D&D 5E "I Forgot I Had It"

[iserith]

"Obligated" is a strong term. But if I think the players have forgotten something that their PCs would have remembered, I remind them - things that happened a week ago for the PCs could be several months for the players, and the PCs are possibly smarter and definitely more motivated than the players. If something is borderline, I might ask for an Int or Wis check (whichever is better for each character) to prompt the reminder. Well, if something is borderline I'd probably still just tell them, but if something is borderline of being borderline I'll call for the check.

Assuming of course I remember, which is by no means a given for the reasons mentioned above.

(Given which forum we are in, I should mention that I mostly run PF1 and PF2 these days and have never actually run 5e, but if I were to do so I doubt it would change anything about the above except possibly the DC of the check if one were required.)

EDIT: Sorry for the necro. Not sure how I ended up reading a thread from August without realising it,

As far as necro's go on this site, this is nothing!

now your example was odd cause it was soo soon. But most of mine are "I had this for weeks" then forgot stories...

A certain plant may have been involved.

 

[Thomas Shey]

I not only probably did so, I probably never realized it. I'm really terrible managing consumables outside of ammunition.

 

[Charlaquin]

I not only probably did so, I probably never realized it. I'm really terrible managing consumables outside of ammunition.

Consumables can be really hard to manage! I find the trick is to not bother trying to find the “right moment” when I “really need it”. If I do that, I’ll always be thinking “what if I need it even more later?” And even if that perfect opportunity arises, chances are I’ll have forgotten it by then anyway. Instead, I look for any opportunity to use my consumables. Even if it’s not the best opportunity, at least I’ll have gotten some use out of it, which I won’t if I try to save it.

Doesn’t always work, but it does help.

 

[Seramus]

Consumables can be really hard to manage! I find the trick is to not bother trying to find the “right moment” when I “really need it”. If I do that, I’ll always be thinking “what if I need it even more later?”

You have to save all your consumables for the next campaign. That's the only way to be certain!

 

[iserith]

Consumables can be really hard to manage! I find the trick is to not bother trying to find the “right moment” when I “really need it”. If I do that, I’ll always be thinking “what if I need it even more later?” And even if that perfect opportunity arises, chances are I’ll have forgotten it by then anyway. Instead, I look for any opportunity to use my consumables. Even if it’s not the best opportunity, at least I’ll have gotten some use out of it, which I won’t if I try to save it.

Doesn’t always work, but it does help.

I not only probably did so, I probably never realized it. I'm really terrible managing consumables outside of ammunition.

I'm terrible with handling magic items as a player. I'd be happy if the game didn't actually have any. But what I do to trick myself is that when I get a magic item or consumable of note, I put it into my VTT's character sheet as something I can output to chat and include a hilarious or off-putting gif in there with it. That makes me more likely to use it to get a laugh at the right moment.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Consumables can be really hard to manage! I find the trick is to not bother trying to find the “right moment” when I “really need it”. If I do that, I’ll always be thinking “what if I need it even more later?” And even if that perfect opportunity arises, chances are I’ll have forgotten it by then anyway. Instead, I look for any opportunity to use my consumables. Even if it’s not the best opportunity, at least I’ll have gotten some use out of it, which I won’t if I try to save it.

Doesn’t always work, but it does help.

I've found that outside of ammunition and a few healing potions (and there I have to stay on top of them being potent enough to still be useful in level-advance games), its better just for me to let other people have them or sell them.

 

[Thomas Shey]

I'm terrible with handling magic items as a player. I'd be happy if the game didn't actually have any. But what I do to trick myself is that when I get a magic item or consumable of note, I put it into my VTT's character sheet as something I can output to chat and include a hilarious or off-putting gif in there with it. That makes me more likely to use it to get a laugh at the right moment.

I'm not terrible with magic items in general because I use them constantly, so they stay in my mind (well, ones that are active in use; passive things like most D&D style rings or Bags of Holding I usually don't need to remember most of the time because either they only come up when I'm going to be looking for them, or they're already factored into calculation).

But one-offs, I tend to reserve for That Special Moment and then after a while just forget about completely.

 

[iserith]

I'm not terrible with magic items in general because I use them constantly, so they stay in my mind (well, ones that are active in use; passive things like most D&D style rings or Bags of Holding I usually don't need to remember most of the time because either they only come up when I'm going to be looking for them, or they're already factored into calculation).

But one-offs, I tend to reserve for That Special Moment and then after a while just forget about completely.

Did you say "bag of holding?"

 

[robemm]

I tend to be an obsessive planner as a player, and spend way too much time working out what my PC can/would do in X situation or Y scenario. So I seldom forget about a crucial item.

Trouble is, when I DM I assume my players remember these things too. So the silver arrowheads I described in detail in Scene I when the PCs found them, are completely forgotten when the wights show up in Scene IV.

Oh well.

 

[Seramus]

Did you say "bag of holding?"

Those things are 4 feet deep. Haflings and gnomes can literally fall inside trying to retrieve things!