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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Saeviomagy" data-source="post: 6841325" data-attributes="member: 5890">I think that the following are true about infiltrations in D&D1. Too many DMs default to "you failed a roll, COMBAT!". This basically means that unless the entire mission is resolved for good or bad with that single roll, you are guaranteeing combat because the chance of rolling a string of successes is diminishingly small. This is largely encouraged by the system: skill rolls are almost entirely presented as success/failure.2. D&D penalizes you for not taking a surprise round, and defines a surprise round as only being available if you detect your enemy before they detect you. So by even attempting a non-combat solution, combined with #1, you've only made your job harder.3. D&D further worsens this by making small groups of monsters wet noodles and assuming that each worthwhile fight requires a small horde of monsters, and that a combat adventuring day requires multiple such hordes. So if a DM wants a mansion that is at all dangerous, he's forced to have it guarded by a large army. That means that the consequences of #1 and #2 are further compounded: you fail a single roll, lose surprise, raise the alarm and you're fighting every creature that you have bypassed on the way to where you are.I think that a DM needs to recognize these things and actively work against them.1. Instead of requiring multiple successes to pass a scenario, allow multiple attempts at success. Example:a) The players are heading in the gate. 2 are dressed up as commoners bringing a wagonload of goods to the castle, the rest are hidden amongst the goods in back. The players have made some effort to forge a manifest.Typical DM approach:Roll for disguise checks - failure starts combatthenRoll a deception check - failure starts combatthenRoll for forgery - failure starts combatthenAll the players in the back of the wagon roll for stealth - failure starts combatA better approach for a DM who wants to have players not just charge in:Decide if you even need to roll for disguise checks - this might be necessary if the players are disguised as specific commoners, but if it's just generic stuff, there's no roll here.If you DO decide to roll, then the commoners are probably recognizable by the guards, who know why they are there and what they're doing. Wave them through on a success.Failure or generic disguises lead to suspicion. The guards ask questions. A success on deception, persuasion or the forgery here means the characters are waved through. The guards are satisfied by the explanation enough that the paperwork is irrelevant, or they're show the paperwork first and it comes out good.Paperwork is bad? Try to talk your way through. Deception check bad? Show them the paperwork!A failure on both leads to the guards investigating the wagon, at which point we're looking at a group stealth check, probably with advantage, because the hiding places were established up front and some care taken.Success on that one might still lead to the players being denied access... but maybe it just leads to the guards taking the wagon up to the house themselves! Failure here is probably the trigger for combat, depending on whom is found. Most likely though, the guards are not keen to pick a fight, because fighting means dying. Dying for money isn't a guard's job, and nor is arresting criminals. So they'll withdraw, tell the characters to wait while they get permission from the house, and contact the city watch/guild heavies/angels of justice. Or maybe the wagon gets directed to wait in the on-site wagon crushing machine.All in all, the characters are now likely to succeed at their plan. Instead of having to succeed 4 checks, which has a 31% chance, even if each check has a 75% chance of success, they now need to succeed at 1. Tension will be heightened with each failed check as they get deeper into it, and finally: They can try another plan even if they completely fail!2. Make surprise rounds easier to get by allowing them even when both sides are aware of each other, as long as they're not expecting an attack at that moment. This encourages diplomacy followed by combat instead of just attacking on sight.3. Change the focus of combat so you don't need to flood the infiltration site with goons. NPC guards should be focused on delay tactics until their offsite and inactive forces arrive, and the focus of the players should be to get what they want and get away before that happens. Neither should be focused on killing the other.</blockquote>

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