managed to stealth into combat got a special Round 0/Surprise Round that only they could act in if the ambush went off properly. This surprise round was usually more limited (in 3.5 you could only take a partial action; in 4e you could take a Standard, Movement or a Minor, but not all three like you normally could), which was a good balancing move, but for the moment that's neither here nor there. There is no situation in which Alice, Bob and Charlie are trying to ambush enemies in which Alice, the sneaky Rogue, will get to act in the surprise round where Bob and Charlie won't because those are not the surprise round rules. What the rules, and the stealth scores, dictate is if the Goblin and Hobgoblin see a single member of the enemy party - if they see anyone, then they are not Surprised. If everyone's stealth score exceeds their passive perception, then they are Surprised and cannot act in that first round.

There is no mechanic for "only the members that were hiding" to get to act in a surprise round whereas the rest of the party doesn't, not least of which because the concept of a surprise round doesn't exist. If a single party member or enemy is visible, either by flubbing their Stealth roll or just by not trying to hide, then nobody on their side can generate Surprise.

e:


You can't become hidden 'very easily' because there's no advantage being Invisible gives you on Hide checks (meaning you have exactly as good a chance as you normally would to go into Hiding) and you have to give up your Action to Hide. That means no attacking and hiding, even if you're invisible; it's one or the other.

There are no rules about what you just said. Give me the quote that says that is how it works. Because it seems like some members of the party can get suprise while others can't from what I read.

quote:

The DM determines who might be surprised. If
neither side tries to be stealthy, they automatically notice
each other. Otherwise, the DM compares the Dexterity
(Stealth) checks of anyone hiding with the passive
Wisdom (Perception) score of each creature on the
opposing side. Any character or monster that doesn’t
notice a threat is surprised at the start of the encounter.

That implies to me that anyone trying to be stealthy can get surprise.

As for the easily becoming hidden. For clarification about what I mean I stated that twice in the past it does not give a bonus. But you can easily hide because there is nothing stopping you from making hide checks unlike if you were not invisible.

RPZip
Feb 6, 2009

WORDS IN THE HEART
CANNOT BE TAKEN
Quoting Alphadog's PHB quote from the previous page.

quote:

The DM determines who might be surprised. If neither side tries to be stealthy, they automatically notice each other. Otherwise, the DM compares the Dexterity (Stealth) checks of anyone hiding with the passive Wisdom (Perception ) score of each creature on the opposing side. Any character or monster that doesn’t notice a threat is surprised at the start of the encounter. If you ’re surprised, you can’t move or take an action on your first turn of the combat, and you can ’t take a reaction until that turn ends. A member of a group can be surprised even if the other members aren't.

You compare the stealth scores of Alice, Bob and Charlie to the passive perception scores of Goblin and Hobgoblin. If Goblin doesn't notice any of Alice, Bob and Charlie (a threat) then they're Surprised/stunned on the first round of combat. If they notice any single one of them, then they've noticed a threat and aren't surprised.

e:

quote:

That implies to me that anyone trying to be stealthy can get surprise.

The problem is that surprised isn't a buff an individual stealthy character can get, like it was in previous editions. Instead it's a debuff/penalty/condition applied to anyone who fails to notice a threat at the start of combat, which prevents them from doing anything on their first turn. Applying that debuff/penalty/condition requires that the enemy being snuck up on fail to notice any threats.

RPZip fucked around with this message at 05:23 on Sep 18, 2014

Generic Octopus
Mar 27, 2010

RPZip posted:

You can't become hidden 'very easily' because there's no advantage being Invisible gives you on Hide checks (meaning you have exactly as good a chance as you normally would to go into Hiding)

The point isn't that Invisibility makes the actual stealth-check part of Hiding easier, it removes/satisfies the hardest condition of being able to make said stealth check in the first place.

MonsterEnvy posted:

There are no rules about what you just said. Give me the quote that says that is how it works.

It's in there dude. It's what people have been discussing. While I don't think stealth/hiding is super terrible (though kinda poorly worded and not as well codified as it was in 4th), surprise is pretty well hosed.

RPZip
Feb 6, 2009

WORDS IN THE HEART
CANNOT BE TAKEN

Generic Octopus posted:

The point isn't that Invisibility makes the actual stealth-check part of Hiding easier, it removes/satisfies the hardest condition of being able to make said stealth check in the first place.

I mean, that's true, I just feel like invisible probably should give some kind of stealth bonus relative to 'sitting in brush' or

quote:

Naturally Stealthy.
You can attempt to hide even when you are obscured only by a creature that is at least one size larger than you

Advantage on stealth checks is probably in the right ballpark.

Yakse
May 19, 2006
If I may take off my actor pants for a moment and pull my Analrapist stocking over my head.....

RPZip posted:

Meaning that even if half the party is not hiding you can still get surprise. It's just only the members that were hiding get it.

Going for the important part, because you don't understand the Surprise mechanic. Let's go through an example.

The players, Alice, Bob, and Charlie, are sneaking up on a Goblin and a Hobgoblin. Alice is a sneaky rogue and rolls well, getting a 17. Bob is a wizard and also rolls pretty well, getting a 14. Charlie is a dumb idiot fighter and rolls a 3. Despite the fact that both Alice and Bob beat the Passive Perception checks of the Goblin and Hobgoblin, neither of them gets a surprise round because a surprise round isn't something an individual character can get.

In previous editions of D&D, the way surprise rounds worked was that characters who managed to stealth into combat got a special Round 0/Surprise Round that only they could act in if the ambush went off properly. This surprise round was usually more limited (in 3.5 you could only take a partial action; in 4e you could take a Standard, Movement or a Minor, but not all three like you normally could), which was a good balancing move, but for the moment that's neither here nor there. There is no situation in which Alice, Bob and Charlie are trying to ambush enemies in which Alice, the sneaky Rogue, will get to act in the surprise round where Bob and Charlie won't because those are not the surprise round rules. What the rules, and the stealth scores, dictate is if the Goblin and Hobgoblin see a single member of the enemy party - if they see anyone, then they are not Surprised. If everyone's stealth score exceeds their passive perception, then they are Surprised and cannot act in that first round.

There is no mechanic for "only the members that were hiding" to get to act in a surprise round whereas the rest of the party doesn't, not least of which because the concept of a surprise round doesn't exist. If a single party member or enemy is visible, either by flubbing their Stealth roll or just by not trying to hide, then nobody on their side can generate Surprise.

e:


You can't become hidden 'very easily' because there's no advantage being Invisible gives you on Hide checks (meaning you have exactly as good a chance as you normally would to go into Hiding) and you have to give up your Action to Hide. That means no attacking and hiding, even if you're invisible; it's one or the other.

I'm not actually sure how it works mechanically, but the following rules from the PHB contradict that.
"If you ’re surprised, you can’t move or take an action on your first turn of the combat, and you can ’t take a reaction until that turn ends. A member of a group can be surprised even if the other members aren't."

So if you have two groups of people, both hiding:
Group A
1. perception 12, hide 12
2. perception 12, hide 12
3. perception 12, hide 12
4. perception 12, hide 16

Group B
1. perception 11, hide 6
2. perception 11, hide 6
3. perception 13, hide 6
4. perception 17, hide 16

B4 is hidden from everyone, and can see them all so he has surprise against everyone. A4 has surprise on B1-3. B3 has spotted A1-3 so is not surprised by them, but he doesn't have surprise on anyone. A1-3 have surprise on B1-2.
B1 and B2 don't get to act at all.
My guess is that at this point everyone that had surprise on someone goes through their initiative order, and anyone that act's then can't be surprised by anyone that hadn't acted yet?

Generic Octopus
Mar 27, 2010

RPZip posted:

I mean, that's true, I just feel like invisible probably should give some kind of stealth bonus...Advantage on stealth checks is probably in the right ballpark.

I could see that being a thing.

Honestly though I'd just like the Rogue to get some ability that actually made hiding on-demand easier (like the Cunning Sneak feature in 4e). Maybe a feat or high-level feature that let it turn invisible X number of times per short or long rest or something, idk.

RPZip
Feb 6, 2009

WORDS IN THE HEART
CANNOT BE TAKEN

Yakse posted:

I'm not actually sure how it works mechanically, but the following rules from the PHB contradict that.
"If you ’re surprised, you can’t move or take an action on your first turn of the combat, and you can ’t take a reaction until that turn ends. A member of a group can be surprised even if the other members aren't."

So if you have two groups of people, both hiding:
Group A
1. perception 12, hide 12
2. perception 12, hide 12
3. perception 12, hide 12
4. perception 12, hide 16

Group B
1. perception 11, hide 6
2. perception 11, hide 6
3. perception 13, hide 6
4. perception 17, hide 16

B4 is hidden from everyone, and can see them all so he has surprise against everyone. A4 has surprise on B1-3. B3 has spotted A1-3 so is not surprised by them, but he doesn't have surprise on anyone. A1-3 have surprise on B1-2.
B1 and B2 don't get to act at all.
My guess is that at this point everyone that had surprise on someone goes through their initiative order, and anyone that act's then can't be surprised by anyone that hadn't acted yet?

You don't have 'surprise' on anyone, it's a binary state; you are either Surprised or you are not. Everyone in Group A can see B1 and B2, so they are not Surprised; they have noticed a threat, so the fact that B3 and B4 are both Hidden from them doesn't actually matter. B1 and B2 haven't seen anyone in group A, so they are Surprised and can't act on the first round of combat. B3 has seen A1, 2 and 3 so they aren't Surprised, and B4 has seen everyone in group A.

Your analysis is correct for Hiding: A4 is hidden from B1-B3, etc. But the only people Surprised/don't get to act in the first round are B1 and B2, because Surprise requires you not to have seen/noticed/Passively Perceived a threat (read as: any enemy).

Elector_Nerdlingen
Sep 27, 2004



quote:

The DM determines who might be surprised. If neither side tries to be stealthy, they automatically notice each other. Otherwise, the DM compares the Dexterity (Stealth) checks of anyone hiding with the passive Wisdom (Perception ) score of each creature on the opposing side. Any character or monster that doesn’t notice a threat is surprised at the start of the encounter. If you ’re surprised, you can’t move or take an action on your first turn of the combat, and you can ’t take a reaction until that turn ends. A member of a group can be surprised even if the other members aren't.

RPZip posted:

You compare the stealth scores of Alice, Bob and Charlie to the passive perception scores of Goblin and Hobgoblin. If Goblin doesn't notice any of Alice, Bob and Charlie (a threat) then they're Surprised/stunned on the first round of combat. If they notice any single one of them, then they've noticed a threat and aren't surprised.

There's another way to interpret this too. It's a stretch, but not a huge one: If Goblin notices Alice and Bob but not Charlie, then it's failed to notice a threat, and is surprised.

If you interpret it like that, a character or monster could be surprised any time someone appears where they didn't think someone should be, which might be closer to a good way to play it.

You're getting ready to face the loud angry opponents who are clearly about to come round the corner. Just as they appear, a dude in black leather armor drops from the ceiling and stabs the gently caress out of the guy next to you. You're surprised.

Yakse
May 19, 2006
If I may take off my actor pants for a moment and pull my Analrapist stocking over my head.....

AlphaDog posted:

There's another way to interpret this too. It's a stretch, but not a huge one: If Goblin notices Alice and Bob but not Charlie, then it's failed to notice a threat, and is surprised.

If you interpret it like that, a character or monster could be surprised any time someone appears where they didn't think someone should be, which might be closer to a good way to play it.

You're getting ready to face the loud angry opponents who are clearly about to come round the corner. Just as they appear, a dude in black leather armor drops from the ceiling and stabs the gently caress out of the guy next to you. You're surprised.

Yeah this is the way I was interpreting "a threat" not to say RPZips interpretation is in any way wrong. Clearly this one can be chalked up to "up to the DM" because Natural Language.

TheAnomaly
Feb 20, 2003

RPZip posted:

Quoting Alphadog's PHB quote from the previous page.
The problem is that surprised isn't a buff an individual stealthy character can get, like it was in previous editions. Instead it's a debuff/penalty/condition applied to anyone who fails to notice a threat at the start of combat, which prevents them from doing anything on their first turn. Applying that debuff/penalty/condition requires that the enemy being snuck up on fail to notice any threats.

There's the possibility you're reading "a threat" wrong - it's not anyone who can't find any threat, it's that they are surprised if a single threat gets through. It's a problem with the indefinite article, and something they certainly should have made more clear, because it's also possible you're reading it exactly right and it's meant to be anyone who notices a single threat isn't surprised.

For example, if Hobgoblin 1 and 2 have passive perceptions of 12, and the highest stealth role in the group is 17 and the lowest a 3, they have both failed to notice a threat (the 17) and are surprised. On the other hand they have both noticed a threat (the 11) and are both not surprised. It's the Schrodingers Surprise Paradox!

MonsterEnvy
Feb 4, 2012

Shocked I tell you

AlphaDog posted:

There's another way to interpret this too. It's a stretch, but not a huge one: If Goblin notices Alice and Bob but not Charlie, then it's failed to notice a threat, and is surprised.

If you interpret it like that, a character or monster could be surprised any time someone appears where they didn't think someone should be, which might be closer to a good way to play it.

You're getting ready to face the loud angry opponents who are clearly about to come round the corner. Just as they appear, a dude in black leather armor drops from the ceiling and stabs the gently caress out of the guy next to you. You're surprised.

Yakse posted:

Yeah this is the way I was interpreting "a threat" not to say RPZips interpretation is in any way wrong. Clearly this one can be chalked up to "up to the DM" because Natural Language.

Yeah this is how I interpreted it.

TheAnomaly posted:

There's the possibility you're reading "a threat" wrong - it's not anyone who can't find any threat, it's that they are surprised if a single threat gets through. It's a problem with the indefinite article, and something they certainly should have made more clear, because it's also possible you're reading it exactly right and it's meant to be anyone who notices a single threat isn't surprised.

For example, if Hobgoblin 1 and 2 have passive perceptions of 12, and the highest stealth role in the group is 17 and the lowest a 3, they have both failed to notice a threat (the 17) and are surprised. On the other hand they have both noticed a threat (the 11) and are both not surprised. It's the Schrodingers Surprise Paradox!


I would personally rule it as 17 gets to act during the surprise round while the 3 and 11 do not.

RPZip
Feb 6, 2009

WORDS IN THE HEART
CANNOT BE TAKEN

AlphaDog posted:

There's another way to interpret this too. It's a stretch, but not a huge one: If Goblin notices Alice and Bob but not Charlie, then it's failed to notice a threat, and is surprised.

If you interpret it like that, a character or monster could be surprised any time someone appears where they didn't think someone should be, which might be closer to a good way to play it.

You're getting ready to face the loud angry opponents who are clearly about to come round the corner. Just as they appear, a dude in black leather armor drops from the ceiling and stabs the gently caress out of the guy next to you. You're surprised.

Please kill all natural language proponents.

Yeah, it took me a read through to understand what you were getting at, but I think it still falls apart. If that reading is correct then any single character or monster rolling well on their Stealth check means that the entire enemy team doesn't get to act, because Surprised is still a debuff/condition placed on a creature. Not noticing the dude in black leather sitting in the brush means that you're also standing there slack-jawed while the big stompy warrior and psychedelic wizard in the open slice you to pieces.

quote:

For example, if Hobgoblin 1 and 2 have passive perceptions of 12, and the highest stealth role in the group is 17 and the lowest a 3, they have both failed to notice a threat (the 17) and are surprised. On the other hand they have both noticed a threat (the 11) and are both not surprised. It's the Schrodingers Surprise Paradox!

Also this.

e:

quote:

I would personally rule it as 17 gets to act during the surprise round while the 3 and 11 do not.

This is definitely, 100% not supported by the rules, though. While it is how you'd handle it in previous editions, Surprised in D&D NEXT is a debuff condition that gets applied to creatures that prevents them from acting on the first round and is explicitly not a special, bonus round. The only way this would work is if Bob and Charlie were somehow also Surprised when their good friend Alice popped out of the brush in the ambush they'd planned.

RPZip fucked around with this message at 06:03 on Sep 18, 2014

MonsterEnvy
Feb 4, 2012

Shocked I tell you
Guess we can just say it's up to the DM.

Elector_Nerdlingen
Sep 27, 2004



Yes, the problem is the sentence "Any character or monster that doesn’t notice a threat is surprised at the start of the encounter."

Which needs to be changed to one of these:

...that doesn't notice any threats is surprised...

or

...that doesn't notice one or more threats is surprised...

RPZip posted:

If that reading is correct then any single character or monster rolling well on their Stealth check means that the entire enemy team doesn't get to act, because Surprised is still a debuff/condition placed on a creature. Not noticing the dude in black leather sitting in the brush means that you're also standing there slack-jawed while the big stompy warrior and psychedelic wizard in the open slice you to pieces.

...

The only way this would work is if Bob and Charlie were somehow also Surprised when their good friend Alice popped out of the brush in the ambush they'd planned.

I agree with the first part but I don't think it's a problem. The sudden appearance of an extra opponent could well be surprising even if it's not attacking you. Like, picture the situation I brought up before - you're getting ready to fight the obvious threat, and suddenly the guy next to you has a knife in his throat and you can't tell where it came from. You spend the next couple of seconds looking for the new threat. Or else you immediately perceive the new threat, but it's coming from a totally unexpected direction and it takes a little while (less than 6 seconds, and you can still defend yourself!) for you to react properly to the new information. e: It doesn't mean the entire any team doesn't get to react, just those that failed to perceive the threat in time.

The second part, I disagree with. Bob and Charlie know that Alice is going to leap out and stab a dude. That's what she does whenever she gets a chance.

Elector_Nerdlingen fucked around with this message at 06:11 on Sep 18, 2014

RPZip
Feb 6, 2009

WORDS IN THE HEART
CANNOT BE TAKEN

AlphaDog posted:

Yes, the problem is the sentence "Any character or monster that doesn’t notice a threat is surprised at the start of the encounter."

Which needs to be changed to one of these:

...that doesn't notice any threats is surprised...

or

...that doesn't notice one or more threats is surprised...


I agree with the first part but I don't think it's a problem. The sudden appearance of an extra opponent could well be surprising even if it's not attacking you. Like, picture the situation I brought up before - you're getting ready to fight the obvious threat, and suddenly the guy next to you has a knife in his throat and you can't tell where it came from. You spend the next couple of seconds looking for the new threat.

The second part, I disagree with. Bob and Charlie know that Alice is going to leap out and stab a dude. That's what she does whenever she gets a chance.

I think the part where it gets silly is when the group gets that much larger. Alice hiding in the brush means that Bob, Charlie, Dylan, Erica, Fred, George, Harry and Zack all get a free round; or, to go from the monster's side, the lone Kobold with the blowgun who rolled a natural 20 on their stealth check means that the two giant fuckoff dragons get a free round of attacks. I think the smarter implementation is something like:

The DM determines who might be surprised. If neither side tries to be stealthy, they automatically notice each other. Otherwise, the DM compares the Dexterity (Stealth) checks of anyone hiding with the passive Wisdom (Perception) score of each creature on the opposing side. If a character or monster doesn't notice at least half of the threats they are surprised at the start of the encounter. If you’re surprised, you can’t move or take an action on your first turn of the combat, and you can’t take a reaction until that turn ends. A member of a group can be surprised even if the other members aren't.

That still lets individual members of the group be surprised when other's aren't, and makes it a little less swingy, and it even preserves the (horrible) natural language phrasing.

E:

quote:

The second part, I disagree with. Bob and Charlie know that Alice is going to leap out and stab a dude. That's what she does whenever she gets a chance.

That was the point. If Alice, Bob and Charlie are waiting in ambush (and the enemy isn't trying a counterambush), there's no system in D&D NEXT that allows for Alice to get a surprise round attack while Bob and Charlie don't, because Surprise isn't a buff Alice gains with her good Stealth score; instead it's a debuff that the enemy's can potentially get if their Perception isn't good enough.

Nihilarian
Oct 2, 2013


MonsterEnvy posted:

Guess we can just say it's up to the DM.
That's up to the DM.

ritorix
Jul 22, 2007

Vancian Roulette

AlphaDog posted:

There's another way to interpret this too. It's a stretch, but not a huge one: If Goblin notices Alice and Bob but not Charlie, then it's failed to notice a threat, and is surprised.

This is how I've been running it in my HODQ game. But to make it work, I added an actual surprise round back to the game, so that the sneaky guy gets his surprise round, then the non-sneakers or failed-sneakers go along with the enemies in normal initiative.

The advantage here is it's actually worthwhile to be sneaky. You don't have to worry about the fat guy in plate mail spoiling your surprise rounds. He becomes bait.

RPZip
Feb 6, 2009

WORDS IN THE HEART
CANNOT BE TAKEN

ritorix posted:

This is how I've been running it in my HODQ game. But to make it work, I added an actual surprise round back to the game, so that the sneaky guy gets his surprise round, then the non-sneakers or failed-sneakers go along with the enemies in normal initiative.

The advantage here is it's actually worthwhile to be sneaky. You don't have to worry about the fat guy in plate mail spoiling your surprise rounds. He becomes bait.

This also works (and is how D&D has always done it, more or less). The weird part is that Next didn't go ahead and do this and instead implemented... what they implemented. How is HODQ?

Elector_Nerdlingen
Sep 27, 2004



RPZip posted:

That still lets individual members of the group be surprised when other's aren't, and makes it a little less swingy, and it even preserves the (horrible) natural language phrasing.

Yes, that's way better! I was going for an interpretation of the text instead of a houserule, is all.

branar
Jun 28, 2008
Wow, I guess I've been running it wrong in my 5E campaign to date.

So - just to make sure I understand this - there's no such thing as a surprise round in the default rules? Your options for interpreting the default rules are either:

a) if you fail to notice a single enemy combatant, you're surprised, and don't act during the first round of combat

or

b) if you notice at least one enemy combatant, you're not surprised

(a) seems totally loving ludicrous to me. This easily devolves into a situation where both Charlie and the Goblin Ninja, who critted their respective stealth checks and fooled everyone on both sides of the fight including each other, leap out of the trees to stab people in the backs, only to stare dumbfounded at one another, completely taken by surprise that the other one is there, and literally nobody acts in the first round of combat.

Of course (b) makes stealth totally useless unless your entire party is sneaky.

I'm going to make Ritorix's style my table's first house rule, I think.

Serdain
Aug 13, 2007
dicksdicksdicks

AlphaDog posted:

Yes, that's way better! I was going for an interpretation of the text instead of a houserule, is all.

Agree with this as well. If one guy shows up suddenly, it might catch you off guard. If two (50%) of the guys show up suddenly, you'd be very surprised!

Question is, how many people is surprising in a group of five? Two + one Halfling?

ritorix
Jul 22, 2007

Vancian Roulette

RPZip posted:

How is HODQ?

I've actually played a lot of HOQD so far. edit: Spoiler blocks added by request.

-Played episode 1 at gencon (we were all level 3, I was a halfling assassin), things went well. The DM heavily changed some encounters to fit the higher level group.
-Ran episode 2 at gencon, 3 players. E2 is a very open-ended scenario (infiltrating an enemy camp) and you have to be on your toes when running it. There's a lot of social stuff possible and almost no combat. When the players come up with some A-Team idea to resolve the situation you have to work it in somehow and figure out how all the moving parts interact with that plan. In this group's case, the plan involved a lot of fire.
-Played episode 1 with the home group, at level 1. I played a monk. We haven't got far into episode 1.
-And I'm running it here with Team Goon. They have finished Episode 1 and getting into 2. They are murder-hoboing the poo poo out of everything and blowing past things that other people are crying about. If you want to talk about it we are in #hoard.

HOQD has a lot of cool ideas and things going on. But it was clearly written during the beta so it could be released right at 5e launch. The authors (Kobold Press, not WOTC) did a blog post about some of the challenges writing a module for a game that isn't finished yet. There are a few cases where they refer to beta-era rules that no longer exist (surprise readiness factors, etc). Monsters were one of the big moving targets. They designed some encounters with NPC statblocks that later changed from CR2 to CR1/4 and other giant swings. If the module says you fight 5 kobolds and 2 cultists, you have to do a sanity check to make sure that won't accidentally wipe the group.

Besides the accidental difficulty issues, the module also does some intentional and controversial stuff with encounter difficulty. There are some encounters you simply can't win (a CR16 dragon makes a token appearance at level 1) and some encounters say "the best outcome would be for players to avoid this fight, but here it is". A few NPCs will kill you if you just go along with the typical plan. If you get sneaky or fancy there's ways to kill the unkillables, but most groups wont be that creative. For example, a 5th-level dragonborn fighter NPC challenges the PCs to a duel. He's got two attacks, a breath weapon, action surge, etc. A duel with a level 1 PC? That's a terrible idea, but hostages are at stake so every time I've played someone has volunteered. And been splattered. Personally I enjoy that sort of thing; the drama there isn't in the losing, but in the person going out anyway knowing they will probably die, and being a hero if they survive (per the module, they will survive). And later on you face that dragonborn again, this time with some experience and as a full team.

Story-wise, HODQ covers a lot of ground and a large level range. The scope widens as the levels rise. You start off in a poo poo little town fending off a dragon attack, end up infiltrating an enemy camp, do a dungeon crawl, then things open up. From the kobold press blog: In episode 6, for example, some groups might be most successful launching a direct assault, because the characters are equipped for that type of mission and the players love huge, complex battles. For other groups, that episode could become a diplomatic mission, a spy mission, an assassination mission, or a Green Beret-style mission to arm and train the enemy of your enemy. Every one of those is a valid approach, and the decision about how well the characters’ plan works is up to you. We don’t know your players or what they can accomplish—you do.

So my opinion so far is that HOQD is good if you are able to run it the way Kobold Press suggests you do: tweak things to fit and react to changing plans and situations. If you just try to run the module straight with no variation (like, say, what they do at D&D Encounters) it won't go well.

ritorix fucked around with this message at 08:53 on Sep 18, 2014

MonsterEnvy
Feb 4, 2012

Shocked I tell you
I have a lot of the same opinions as Ritorix. But I want to expand on the Half Dragon Cyanwrath. I really like the guy for some reason and find he has a great deal of potential as a long term rival for a PC. With my group I made very clear that he was serious and honorable (Like telling the Kobolds to release the last hostage even if he loses.) Naturally he beat the Paladin that went out to fight him, but I made it clear that Cyanwrath respected the Pally for the hits he had gotten and for coming out to face him in the first place. On the 2nd encounter Cyanwrath recognized the Pally in the hatchery and after stating that he was both a bit disappointed and pleased challenged the Pally to another duel with the condition of the losing side having to leave the Hatchery and never return. The Pally come up top the 2nd time around due to a crit and the Pally doubling his smite damage. By the 4th round of the Duel the Pally had 10 hp while Cyanwrath had 2. Cyanwrath's breath weapon had not recharged so I had him yield. I had him sound graceful in defeat, along him with making it clear that he was not going to beg for his life or give them any info. I think the party had become a bit fond of him and the Pally spared him with little discussion among themselves with the Pally telling Cyanwrath he would like to duel him again in the future to settle a tiebreaker. Overall I think he came off as a good rival character.

Serdain
Aug 13, 2007
dicksdicksdicks

ritorix posted:

I've posted a lot of HOQD spoilers so far.


Hi! I have a few players that i'm running HOTDQ for and they read this forum.

As it's still relatively new, could we err on the side of caution with spoiler tags please?

*edit*

Especially as my party are evil but hate the Cult and I don't want them to get ideas for the 'right' way to solve things instead of the fun way!

*edit 2*

Thanks Ritorix.

Serdain fucked around with this message at 08:54 on Sep 18, 2014

ritorix
Jul 22, 2007

Vancian Roulette
Oops! I'll add some.

Ettin
Oct 2, 2010

Night10194 posted:

More characters should use macuahuitls. The look on a DM's face when you explain your kickass warclub is in no way metallic and is lined with razor sharp, rust-monster-murdering volcanic glass would be wonderful.

Also, the word's really fun to say.

Now I kind of want to write a fantasy civilization that uses obsidian not because of a lack of metallurgy but because of all these loving rust monsters in their territory. :allears:

Cassa
Jan 29, 2009

ritorix posted:

They designed some encounters with NPC statblocks that later changed from CR2 to CR1/4 and other giant swings. If the module says you fight 5 kobolds and 2 cultists, you have to do a sanity check to make sure that won't accidentally wipe the group.


Not inconceivable at level 1 with not maxed con. Crits are a nightmare when monsters get them, and even two hits from a kobold will gently caress a wizard up.

neonchameleon
Nov 14, 2012



ritorix posted:

There are some encounters you simply can't win (a CR16 dragon makes a token appearance at level 1) and some encounters say "the best outcome would be for players to avoid this fight, but here it is". A few NPCs will kill you if you just go along with the typical plan. If you get sneaky or fancy there's ways to kill the unkillables, but most groups wont be that creative. For example, a 5th-level dragonborn fighter NPC challenges the PCs to a duel. He's got two attacks, a breath weapon, action surge, etc. A duel with a level 1 PC? That's a terrible idea, but hostages are at stake so every time I've played someone has volunteered. And been splattered. Personally I enjoy that sort of thing; the drama there isn't in the losing, but in the person going out anyway knowing they will probably die, and being a hero if they survive (per the module, they will survive). And later on you face that dragonborn again, this time with some experience and as a full team.

So that's what my Warlock tried fighting last night. Because almost everyone else was out of hit points. And my guy did awesomely well to ding it for 19 hit points. In melee. As a Warlock. After it saved against an Inspired Dissonant Whispers.

Angrymog
Jan 30, 2012

Really Madcats

Ettin posted:

Now I kind of want to write a fantasy civilization that uses obsidian not because of a lack of metallurgy but because of all these loving rust monsters in their territory. :allears:

Wouldn't all those loving rust monsters lead to a lack of mettalurgy by default?

On another note, I'm starting a D&D game over skype or google hangouts this Friday at 19:00 UK time - one of my players won't be able to make it after all, so I'm looking for one or two people to join. Game will be starting with a shipwreck and moving on to Spelljammer after the first few levels. Spelljamming itself will be unknown to the characters at the start of the game.

Anyone interested? Contact me via email madcat at angrymog dot com or on steam at madcat_uk so I can have a quick chat with you about what your gaming preferences and style are like.

Ratoslov
Feb 15, 2012

Now prepare yourselves! You're the guests of honor at the Greatest Kung Fu Cannibal BBQ Ever!

Angrymog posted:

Wouldn't all those loving rust monsters lead to a lack of mettalurgy by default?

Anyplace that had hordes of rust monsters wandering around would need to have absolutely ridiculous metal deposits, or otherwise it wouldn't have hordes of rust monsters for very long at all.

Power Player
Oct 2, 2006

GOD SPEED YOU! HUNGRY MEXICAN
So, there's no CharOp thread yet, so let me just ask:

1. I want to make a Bard of Valor. Stat suggestions/weapon suggestions? If I do valor, is it better to just dump Dex and focus on Strength and Charisma?

2. I want to make a Paladin, not sold on any one archetype yet. Suggestions?

Power Player fucked around with this message at 14:14 on Sep 18, 2014

Babylon Astronaut
Apr 19, 2012

Ettin posted:

Now I kind of want to write a fantasy civilization that uses obsidian not because of a lack of metallurgy but because of all these loving rust monsters in their territory. :allears:
Even better, the entry says they can tame rust monsters. I want to see a dude ride a rust monster straight through a wall of steel.

Ettin
Oct 2, 2010

Ratoslov posted:

Anyplace that had hordes of rust monsters wandering around would need to have absolutely ridiculous metal deposits, or otherwise it wouldn't have hordes of rust monsters for very long at all.

Babylon Astronaut posted:

Even better, the entry says they can tame rust monsters. I want to see a dude ride a rust monster straight through a wall of steel.

Maybe they've carefully secured some of the biggest metal deposits so they can use it to tame rust monsters with. :aaaaa:

Nihilarian
Oct 2, 2013


branar posted:

(a) seems totally loving ludicrous to me. This easily devolves into a situation where both Charlie and the Goblin Ninja, who critted their respective stealth checks and fooled everyone on both sides of the fight including each other, leap out of the trees to stab people in the backs, only to stare dumbfounded at one another, completely taken by surprise that the other one is there, and literally nobody acts in the first round of combat.
Am I the only one that would find this really funny?

Yakse
May 19, 2006
If I may take off my actor pants for a moment and pull my Analrapist stocking over my head.....

Power Player posted:

So, there's no CharOp thread yet, so let me just ask:

1. I want to make a Bard of Valor. Stat suggestions/weapon suggestions? If I do valor, is it better to just dump Dex and focus on Strength and Charisma?


Dex and hand crossbows(with crossbow expert and sharpshooter), otherwise strength and polearms(with polearm mastery and great weapon mastery). There isn't a power attack feat for one handed(or versatile) melee weapons so their damage scales poorly unless you have something that adds bonus damage on hit like sneak attack. Dex gives you AC and bonus's to a few skills not to mention dex saves are highly prevalent, and strength gives you.....athletics.

Power Player
Oct 2, 2006

GOD SPEED YOU! HUNGRY MEXICAN

Yakse posted:

Dex and hand crossbows(with crossbow expert and sharpshooter), otherwise strength and polearms(with polearm mastery and great weapon mastery). There isn't a power attack feat for one handed(or versatile) melee weapons so their damage scales poorly unless you have something that adds bonus damage on hit like sneak attack. Dex gives you AC and bonus's to a few skills not to mention dex saves are highly prevalent, and strength gives you.....athletics.
I'm guessing that if I bring Dex up to +3, I should wear light armor even though I can get medium armor, until I get that feat that lets you add +3 to your AC for medium armor.

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neonchameleon
Nov 14, 2012



Power Player posted:

So, there's no CharOp thread yet, so let me just ask:

1. I want to make a Bard of Valor. Stat suggestions/weapon suggestions? If I do valor, is it better to just dump Dex and focus on Strength and Charisma?

Dump Strength under almost all circumstances in 5e. The Rapier is a d8 dex melee weapon you're proficient in and you don't even get medium armour til level 3. Crossbows are probably the way to go if you're determined to make a valour bard.

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