D&D 5E How do you handle sleeping guards/monsters/victims?

[Nailen]

So, last night the party had inveigled their way into Rivergard Keep barracks and bedded down for the night. An hour or so later, once everyone (bar the two on watch) were asleep, the party monk cast Pass Without Trace on the whole party (+10 on Sneak rolls) and they proceeded to slaughter the other occupants.

We've always ruled that after casting Sleep the monsters can be dispatched by slitting the throat without needing a roll. So I figured that would be the case here. There was some discussion at the table as we agreed they had to make an attack roll with ADV to hit AC 10 (people in bed asleep do not wear armour).
They have cleared out most of the keep garrison while barely breaking a sweat.

In the cold light of day it all seems a bit easy. Especially as Pass Without Trace lasts an hour. I'm tempted to have it wear off just as the enter the keep.

How do you handle sleeping monsters in your game?

 

[Shiroiken]

Just as the party had 2 members on watch, so should the guards. Most place will have a rotation system, so that everyone has to cover the night shift at some point. Even if they managed to take out everyone sleeping without alerting the awake guards, that's still probably 25% of the guards. A good idea makes it easier, but not auto-win.

 

[Nailen]

They took out the guards on watch first.

But my question is more aimed at the general situation of attacking a sleeping monster/guard.

 

[jasper]

sleep = unconscious = Incapacitated, can't move or speak, unaware. Drop anything held. Fall Prone. Fail Str and Dex saves. Attacks against you have Adv and crit if within 5 feet.
So roll init. Give the sleepers surprise. start combat.

 

[iserith]

In this kind of situation, I would say that humanoids just get killed. In my view, the uncertainty of whether anyone will wake up is reasonably negated by expenditure of resources (pass without trace spell plus time) and removing any potential threats (awake guards) before setting about their grisly work. I'd probably throw in some fun complications along the way, such as a sleep walker, random patrol, or wandering dog. But otherwise, their approach seems sufficient to achieve their goal.

The difficulty of a challenge is not static. It changes based on the choices the players make. In this case, the players made some good choices and the difficulty decreased - and that's a good thing. It means their choices matter.

 

[Sunseeker]

In this kind of situation, I would say that humanoids just get killed. In my view, the uncertainty of whether anyone will wake up is reasonably negated by expenditure of resources (pass without trace spell plus time) and removing any potential threats (awake guards) before setting about their grisly work. I'd probably throw in some fun complications along the way, such as a sleep walker, random patrol, or wandering dog. But otherwise, their approach seems sufficient to achieve their goal.

The difficulty of a challenge is not static. It changes based on the choices the players make. In this case, the players made some good choices and the difficulty decreased - and that's a good thing. It means their choices matter.

I tend to agree with this line of reasoning here. The players prepared and played well, so their action is a success. I'm not particularly interested in running a combat of a "well equipped party" vs a bunch of unarmed, unarmored, surprised guards or worrying about if the players have advantage or auto-crit or not. They made their plan, executed it well, and won.

The biggest risk, I think, is 1: if the players arouse suspicion during their planning stages and 2: if they fail to cut down the awake guards quickly and 3: did they overlook anything?

 

[MrHotter]

sleep = unconscious = Incapacitated, can't move or speak, unaware. Drop anything held. Fall Prone. Fail Str and Dex saves. Attacks against you have Adv and crit if within 5 feet.
So roll init. Give the sleepers surprise. start combat.

The Sleep spell makes you unconscious, but it also only can be broken with a slap, shake, damage or spell duration expiring. I'm not sure if non-magical sleep has the same rules.

The group made a good choice of using the pass without trace to get into position for the surpise attack, but I would still think a stealth vs perception roll would be needed to make sure that no one wakes up before the attack. Even if the party gets +10 to their stealth roll and the DM decides that being asleep gives the guards disadvantage on their perception check, there is still a chance that the guards could hear the ambush coming.

There is no 'sleeping' condition in the game. Unconcious should be close, but sleeping people are not 'unaware of their surroundings'. I know that I leap out of bed if I hear the sound of a dog about to throw up, so guards should be conditioned to wake up to the sound of someone getting stabbed to death in the bed next to them.

If the rules clarify this, then I would go with what the rules say. If I was going to make a ruling at the table without looking anything up, I would say that every round where someone is attacked then there should be a good chance of people waking up.

I like to imagine what the players would do if the roles were reversed. If I let some assassins get a free surprise attack on them while sleeping they would not be very happy. Especially if the rest of the party does not wake up after the first attack.

 

[jasper]

I just roll over in bed when I hear the gunshots are two blocks south of the house now. The best way I found to see if rule is far is what you hint at Hoter. Or what my players called, " Do y'all mind if the monster hit with your big stick too?" aka use the same tactic.

 

[Draegn]

I would say that there are two possible attack options. Are the players simply bashing in the sleeper's heads with a weapon, or are they making a called shot to slit a throat, etc...?

For the first I would grant a free critical unless a fumble was made (could miss and hit the bed post) and if enough damage was done the sleeper would be dead. If not have them make a save or suck. Waking up versus being in a coma.

For the second I would have the players make several stealth checks. In reaching towards the victims throat the player would have to avoid making the bed squeak, avoid breathing to hard, or another situational difficulty.

Of course my mass murdering arsonist players never do any of this.

 

[Oofta]

I treat sleeping as unconscious for purposes of attacking, but there is no auto-kill and the target is not comatose. In addition, stabbing someone tends to be a bit noisy as the target will frequently scream/make noise as they are being stabbed. Yes, it can be done but it should not be automatic.

So it would be a little more complicated. The Pass Without Trace would help, but people are still going to thrash about/scream as an automatic reaction to being stabbed so there would be opposed grapple checks (to cover mouth/hold).

So target AC 10, attack with advantage, automatic critical on hit. Whether or not they do enough damage that there is no reaction is open, but I'd (completely arbitrarily) say they have to reduce the target to at least 10 points below zero to kill them without a sound. If that doesn't work, it's an opposed grapple check assuming someone was in a position to do so. If the guard wins, he screams/moans/knocks something over as he is dying. DC 10 perception check (with disadvantage) for someone to hear, DC 10 if the PC failed by 5 or more.

In addition of course is the question of how they got into the barracks in the first place, but that's a whole other issue.