Wake while sleeping from battle

[RObiN-HoOD]

Is while you sleep someone attacks the PC guarding at the moment and a battle starts, does the others PC wake up immediately just like that or do they have to roll a Listen check?

Is there an official rule?

 

[bret]

There are no official rules.

The best suggestion I've seen is putting a -10 penalty on the Listen check and either Take 10 or roll for it.

When they wake, they still have to get up from prone position, ready their weapon and shield, and may not have their regular armor on.

People who wear heavy armor should buy an extra Chain Shirt since that is comfortable enough to sleep in. PHB 105 states that you are automatically fatigued if you sleep in armor with an armour check penalty of -5 or worse.

 

[Rybaer]

I seem to recall reading somewhere that you could use Con checks rather than listen to wake due to noise. Listening is a fairly high-level mental activity whereas waking to a loud noise in the vicinity is something altogether different. The Con check assumes that the noise of fighting is loud enough to be heard and that each person is checking to see how quickly he/she can overcome sleepiness enough to react.

For the life of me, though, I can't remember where I saw this. Maybe someone else can verify this.

 

[hong]

The DMG lists "hear the sounds of a pitched battle" as a DC -10 Listen check. If you're sleeping, it's practically impossible to hear things, so that's a -20 penalty on your roll, making it effectively DC 10. I'm not sure on whether you can take 10 on rolls for passive uses of a skill, and pretty sure you can't do so when sleeping. Regardless, roll each round until the character wakes up, or they're kicked awake (a standard action that automatically succeeds).

 

[Hejdun]

I thought that whie you were sleeping, you were effectively "taking 0" on your listen checks. Thus, the sound of combat would rouse anyone, but some other things wouldn't, depending on their listen check modifiers.

 

[Gromm]

I thought that whie you were sleeping, you were effectively "taking 0" on your listen checks. Thus, the sound of combat would rouse anyone, but some other things wouldn't, depending on their listen check modifiers.

I think I heard that somewhere as well. Personally I can wake up to the sound of someone talking, so -20 seems pretty steep (I'd have a 1 in 20 chance or so). Loud unusual sounds like fighting are MUCH more likely to wake someone up. Unless they sleep in a gladiator pit or something I guess, then they might be used to it.

 

[hong]

I think I heard that somewhere as well. Personally I can wake up to the sound of someone talking, so -20 seems pretty steep (I'd have a 1 in 20 chance or so). Loud unusual sounds like fighting are MUCH more likely to wake someone up. Unless they sleep in a gladiator pit or something I guess, then they might be used to it.

Remember that a DC 10 check means a 55% chance every 6 seconds of waking up. If you have better than average Wis, or ranks in Listen, the chance of waking up increases to match.

 

[bret]

I thought that whie you were sleeping, you were effectively "taking 0" on your listen checks. Thus, the sound of combat would rouse anyone, but some other things wouldn't, depending on their listen check modifiers.

One of the designers suggested that. It is equivilent to "taking 10" on a skill with a -10 penalty, which is what I wrote.

Since I usually just consider taking 10 a shortcut instead of having to roll a lot of dice, it works whenever the GM doesn't want to rattle a lot of dice.