D&D 5E Monk Shadow Step: How are you running it as a DM?

[dagger]

Are you just letting the monk teleport any place they want all the time? Or something else? Page 183 in the PHB says dim light is just shadows, so pretty much they should be able to teleport constantly, but it seems almost to good.


Thanks

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

Anywhere there isn't bright light, yes, as long as you can see your destination. So it needs to be at least as dark as a snowy winter evening with a full moon, or a high school classroom with the lights out but the blinds open. If you could see a movie projected on the wall there, it's dark enough to Shadow Step into or out of.

 

[dagger]

Even outside in the day there are plenty of shadows though, so does it require the DM to constantly say make a judgement call?

 

[Azurewraith]

I rule if there is a light source and something to block that source there is a shadow i.e the sun shining behind a house you get a shadow in the pitch black dungeon you don't.

 

[Caliban]

I have a 10% chance of a Grue catching their scent every time they use Shadow Step. Every once in a while a monk uses his Shadow Step and just...doesn't come back. Or so the rumors go at the monastery.

 

[Uller]

I rule if there is a light source and something to block that source there is a shadow i.e the sun shining behind a house you get a shadow in the pitch black dungeon you don't.

Isn't being in a pitch black dungeon simply being in the shadow of the earth?

I rule that the area must be dim-light or darkness...as in the 5' square you are bampfing in or out of must be lightly obscured do to lighting conditions.

 

[dagger]

Which in a dungeon with torches would be almost all the time right with constant shadows all over the place (including next to people)? It sounds like the DM is going to be answering a lot of questions about lighting in all the time.

 

[jaelis]

I just say dim light or darkness.

 

[CapnZapp]

In areas with torches or other lightning, I tend to make it easy for myself as DM: telling the player you have a 4-in-6 (or 2-in-6 etc) chance of being able to teleport to wherever you want to go.

So the player has to roll a die after deciding on a spot. If the result tells him that spot is lighted, he'll have to choose another spot (a meaningful distance away from the first one, obviously).

If that spot too isn't suitable (according to the dice) he can't teleport that round (looking around took too much time).

Obviously he can point to a spot on the map which we both agree is dark, and no dice is rolled. I'm referring to generic rooms and corridors described as having some lights but still not enough to bath everything in bright light. That is, 90% of all dungeon lighting

PS. And yes, Shadow Step really is that good.

 

[Azurewraith]

Isn't being in a pitch black dungeon simply being in the shadow of the earth?

I rule that the area must be dim-light or darkness...as in the 5' square you are bampfing in or out of must be lightly obscured do to lighting conditions.

You could say that but I wouldn't rule it that way.