Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Ovinomancer" data-source="post: 7487376" data-attributes="member: 16814">Is it?&nbsp; It seems some information is being imparted by the -1 stealth skill -- that the iron golem is bad at hiding.&nbsp; This seems to be overlooked by &quot;invisible creature standing still.&quot;&nbsp; The 'standing still' part is pre-narration, we don't really know if the iron golem is, in fact, standing still.&nbsp; If it rolls it's stealth check and gets a 2, clearly it's doing something wrong which may be making a good bit of noise while moving.&nbsp; If, on the other hand, the iron golem gets a 19, it's likely standing pretty still and quietly.I see this often come up in these discussions -- that such and such narration isn't well supported by the rules.&nbsp; But this ignores the procedure of play -- if an action is uncertain, roll then narrate the roll outcome.&nbsp; In this case, the uncertain bit is 'do the characters notice the invisible golem in the corner.'&nbsp; D&amp;D handles questions about character undeclared actions via passive scores, so the uncertainty is resolved by the golem rolling stealth against the characters' passive perception.&nbsp; A failure is narrated as such, in that the golem does something to be noticed.&nbsp; A success, the opposite -- the golem is not noticed.&nbsp; If, instead, you decide that the situation is not uncertain -- ie, the golem is perfectly motionless and invisible -- then do not roll or engage passive perception.&nbsp; You,as DM, can declare an action as failure and narrate it as such; you don't have to use the rules for uncertain outcomes when doing so.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Ovinomancer, post: 7487376, member: 16814"] Is it? It seems some information is being imparted by the -1 stealth skill -- that the iron golem is bad at hiding. This seems to be overlooked by "invisible creature standing still." The 'standing still' part is pre-narration, we don't really know if the iron golem is, in fact, standing still. If it rolls it's stealth check and gets a 2, clearly it's doing something wrong which may be making a good bit of noise while moving. If, on the other hand, the iron golem gets a 19, it's likely standing pretty still and quietly. I see this often come up in these discussions -- that such and such narration isn't well supported by the rules. But this ignores the procedure of play -- if an action is uncertain, roll then narrate the roll outcome. In this case, the uncertain bit is 'do the characters notice the invisible golem in the corner.' D&D handles questions about character undeclared actions via passive scores, so the uncertainty is resolved by the golem rolling stealth against the characters' passive perception. A failure is narrated as such, in that the golem does something to be noticed. A success, the opposite -- the golem is not noticed. If, instead, you decide that the situation is not uncertain -- ie, the golem is perfectly motionless and invisible -- then [I]do not roll or engage passive perception[/I]. You,as DM, can declare an action as failure and narrate it as such; you don't have to use the rules for uncertain outcomes when doing so. [/QUOTE]

Verification