I am setting up a couple of wilderness encounters for my campaign's level 1 party, and I thought "How cool to have them stalked, and attacked by wolves". Six grey wolves makes it a level 2 encounter worth 750XP. So, to my question...
"At what distance do my PC's spot the wolves stalking them?"
Can someone confirm how I should run this encounter, as this will be the first time I've had creatures try to sneak up on them, and I am really confused.
This is what I think should happen:
The wolves are trying to sneak up on the party, so for the party to spot them they need to make an opposed Perception vs. Stealth check. Because there are multiple observers (6 PC's and 6 wolves), I think that it come down to the following statement.
IF the best of the PC's Perception checks is less than the worst of the wolves Stealth checks THEN the party fails to spot the wolves sneaking up, and they get to ambush the party with surprise.
Is this the right way to do it? I'm assuming that the wolves are moving slowly, low to the ground through light concealment. Even so, by my reckoning (and without working out the actual maths of it) the wolves do not stand much of a chance at all. Have I missed anything out?
In any case, ambush or not, I am unsure what distance to set up the wolves from the PC's. I kind of worked out the following based on my old 2nd Edition DMG (Why doesn't the 4th edition DMG give me this kind of info?):
Stalking succeeds: Wolves and PC's are placed 1d4 squares apart. Wolves have surprise.
Stalking fails: Wolves and PC's are placed 4d12 squares apart [Normal encounter distance on Moorland].
Whilst using the rules from the old edition provides a quick fix, again, have I missed something in the new books?
"At what distance do my PC's spot the wolves stalking them?"
Can someone confirm how I should run this encounter, as this will be the first time I've had creatures try to sneak up on them, and I am really confused.
This is what I think should happen:
The wolves are trying to sneak up on the party, so for the party to spot them they need to make an opposed Perception vs. Stealth check. Because there are multiple observers (6 PC's and 6 wolves), I think that it come down to the following statement.
IF the best of the PC's Perception checks is less than the worst of the wolves Stealth checks THEN the party fails to spot the wolves sneaking up, and they get to ambush the party with surprise.
Is this the right way to do it? I'm assuming that the wolves are moving slowly, low to the ground through light concealment. Even so, by my reckoning (and without working out the actual maths of it) the wolves do not stand much of a chance at all. Have I missed anything out?
In any case, ambush or not, I am unsure what distance to set up the wolves from the PC's. I kind of worked out the following based on my old 2nd Edition DMG (Why doesn't the 4th edition DMG give me this kind of info?):
Stalking succeeds: Wolves and PC's are placed 1d4 squares apart. Wolves have surprise.
Stalking fails: Wolves and PC's are placed 4d12 squares apart [Normal encounter distance on Moorland].
Whilst using the rules from the old edition provides a quick fix, again, have I missed something in the new books?