D&D 5E Camping is dangerous (how can it be made safer?)

[Uder]

There was talk of something along these lines (at least for travelling) in the Legends & Lore articles during the run-up to 5e's release. Hopefully we may see it in the DMG.

...or in the PHB pp182-183.

 

[KidSnide]

It's important for 5e DMs to keep in mind that surprise is a huge deal. Even without PCs sleeping out of armor, being taken in an ambush (day or night) can turn an easy or moderate encounter into a real nail biter. The additional logistics of reacting to a nighttime raid makes the issue even worse. By the same token, the PCs can defeat significantly more difficult foes if they can get a free round of attacks-from-hiding at the beginning of the fight, but that doesn't help when they are the side being taken by surprise.

-KS

 

[Henrix]

I have heard of mutant ninja turtles attacks and don't under estimate squirrels. Just saying.

Always check with your ranger first - the area might be teeming with killer rabbits.

 

[Hand of Evil]

think this is needed...an oldie but goodie...could go with hogzilla

 

[Zaruthustran]

It raised several questions around setting up an effective camp in 5E:

1) Not really a question, but even having another character on watch doesn't seem like it would have helped too much. Being asleep (i.e. unconscious) is nasty bad.

2) What's a reasonable DC for waking up sleepers by yelling? My gut says its "hard", so DC 20. A couple players felt that was too high. Since everyone rolled under 15 or over 20, it wasn't an issue. Feedback welcome, though.

3) Can Alarm be used to effectively protect a camp? It says 20' cube, which isn't much more warning than the rogue had when he yelled. It would have made the "yelling" automatic, but a larger area still seems better. Can the 20' cube be reshaped, say, to a 5' think ring/square that's hollow in the middle. That seems against both RAW and intent, IMO.

4) Does wearing armor negate a long rest (i.e. sleep)? Could the tanks still wear light armor and sleep?

5) How deep is elven trance? I read it as still being effectively asleep. The advantages are that the elf only needs 4 hours and doesn't need to remove armor or lie down.

6) Do familiars need any down time? I ruled that they needed some recharge, so they disappeared for a few hours, but were around for their masters' watch.

7) Any other thoughts on avoiding a dirt nap when taking a long nap in 5E?

Someone else mentioned the tedium of setting up camp. Personally I *love* working out logistics, but it's important to respect the time of everyone at the table. So I strongly encourage you to ask your players to spend time on a single set of Standard Operating Procedures for "setting up camp." That way, the time is spent *once*, and there's never any question of how the camp was set up.

For your specific questions:

2) I agree that nearby, consistent shouting ("Alarm! Alarm! We're under attack! Wake up! To arms!") should automatically wake up sleepers. Certainly, a whistle should be auto-success (and whoever is on watch should have a whistle). But perhaps a single shout should be a DC 20 Perception check.

3) As others have pointed out, Alarm is a Ritual spell. The party wizard should spend an hour casting this 6 times, and create two perimeters (far and immediate). Hey, it gets him out of cooking and latrine-digging duty.

4) I've slept in chain, and I've slept in plate. Chain is easy: it's like sleeping under a heavy blanket. Kind of comfortable, actually. Sleeping in plate sucks. If you're tired enough you can do it, but no one would *want* to. For game mechanics I suggest allowing sleep in light or medium armor with no adverse effects if you're proficient in it. But sleeping in heavy armor two nights in a row introduces one level of exhaustion (but you get the other benefits of a long rest, such as refreshing abilities and such). Keep in mind that anyone in heavy armor is a tough (to meet min Str requirements) professional soldier (proficiency) in a dangerous area who relies on that armor to protect his or her life. They'll put up with discomfort, temporarily.

5) Trance used to be "fully alert" in the playtest, but now I see it's a "deep meditation." I'd treat that as awake, but disadvantage on Perception checks. So they'd definitely notice if someone walked into camp, or the moon turns bright pink, or whatever. But anything non-obvious--anything that requires a roll, such as detecting a sneaking creature--has disadvantage.

6) Familiars are magical creatures. Specifically, fey or fiends. Do fey and fiends need to sleep in your campaign?

7) Develop a Standard Operating Procedure for camp. I suggest: two people on watch with whistles (or one person + elf and/or familiar), layered Alarm spells, a pre-planned escape route and two rally points near ("that standing stone 200 yards away") and far ("the old mill an hour down the road"), sleeping in armor, clever use of Prestidigitation (you can instantly light or douse your campfire, as needed). And some general notions on who cooks, who gathers wood, what state do you leave the camp in (do you try to conceal that you were there, or just pack and go), and so on. This will help the DM figure out how easy it is to track you, and who gets plucked by sprites while hunting kindling.

And don't neglect page 157 and 159 of the PHB. 25gp buys you a guard dog with +3 Perception, and Advantage on hearing and smell checks. 2gp/day will hire a dedicated watchman.

 

[Henrix]

Good points, Zarathustran.

Guard dogs. Love that.


I've always let shouting wake the others automatically. I have let them make Perception rolls to see how fast it got them up.

 

[Beleriphon]

As for lighter armour, it depends. "Leather" is not real historical armour, so it depends on how you envision it. If it's like a leather jacket or coat, then they probably can. Real leather armour, in so much as it existed at all, was boiled leather (or otherwise hardened) and would have been very inflexible - so similar to metal armour, really. I don't think D&D leather is intended to be like this, though.

No, D&D leather armour really is cuir bouilli style armour, although likely just a breast piece and pauldrons (with optional skirt of soft leather). The PHB even calls it out as hardened leather via boiling oil. The stuff was real, and in fact I might even include Macedonian hoplite linothorax as a material as well.

for leather armour, I'd probably rule that they can sleep in it, and metal definitely not, but of course it's up to you how it works in your game world's reality. Perhaps even metal armour is comfortable enough to sleep in (maybe Elven or Dwarven craftsmanship makes for super flexible but tough armour, for example).

Neither chain nor plate are probably very comfy to sleep in, but I'd at least let a character wear the attendant padding and treat it as wearing padded armour if they insist on sleeping in something other than their skivvies.

On a side note, this is why warforged make the best guards. They have to rest for eight hours, but they're fully awake the entire time.

 

[Dausuul]

I generally assume that adventuring PCs are competent soldier-types. They're not going to lie there snoring while the lookout shouts warnings--if necessary, they will sleep close enough that the lookout can kick them awake. When in dangerous territory, they sleep in armor (which real soldiers are quite capable of doing). I'd also say familiars can rest during the day and watch during the night.

 

[Hand of Evil]

3rd Level spells or less that help in camping:

• Alarm
• Continual Flame
• Cordon Of Arrows
• Leomund's Tiny Hut

 

[Henrix]

I'll add some more to that list:

• Animal Friendship (with the right animal - geese are ideal if you ask the Romans)
• Find Familiar
• Find Steed
• Glyph of Warding (though expensive)

Continual Flame, as Hand of Flame says, is very good. Perimeter lights are awesome (even if you have 60' darkvision).


Horses are very skittish animals. They have good hearing and sense of smell.
They survive by running away much more often than necessary.
Few large predators will get close. (And they are often a tastier target.)

Horses are often used to humans and don't fear them so much. So they'll probably not be quite as good against bandits.