D&D General Has Tiny Hut actually affected your game? Or has it otherwise mattered?

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I am not sure why the assumption is that the tiny hut is always placed in the middle of the dungeon for every denizen of that dungeon to be found. I'd say the party might backtrack their route to through the dungeon and pick a spot a little less easy to find, so that they aren't worried about the entire enemy dungeon waiting outside patiently for them to wake up and drink their morning coffee, but that they are well protected against wandering monsters and patrols - their camp is really safe and while the enemy might still be discussing what they found and how to proceed and who is the Dispel Magic mage on call in the area, whoever is holding watch can alert the rest, they prepare, and then take the patrol/wandering monster out. This is much nicer than having a regular camp site setup where the enemy can immediately start shooting arrows into people still in their sleeping bag or cut through some throats if the low-Wisdom Fighter on guard duty failed his spot check.

 

[AlViking]

I am not sure why the assumption is that the tiny hut is always placed in the middle of the dungeon for every denizen of that dungeon to be found. I'd say the party might backtrack their route to through the dungeon and pick a spot a little less easy to find, so that they aren't worried about the entire enemy dungeon waiting outside patiently for them to wake up and drink their morning coffee, but that they are well protected against wandering monsters and patrols - their camp is really safe and while the enemy might still be discussing what they found and how to proceed and who is the Dispel Magic mage on call in the area, whoever is holding watch can alert the rest, they prepare, and then take the patrol/wandering monster out. This is much nicer than having a regular camp site setup where the enemy can immediately start shooting arrows into people still in their sleeping bag or cut through some throats if the low-Wisdom Fighter on guard duty failed his spot check.

If they're in a place where the enemy doesn't find them, then it doesn't matter if they have a hut or not. If it does get discovered (and in most cases the characters have already been doing murder and mayhem) the reaction is going to be the same as if it was placed in the middle of the dungeon. Maybe it's just me but if I have "wandering monsters", it's typically a patrol from the local bad guys, not just some rando creature that meandered by.

Of course I also don't do old school dungeons where the monster X is always in room Y and never leaves even if they can clearly hear the party wizard is casting thunderwave in the adjacent room.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

If they're in a place where the enemy doesn't find them, then it doesn't matter if they have a hut or not. If it does get discovered (and in most cases the characters have already been doing murder and mayhem) the reaction is going to be the same as if it was placed in the middle of the dungeon. Maybe it's just me but if I have "wandering monsters", it's typically a patrol from the local bad guys, not just some rando creature that meandered by.

Of course I also don't do old school dungeons where the monster X is always in room Y and never leaves even if they can clearly hear the party wizard is casting thunderwave in the adjacent room.

No, there is a difference. Because now it's just a patrol finding them and investigating what they found: They probably want to report back soon, but they can't decide to launch an attack on people in their sleeping bag. So the players have a bit of time to prepare and can take out the patrol without immediately alerting anyone (and if they can't take out the patrol, they couldn't have continued fighting in the dungeon,either, they are clearly too spent for what is waiting for them).
The opposition will need time to figure out its patrol is not returning and then have to figure out where along their patrol they were lost (and they might find it too risky, too, to send another patrol out that could get lost). This improves the odds for the players significantly that they can still finish a rest - and they are ahead on the battle of attrition, too.

 

[AlViking]

No, there is a difference. Because now it's just a patrol finding them and investigating what they found: They probably want to report back soon, but they can't decide to launch an attack on people in their sleeping bag. So the players have a bit of time to prepare and can take out the patrol without immediately alerting anyone (and if they can't take out the patrol, they couldn't have continued fighting in the dungeon,either, they are clearly too spent for what is waiting for them).
The opposition will need time to figure out its patrol is not returning and then have to figure out where along their patrol they were lost (and they might find it too risky, too, to send another patrol out that could get lost). This improves the odds for the players significantly that they can still finish a rest - and they are ahead on the battle of attrition, too.

Why would the patrol stick around and just poke at the hut so that they can be killed off? If they start a fight, the PCs don't get a long rest* but I see no reason they would go get reinforcements no matter what. I'm assuming the enemy is already on high alert because the characters have taken out one or more small groups already. Because of that any patrol is far less likely to attack, they'd rather come back with an overwhelming force. Assuming reasonable military tactics of course.

In any case, I've explained how I run it and what would happen.

*In 2024 rules, and my house rule before that, a fight always interrupted a long rest.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Why would the patrol stick around and just poke at the hut so that they can be killed off? If they start a fight, the PCs don't get a long rest* but I see no reason they would go get reinforcements no matter what. I'm assuming the enemy is already on high alert because the characters have taken out one or more small groups already. Because of that any patrol is far less likely to attack, they'd rather come back with an overwhelming force. Assuming reasonable military tactics of course.

In any case, I've explained how I run it and what would happen.

*In 2024 rules, and my house rule before that, a fight always interrupted a long rest.

The patrol still needs to figure out what they are seeing, they can't just go back: "We saw something we couldn't identify and didn't bother to check more, let's assemble our strike force and head out". So as they investigate what they found, and maybe try their Arcana checks or whatever, the players have time to respond, leave at least their sleeping bag, and maybe wait until the patrol is starting to move to report on their findings or is sending its messenger guy and strike. Or they decide to wait for the patrol to leave and break camp and look for another place to rest.

 

[AlViking]

The patrol still needs to figure out what they are seeing, they can't just go back: "We saw something we couldn't identify and didn't bother to check more, let's assemble our strike force and head out". So as they investigate what they found, and maybe try their Arcana checks or whatever, the players have time to respond, leave at least their sleeping bag, and maybe wait until the patrol is starting to move to report on their findings or is sending its messenger guy and strike. Or they decide to wait for the patrol to leave and break camp and look for another place to rest.

The patrol sees a magical dome when they know their base has been attacked by a magic user of some kind. What do they need to "figure out"?

If you want to create headaches for yourself, go ahead. Like most people responding to this thread it's never been a big deal in any campaign I've ever played.

 

[Stalker0]

i recently ran an ambush where a wizard group used a few of them to hit the party as they were coming out of a dungeon the group knew they had gone in.

Had to include an npc with some anti-magic to avoid a tpk. Party was all too happy to nerf that spell into the ground after that

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

The patrol sees a magical dome when they know their base has been attacked by a magic user of some kind. What do they need to "figure out"?

If you want to create headaches for yourself, go ahead. Like most people responding to this thread it's never been a big deal in any campaign I've ever played.

Well, they are going to look for hints of activity, what kind of opposition to expect, what kind of patrol or watches exist. They don't know if the raiding party into their base was acting on its own, the exact composition might be unclear and they don't know if they have any support previously unaccounted for. They would be foolish to send a large raiding party away from their base against an encampment of unknown strength and defenses! Tiny Hut makes all this much harder.

I mean, I've see how players react to enemy encampments without Tiny Hut in the mix, I don't expect NPCs to be utterly careless and disinterested in information gathering. If they were, they didn't need to bother with patrols!

 

[AlViking]

Well, they are going to look for hints of activity, what kind of opposition to expect, what kind of patrol or watches exist. They don't know if the raiding party into their base was acting on its own, the exact composition might be unclear and they don't know if they have any support previously unaccounted for. They would be foolish to send a large raiding party away from their base against an encampment of unknown strength and defenses! Tiny Hut makes all this much harder.

I mean, I've see how players react to enemy encampments without Tiny Hut in the mix, I don't expect NPCs to be utterly careless and disinterested in information gathering. If they were, they didn't need to bother with patrols!

So a patrol knows there are dangerous enemies around who have slaughtered some of their allies. They notice the camp and tiny hut. They can

1. Shrug and ignore it because they don't realize that people can cast spells and just chalk it up to "That's weird, we'll report it in the morning".
2. Attack and, for some reason stick around until they're all dead.
3. Run back to camp to get reinforcements.
4. Leave someone behind (presumably hidden) while they get reinforcements.

#1 isn't going to happen because I don't play my NPCs as stupid.
#2 could happen but the long rest has been disrupted and a missing patrol is going to get noticed. It also seems to assume suicidal idiocy on part of of the enemy.
#3 or 4 is most likely what could (and has) happened in games I run. Even if the party packs up and walks away there's a chance to be tracked unless they use something line pass without trace. Which again disrupts the long rest.

It might be a bit different if it were a truly random encounter, just a "wandering monster" completely unconnected to the enemy forces but those don't make a lot of sense to me except for very specific scenarios. But if the characters figure out how to avoid those, good on them. But there are a bazillion different scenarios, for every scenario I could present there's always going to be some variation or some possibility I didn't address so this is starting to turn into trying to nail jello to the wall.

Unless there's something other than vague scenarios and assertions I don't have much else to add.

 

[TorgoTheWhite]

It has meant a bit in my campaign, if you sleep on the Steppes without shelter, it is challenging to ever wake again. So, when the party lost their caravan, that spell saved som . Otherwise, I am a big fan of handing out exhaustion, a great punishment mechanic