D&D 5E Attacking defenseless NPCs

robus · Jun 26, 2019

To avoid more threadcrapping in Sacrosanct’s genre thread I thought I’d survey responses to this simple situation:

The PCs have come across an Orc camp about 200ft away. They’re looking down from a hidden location and a bored guard in the rangers sights. The ranger wants to kill the guard so they can continue to stealth into the camp. The ranger draws their bow string and releases an arrow. They roll an attack to see if the arrow hits cleanly (i.e. beats the orc’s AC) and the risk being alerting the camp to danger if it misses. The arrow obviously don’t do enough damage to kill the Orc outright in a regular combat situation, but this is out of combat. How would you adjudicate the action and why?

For me, as the ranger has time to take the perfect shot and the Orc is unsuspecting, I would allow the shot to kill if it beats the AC. My reasoning is, HP models a character’s ability to put up a fight. If you’re not fighting back then you’re not expending HP and thus it is not a factor here. But I have a feeling I’m in a distinct minority

So how would everyone else handle this?

iserith · Jun 26, 2019

There are a few ways to do this that I think all work fine.

The DM can rule the outcome of the task as impossible or at least highly unlikely. The ranger simply can't do enough damage in one shot to take out the orc except on a crit and even that's no guarantee. But perhaps the other PCs can add to that damage and take it out. If they can't, they learn a valuable lesson about taking some kind of ranged weapon, even if the character isn't great at it (which is a perfect time to spend Inspiration). The party's going to have to come up with another plan and that's cool in my view. And let's face it - plan B is almost always more interesting.

As well, however, this strikes me as an obstacle in an overarching exploration challenge that only looks somewhat like a combat challenge. The task is neither impossible nor trivially easy. You could say there's an uncertain outcome and the meaningful consequence for failure is there - so some kind of roll is appropriate. I think it's fine to resolve it without relying upon the combat rules. Call it a Dexterity check with proficiency at disadvantage against a hard DC to account for range and the difficulty of ensuring a kill shot. Someone throws guidance or enhance ability on the ranger. Maybe he or she spends Inspiration. Go, teamwork.

Having said that, standard combat rules would work just fine here, too. The orc is surprised. The PCs make regular attack rolls, probably at disadvantage due to the range. If they take him out, great. If they don't, they've got till the start of the orc's turn in Round 2 to get the job done. To increase the difficulty, say the orc draws attention to itself if it survives till the end of its first turn. That makes it even more important to beat the orc in initiative and possibly encourage the expenditure of more resources like spells or Inspiration.

Oofta · Jun 26, 2019

You seem to be handling it similar to a coupe de grace', which honestly is something I've never really liked. I might let it be an automatic critical but that's about it. Normally though I just follow the rules and it would be a standard attack with advantage.

There's nothing wrong with what you're doing if you're just narrating part of the story. But where do you draw the line? What if that lone orc happened to be the war chief? So for my game it would have to be something a little more certain.

Umbran · Jun 26, 2019

robus said:
For me, as the ranger has time to take the perfect shot and the Orc is unsuspecting, I would allow the shot to kill if it beats the AC. My reasoning is, HP models a character’s ability to put up a fight. If you’re not fighting back then you’re not expending HP and thus it is not a factor here. But I have a feeling I’m in a distinct minority

So how would everyone else handle this?

It is an attack. The attacker is unseen by the target, so the attack is rolled with advantage. The PC is attacking with surprise.

The character gets to apply whatever benefits are within their power (like, Sneak Attack, if they have that ability). But there's no "perfect shot - instant kill". If you can't pull together enough hit points of damage... well, that shot wasn't as perfect as you thought. Maybe the target coughed after you loosed the arrow, or something.

In other systems, I might rule differently, but this is D&D's structure. If the players complain, ask them how they'd feel if you had NPCs get the same kind of instant-kill attack. They'll probably see the issue there, and let it pass.

D&D is really begging for this to be a team effort. You want to down that orc before the alarm is given? Scootch the party a bit closer, so the target is in range of Silence. Cast that, and follow with the attack on the surprise round. Win initiative, and you get a second shot on the target and kill it before they can manage to raise the alarm.

LordEntrails · Jun 26, 2019

I don't envision a single arrow to the chest to always be able kill an orc. Even with they don't see the attack coming. So standard combat rules work just fine.

Besides, the orc isn't defenseless, he's just unaware of the threat.

Maybe I would allow automatic critical damage, but advantage is probably just fine.

aco175 · Jun 26, 2019

I do not have a problem with your idea. You could telegraph that this is a scout or guard and not the chief or something. If it advances the story, then that is good. It it like having to make several sneak checks to determine things. Eventually you get caught if you need to make 10 checks instead of one and maybe a second if you decide to try and sneak into the leader tent. Taking out a guard like this should not count as part of the number in the encounter, I would magically add one more orc. You do have the penalty of missing the AC and most likely being discovered.

The Crimson Binome · Jun 26, 2019

As long as you allow an enemy sniper to one-shot a high-level PC, then it's perfectly fair, and balanced as a house rule.

Otherwise, it's a standard attack, and the inability to be slain by a single arrow is an inherent trait of orcs (or ogres, trolls, etc).

Dausuul · Jun 26, 2019

I play it by the book. An orc only has 15 hit points; a 5th-level ranger, attacking with advantage, has a good chance to lay down that much damage in 1 round. If the ranger isn't 5th level yet... well, an orc is a tough customer for low-level PCs; your only chance of an instant kill is a solid crit, putting the arrow right in its eye.

I do rule that a surprised creature can't shout a warning until it stops being surprised. So the ranger gets a full round of attacks, and if other PCs beat the orc's initiative, they can jump in to finish it off. If it's important enough to burn spell resources, silence can virtually ensure success.