A fight was not going well for the party but they would have won probably without any deaths.
A Ranger cast Rope trick in the middle of combat with the intent of evacuating the party and taking a short rest. It is not the first time he did this. The Ranger cast it and climbed up the Rope (taking an AOO). Two Orogs and 3 Orcs followed the Ranger up the rope. The last Orc pulled up the rope behind him and they attacked the Ranger 5 to 1 inside the extra dimensional space and followed that with a short rest themselves. Meanwhile the rest of the party beat the remaining guys on the ground and beat the Orogs and Orcs when the spell ended.
In the end the Ranger who cast it died.
The Ranger cried foul and claims I cheated, but I think that was RAW. The player tried a metagaming power move and was taken to the woodshed.
Am I wrong?
I think there’s a few layers to this to consider, first when you say ‘without any deaths’ would that of been ‘downs’ or ‘capital D deaths’?
The fact the Orcs/Orogs actually followed the ranger is up the rope Trick is fair in my book, they were giving chase to an opponent who was turning and fleeing in a middle of a fight, the question of ‘is following this enemy up this spell they just cast actually a secret murder trap’ isn’t something they’d consider 1) because they’re in the heat of battle and 2) that’s specifically something
players thinking in a meta perspective are more likely to expect or encounter IMO or if it was in the world then it’s more likely to be found pre set up in a dungeon or somesuch rather than spontaneously cast in an unexpected battle in a cave or field or wherever.
You say this wasn’t the first time they used this tactic, Were the player/s taking for granted that they could use the Rope trick spell as an answer to escape any increasing threatening encounter, the first time they think of doing so is clever, the fifth time not so much, taking to the woodshed might be a bit much but reinforcing that they can’t become complacent repeating the same cheap tactics is another matter.
Letting the enemies get a rest is a bit
eh in my book but seeing as they ended up getting killed anyway I can’t say it seemed to of mattered in the grand scheme of things.
And finally was the ranger actually
trapped in the rope trick space by the orcs or narratively otherwise, or was the possibility of jumping out actually an option even with the fall damage as a factor, and staying in the space fighting 5-to-1 was a choice rather than an inescapable encounter for them.
All boiled down I think the core response to answer your question is
did you take steps to intentionally punish/kill the ranger for using this tactic or was it just the unfortunate result of playing the enemies as they logically/naturally would in a battle?