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General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Attacking defenseless NPCs
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<blockquote data-quote="iserith" data-source="post: 7626240" data-attributes="member: 97077"><p>You won't ever catch me making a realism argument in D&D of any edition. What I will argue is that it's the DM's call on what mechanic to use to resolve uncertainty as to the outcome and I can make the case for either ability checks or attack rolls here (and have). While it's reasonable behavior in my opinion for players to treat a DM's ruling as precedent, I think it's a simple matter to point out that - in this case right here for reasons - the DM wants an ability check instead of an attack roll. Perhaps because the DM has structured this as an exploration challenge, not a combat challenge, and that the combat rules would be too cumbersome to create the play experience the DM is seeking to support in this moment. In another similar situation, the DM might instead use the combat rules to evoke a different play experience, and that's just fine.</p><p></p><p>But an argument that PC and NPC actions should always be resolved the same way? Nope. Not buying it. Not in D&D 4e or 5e anyway.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="iserith, post: 7626240, member: 97077"] You won't ever catch me making a realism argument in D&D of any edition. What I will argue is that it's the DM's call on what mechanic to use to resolve uncertainty as to the outcome and I can make the case for either ability checks or attack rolls here (and have). While it's reasonable behavior in my opinion for players to treat a DM's ruling as precedent, I think it's a simple matter to point out that - in this case right here for reasons - the DM wants an ability check instead of an attack roll. Perhaps because the DM has structured this as an exploration challenge, not a combat challenge, and that the combat rules would be too cumbersome to create the play experience the DM is seeking to support in this moment. In another similar situation, the DM might instead use the combat rules to evoke a different play experience, and that's just fine. But an argument that PC and NPC actions should always be resolved the same way? Nope. Not buying it. Not in D&D 4e or 5e anyway. [/QUOTE]
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