DreamLyrics™ Play-by-Post Forums Fantasy SKT: The Storm King's Thunder OOC thread

Guess I was remembering a younger me <weg> Thanks. I put that in my file <g>

Pande ... size is not based on just =our= sizes <g>

Kriv is head and shoulders over most of the party at 7ft. Medium covers a multitude.

Hey all, I'm still kinda new at this DM'ing thing and trying to figure out the appropriate thing to do when some of you are trying to move stealthily and others aren't. Since you all seem to be wanting to sneak in together it seems a "group check" is more important, while individuals scouting ahead would use individual stealth rolls. But there's also the complication of whether these checks (asked by a DM) comprise an action (I shouldn't force you to be stealthy if you don't want to).

I'm trying to figure all this out right now. For now, please assume I'm going to be doing a "group check" (PHB p. 175) and I'll figure out soon whether or not you can run (double move) stealthily. If this changes your tactics, let me know. Worst case I might ask people who've done double moves to back up to single move. Which may be a closer representative to what the whole group is doing (attacking togehter) unless those doing double-moves are intentionally scouting ahead?

I dunno, help a newb DM out here

if some are =not= moving stealthily then they may make enough noise to alert 'them'. You could have the not stealthy ones make a roll to determine how much noise they are making.

A stealth check it self is not a separate action but moving stealthily means you are probably moving slower than those that are not.

A double move could take two rolls or a penalty on a single roll. I have seen it done both ways.

Is this a "Group Stealth Check" (meaning only 50.1% need to succeed) or does any single failure mean all fail?

It's a "group check" (PHB p. 175) meaning half or more(50.0%) must succeed.

It's appropriate for a situation where every individual passing is almost never going to happen (i.e., one of you will likely fail) but 5 of 10 passing is likely.

So, this all started because of me and a PM I sent Aquadyne so let me explain.

I "complained" about allowing a double-move and a stealth. While it may be legal in other systems, it's not legal in 5e. And there's a good reason - fairness to a particular class.

The only class that I know of (there may be exceptions and your PC may have such a trait and example would be casting the haste spell) only a rogue can exchange a bonus action for a move action. In fact, a rogue could do a triple move if they used cunning action for the dash action and then exchanged their regular action for a dash action. You get a regular action, a move action and a bonus action every round. If you want to stealth and don't have (something like) cunning action, you must give up your action to double move. In this party, Jaliera has cunning action and could move fast and still be stealthy. She should be able (if she wants) to move forward faster than the others.

Note that stealth requires a full action.

Think of it this way, it just takes a bit longer to handle the moves but it has to be done in proper order and with proper speed.

Also, there are 3 different attack groups: Stealthy to the right, bold unstealthy to the left and swimmers up the middle. When rolling stealth for this encounter, the group to the right would rightly get a group stealth. The swimmers might and the group to the left wouldn't.

I am old, old school, that is. So to me, double move and stealth makes no sense. In the fiction, I see it as the person/character moving carefully, trying not to make a sound. Not running whole hog.

I appreciate the distinction in 5e with rogues having options other characters wouldn't. Personally, I don't care either way, as balance isn't an issue for me anymore anyway. However, I do try to be fair and consistent in what I run.

I agree with the options Nep laid out, even if I want to poke him just to be obstinate.

So this started with Nep's PM, but it's continuing because he and all y'all are making a lot of assumptions about this encounter, and I probably bungled things up by using the magic three words "Roll for Initiative".

Let me explain.

No, there is too much. Let me sum up.

1. I'm trying to transition from outside the cave where everyone has all sorts of time, moves/actions don't matter, and you can prep skills and stuff. Part of that prep might be making a plan to sneak.

2. The "yellow line" I drew at the entrance to the cave was a point where it was reasonable to get to without considering the impact of your actions/stealth/etc. Once you enter the cave, all bets are off and there may be more to this encounter than you see. I had everyone roll in advance of crossing that line just to try to coordinate the entrance, not to try to tell you you couldn't cast any more spells after I said the magic words.

TLDR: before crossing the line you have all the time in the world to do all the rolls you want and spells. If you cast stealth and start acting stealthily before entering the cave and remain acting stealthily you will not have to re-roll. Once you enter the cave, we are on turn-based initiative order because it will matter.

And as others have implied, running (double move) is probably not very stealthy except for rogues.

So... let's just all do stealth rolls that I will do what I will do as DM, without any action cost, and start moving in, in initiative order, and if/when things happen, you'll know.

Sounds good. Zindra rolled her stealth in the last thread. She got an 11 and used the bardic inspiration and got a +5. So a total of 16. I'll post in the game thread.

My own plan was simply not moving until stealth was moot, then using magically enhanced speed to catch up, obviating the personal need for stealth altogether.

Its fine. Just assume Zhu went twice and let me know if it is a single group stealth roll or if the whole group has to reroll stealth every round.

I appreciate the poking, Pande

The group stealth roll is for the entire "sneak in with multiple moves until someone does something non-stealthy".

Armor is dragonguard, Maul and staff both held prior to weapon bond teleport or item interaction drop shenanigans, longbow available but stowed, sheet on beyond seems to be in order.

Moved, bow at ready, usual armour as stated

Zhu seems correct in Beyond.

So much for spreading out?

With one bush, what do you expect?

Heh. There's actually two bushes covering a span of 5 grid squares...

Meanwhile, cueing up a playlist...

Johnny Cash - "Ring of Fire"
Glenn Frey - "The Heat Is On"
Billy Joel - "We Didn't Start the Fire"
The Doors - "Light My Fire"
Bruce Springsteen - "I'm on Fire"
Jerry Lee Lewis - "Great Balls of Fire"
The Trammps - "Disco Inferno"
Adele - "Set Fire to the Rain"
Talking Heads - "Burning Down the House"
The Rolling Stones - "Play with Fire"

The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire!
We don't need no water—Let the ************ burn!
Burn, ************, burn!

Holy burning man! Its a trap! That is what ole fish eyes said.

Is that 15 damage to Kriv before or after fire resistance?