D&D General What would you do? (Example from my game)

[el-remmen]

A big question for me is what counts as "natural" for the halfling's bow's pass without trace. Is this a cave system, or is perhaps one of the exit paths a cave system, where it could be used? Does the ice caves count?

For the sake of the item “natural” means not urban/town and not a worked stone structure (like the ruins above and most of the dungeon itself). Natural caves (which the ice caves may be, they have only heard them called that, not confirmed) would count.

One other issue to note, I guess, is that it they have to wait about another 10 hours before they can start a long rest (given they just completed one about 6 hours ago).

 

[smetzger]

There doesn't seem to be a reason to risk moving forward w/o a long rest.
Therefore, long rest in a reasonably safe place is the best course of action.

 

[Lanefan]

Were I a player running a halfway-wise character I'd say bail out right now and head for that forest camp.

Once there, I might even propose going all the way back to town for a few reasons:

--- restock and resupply (and-or if we've got any loot so far, spend it on improving our gear-spells-etc.)
--- give the hornets' nest we just stirred up some time to die down and-or get paranoid
--- review our party lineup and see if we need to recruit anyone to fill a gap

 

[Seramus]

Bail out and head for that forest camp. The narrative desire to push on and defeat the villain while running on fumes is a great trope, but directly opposed to having a long and successful adventuring career.

A dead adventurer conquers no future foes!

 

[Bayushi_seikuro]

If need be, this should be your party's exit...

 

[Koloth]

Yes, that is correct. But for whatever it is worth, the PCs have reason to believe letting these goblins (and one bugbear still loyal to the one who sent them) go will not bite them in the butt, while for the gnoll they knew it was riskier.

Even if the goblins don't intend to tell on the PCs, there is a chance that the remaining goblins might run into a group of dungeon critters that ask something along "Hey, weren't there 20 of you this morning? What happened<appropriate intimidating glare here>?" Or the critters track the party from the pile of dead goblins to party's current location. Can suck when dungeon critters have significant tracking skill ability.

 

[Swarmkeeper]

For the sake of the item “natural” means not urban/town and not a worked stone structure (like the ruins above and most of the dungeon itself). Natural caves (which the ice caves may be, they have only heard them called that, not confirmed) would count.

One other issue to note, I guess, is that it they have to wait about another 10 hours before they can start a long rest (given they just completed one about 6 hours ago).

Since the PCs need to spend 18 hours to get their long rest benefits, it's probably best for them to heal up as much as possible, as quickly as possible, and get out of there as soon as possible. Now that ASAP might mean taking that short rest first, since it may allow for a little more healing as well as recharging of some abilities that could help them achieve their goal of escaping to the wilderness camp site. It strikes me as a truly meaningful choice presented to the party - to short rest or not to short rest - sprinkled with tension as risks are posed by either course of action. What a great moment for the DM and the players!

 

[TwoSix]

Find a relatively safe space. Short rest. (Unused Hit Die aren't helping anybody, and keeping a reserve isn't useful when this is a possible TPK situation.)

A key question next is if wandering encounters during a long rest are determined narratively or procedurally. If procedurally, are the odds knowable? If narratively, assume the GM will probably spring an encounter on a party resting in a unsafe space.

Tied to that is the question of which case is worse; the mission fail or the TPK? As a player, I'm totally fine with risking a TPK in order to fulfill a mission; the point of the game is take risks, new characters and games have a low opportunity cost, and GMs with investments in their games are often driven to maintain the game state even if there is a TPK. But I understand that many players have strong emotional reactions to disruptions of the game state like a TPK, so that may not be feasible here.

If random encounters are narrative, AND the players are strongly opposed to a TPK, than I would retreat outside the cave and long rest. Otherwise, I would long rest in the cave and then make a push for the elemental node. (My gut feeling is that the elemental node would have something to help fight the master, but that's just a guess.)

 

[el-remmen]

Wandering/Random Encounters are procedurally determined but applied narratively, though the odds and the frequency are determined by the setting. They PCs know the approximate frequency because I make them roll (I make them all roll, they don't know which of their die rolls is the one that matters - I cycle through the group according to a secret order) but do know, no matter what, someone rolling a '1' (sometimes a '2') means something potentially happening (call it adventurer instinct or vibes) and they also know that if any duplicate rolls can complicate the outcome (rolling twice, increasing the number encountered, environmental event, etc) if there is one.

By applied narratively, I mean that if an encounter is rolled it does not necessarily mean that the monster just suddenly shows up, but I think about the outcome I rolled on the random table and how it makes most sense for it to appear (or not - maybe they killed the thing rolled already or it is not available for some other reason), but regardless this can mean a delayed outcome or hearing it from afar, or an endless number of possibilities based on the context of the adventure, the location, and the creatures involved.

 

[Stormonu]

The paladin's already dropped twice, going against the Master and being low on resources seems like an invite for them to be down for good. I'd try to convince my party members that we go back to the prior fights and try to leave "clues" that make it look like the various humanoids had a falling out (blame the gnolls?), hopefully creating dissent on any remaining forces. Then fall back and rest up and try again - maybe pulling in extra help to support the paladin or have a discussion about why that seems to be happening frequently and what we can do to mitigate it.