D&D 5E When do players realize Turning Undead worked? (5e)

[Fanaelialae]

I'd tell them something like "X, Y and Z begin to flee before your deity's might, but A and B merely flinch". Initiative and turns are a convenience in D&D but they're not at all realistic (something like Hackmaster is significantly more realistic, but at the cost of increased complexity). As such, I try to keep in mind that combat is taking place more or less simultaneously. When the next player's turn comes up the undead might be in their original positions turning around to run, or they might already have fled down the hallway, but either way it's probably pretty obvious who is running away and who isn't. Of course, a particularly clever undead might pretend to turn to run, only to go after the cleric after the fighter ignores it for a non-turned foe (I'd have the undead make a bluff check against the highest passive insight in the group).

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

To me, turning forces an involuntary reaction in the affected undead, which makes them start to run immediately, whether they have had an action yet or not. They cannot control the forced retreat, therefore is should not wait til their voluntary initiative to run. Not doing it that way would be like saying you get shoved backward, but you do not move til a few seconds later when it is your turn. It may be technically correct to not have anything happen til the correct initiative, but to me that really screws with the flow and the narrative of the encounter.

 

[Olive]

I have the undead continue to act in initiative order but the PCs know straight away. It just seems like screwing them unnecessarily to do it any other way...

 

[discosoc]

Turn Undead is powerful, so I don't mind letting suspense build for a round until they figure out which ones are bad enough dudes to not run away.

 

[alienux]

I let them know the effects of the spell. I just tell them how many failed the saves, and possibly which ones. I don't see any problem with the players knowing that right away, especially considering that they cast the spell for a reason and therefore their next actions may be different based on the outcome.

 

[guachi]

I'm AFB, but does the Turn Undead ability require immediate movement or movement on the Undead's turn?

In any event, since D&D combat resolution is a sequential system for something that's occurring simultaneously so I tell the players right away what undead failed and will flee.

 

[MNblockhead]

I'm in the camp that tells players right away but the actual movement happens in initiative order.

 

[ClearlyTough69]

I'm AFB, but does the Turn Undead ability require immediate movement or movement on the Undead's turn?

RAW says that the movement happens on the undead creature's turn.

I'm a hard-arse and let my players enjoy the suspense of waiting for the undead to take their turn before they discover which undead have been affected.

But they're now getting wise to the option of readying an attack on the first undead that doesn't move away from the cleric on its turn. Sometimes it creates an interesting dilemma: do I ready an attack on an undead creature? or do I attack the very-much-not-undead mage now? But most of the time they just ready... to the extent that I'm now thinking of just telling them who's been turned from the get-go!

See how I talked myself round there?

 

[Kalshane]

Put me in the "I tell my player's right away" camp. Same goes for saving throws versus spells. Having them "wait and see" forces them to risk stepping on each other's toes by having a later PC's attack potentially ruin the successful use of the previous PC's class ability.

 

[Bacon Bits]

In general I'm against it because it's extremely difficult to be consistent. Sure, if the PC Paladin's Turn Undead isn't clear, then it's easy enough to say that when the PC Wizard casts charm person success is unclear. However, when a vampire gazes at the Rogue, success should be unclear to the vampire, too. That's not really possible because the DM -- the NPC's player -- is going to know the DC and the result of the save. And what about fireball? Lightning bolt? Harm? Slow? Phantasmal force? You've now got to decide on the visual effects of every spell or effect that grants a save. Your players will ask about skill checks to determine if things work, and now you've just added a ton of dice rolling to spellcasting. Honestly, it's easier just to tell the PCs if things they cast work or not. Restricting it to just the caster is reasonable, but I don't find it to be a significant metagaming problem because both sides can do it.

The only time I've ever really hidden the results of a save it is for dramatic effect, and only for things the players don't have an inherent understanding of.

In one case in 3.5e, the players encountered a very young blue dragon, and it kicked their butts pretty soundly. The PCs could have killed it easily had they gotten into melee, but there was no way the dragon was that stupid. The PCs managed to get away with the help of a scroll and some potions, and then procured a single arrow of blue dragon slaying by petitioning the local church -- and paying a fair bit of gold. The arrow was made from a single piece of black wrought iron, heavily pitted as if it had been left out to rust, and the fletchings were metal combs with teeth like fir needles. They went back, found the dragon, and in the first few rounds of combat used true strike and fired the arrow at the dragon. The arrow hit, pierced the dragon's hide, and I rolled to save. And nothing happened. The just arrow stuck out of the dragons chest. I had them roll normal arrow damage and marked it down. The players all got very nervous. On the dragon's next turn, it tried to breathe it's lightning breath. However, as soon as it inhaled deeply, a bolt of electricity traveled from inside the dragon's chest, down the arrow, and struck the earth. The dragon shrieked in pain as the arrow drew the life energy from the dragon and grounded it like a lightning rod (which, indeed, is what the arrow was created from). Within moments the dragon was dead. The dragon had failed it's saving throw.

I'd already decided when I gave the party the arrow that it the worked by using the power of the dragon against itself, but none of them investigated the arrow. They assumed that it would work like finger of death, but it didn't. The characters had no foreknowledge of how such an arrow might work, except beyond book learning and hearsay (which, in my games, is all the DMG and MM count for). Therefore, it was completely appropriate that the PCs wouldn't have any idea how the item worked and had no idea how to tell if a save had succeeded or failed.