D&D 5E Player angry about enemies climbing rope with Rope Trick

[MatthewJHanson]

I think it's a good idea to have an out of game conversation about it to clarify what the expectations for the spell and possible enemy behavior, and the social contract of PC death.

Like others I don't see anything in the spell that would prohibit it, and smart enemies should use smart tactics, though I'm not sure if these were smart tactics. It sounds like the bad guys split the party just so they could give a beat down on one enemy who was running away. Why wouldn't they focus on the enemies who are still putting up a fight and threatening to kill their allies?

It's possible that your player's perception that you "cheated" is not that you broke the rules of the spell, but that he felt like you were picking on him for meta-game reasons.

 

[Fifth Element]

I wouldn't expect orcs and orogs to know the ins and outs of the spell, though, and would be surprised if they knew that they'd be safe there for an hour. That's pretty questionable, but the smack-down was certainly appropriate.

Good point. Sounds like OP gave monsters knowledge they would not have. Would they even know it was safe for them to climb the rope in the first place?

And a character who actually lived in that world would know better than to use the spell in combat. So the ranger had too little knowledge and the monsters too much.

 

[Irlo]

Good point. Sounds like OP gave monsters knowledge they would not have. Would they even know it was safe for them to climb the rope in the first place?

And a character who actually lived in that world would know better than to use the spell in combat. So the ranger had too little knowledge and the monsters too much.

From the sound of it, the ranger had done that before successfully at least once.

 

[Fenris-77]

Rope Trick and Tiny Hut are too often used as crutches and get out of jail free cards IMO. The only thing I might have done differently is when the Ranger declared his action, I might have said, You realize that the monsters can follow you up the rope, right? However, I can't tell from the description if this had been mentioned to the player before or not. If he was operating under the misapprehension that the monsters couldn't follow him, and hadn't been corrected, then the woodshed treatment seems a touch harsh.

 

[overgeeked]

How long was the rope and how far can the character climb in a round? Climbing is half speed unless they have a climbing speed. The spell indicates that the entire length of rope is levitated into the air and the caster has to climb to the top to get into the pocket dimension.

“One end of the rope then rises into the air until the whole rope hangs perpendicular to the ground. At the upper end of the rope, an invisible entrance opens to an extradimensional space that lasts until the spell ends.”

“The extradimensional space can be reached by climbing to the top of the rope.”

Maybe a concentration check to hold on when damaged would be appropriate.

 

[Tonguez]

Good point. Sounds like OP gave monsters knowledge they would not have. Would they even know it was safe for them to climb the rope in the first place?

And a character who actually lived in that world would know better than to use the spell in combat. So the ranger had too little knowledge and the monsters too much.

Ok, Im missing something where does it say Orcs dont understand spells or how to climb a rope?

 

[iserith]

Introduce this challenge I designed at the next opportunity, altering any relevant details and replacing the ghost Phineas Lanyard with the dead ranger's ghost: Rope Tricked!

 

[Fenris-77]

GMs hate this one trick with rope.

 

[James Gasik]

Rope Trick and Tiny Hut are too often used as crutches and get out of jail free cards IMO. The only thing I might have done differently is when the Ranger declared his action, I might have said, You realize that the monsters can follow you up the rope, right? However, I can't tell from the description if this had been mentioned to the player before or not. If he was operating under the misapprehension that the monsters couldn't follow him, and hadn't been corrected, then the woodshed treatment seems a touch harsh.

I despise the way Tiny Hut is written. I had players using it as a temporary redoubt in battle, and sneer at me when I couldn't do anything about it. Then the one time I thought an encountered enemy could do something about it, they cried to the event organizer and came back to me with a Crawford tweet. I stopped running AL games after that.

 

[Charlaquin]

How long was the rope and how far can the character climb in a round? Climbing is half speed unless they have a climbing speed. The spell indicates that the entire length of rope is levitated into the air and the caster has to climb to the top to get into the pocket dimension.

“One end of the rope then rises into the air until the whole rope hangs perpendicular to the ground. At the upper end of the rope, an invisible entrance opens to an extradimensional space that lasts until the spell ends.”

“The extradimensional space can be reached by climbing to the top of the rope.”

Maybe a concentration check to hold on when damaged would be appropriate.

Yeah, even dashing, it should take a little less than two full rounds to reach the top of a 50 foot rope (which is what comes standard in most adventuring kits), so the character should have had plenty of time to see that the monsters were following him up the rope and maybe realize this was a bad idea.

More importantly though, the “metagaming power move” thing is a red flag. It sounds like you didn’t like the player’s use of that tactic for some reason and instead of talking to them about it, decided to punish their character for it. That’s generally poor form. There’s nothing wrong with casting rope trick during combat, just like there’s nothing wrong with the monsters following you up the rope. Both are perfectly valid actions the characters involved might reasonably take. Yet both parties seem to have been upset, which speaks to a misalignment of expectations. You need to talk to this player openly and honestly about what happened so you can get back on the same page.