D&D 5E Climbing a tower rules 5e

[Charlaquin]

I do think an ability check is need if a single PC wanted to climb the old tower. I WANT a penalty and fear of falling. But you've guys helped answer lots of questions

What @iserith is getting at is that there’s no reason multiple checks should be needed to make the climb. If you think there is a chance of success, chance of failure, and consequence for failure, by all means call for a check. But nothing in the rules suggests that you need to make a check for every increment of your movement climbed. One check for the whole task should do fine.

 

[Nebulous]

Sure. I get it. If you ask for three checks though, you should expect the players to do exactly what they did - avoid climbing - since the chance of failure goes up with each additional check. In the face of the DM's ruling, that is the right course of action in my view.

Yes, I ran the thing wrong, we were all somewhat confused by the vagueness of the rules, and I'm an experienced 5e DM! But always can be better.

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

An old crumbling building with lots of hand holds would be dc 10. Easy to moderate IMO. No check at all or Dc 5 with a knotted rope. The dmg gives DCs. Really, it’s up to you to decide the difficulty and not the DC. Is it easy? The DMG says that’s dc 5-10 (I think). Is it very hard? Dc 20. Is it almost impossible? Dc 30.

you could even throw an investigation check halfway up to see if they notice that a rock will pull lose forcing them to make a dex check to fall 40 feet.

 

[cmad1977]

I didn't even consider that throwing a grappling hook 80 feet was too far. I said they failed a lot before they succeeded, no roll needed. BUT, in retrospect, maybe yes, having one person take the risk to climb up, and then everyone else succeeds automatically would have been a better option. And they had multiple ropes to knot.

And failing the roll maybe isn’t falling but getting discovered at the top! “Oh no! The Athletic one has been ambushed!”

 

[cmad1977]

Except, that as some pointed out, tossing it 80 feet up might have been too far in the first place, and would need someone to risk climbing, no knotted rope, and hook it first.

I mean.... it’s still a pretty epic move though so....

 

[Flamestrike]

Yeah, I should know this by now, but it came up the other day and stumped the group. They wanted to throw a grappling hook on a knotted rope 80 feet up and snag a small window they'd broken. We were trying to figure out how much the knotted rope would help, but the best we could find was that a magic rope of climbing gives you advantage on the climb check. Fine. So I said your grappling hook knotted rope does the same thing. You climb half speed, so to get that far up would be three checks. The tricky part was setting the DC. I said 12, but maybe that was too high with the knotted rope. The fat dwarf cleric wants to climb up too and the player (my brother) wants it easy peasy it's so easy. DC 5 is he thinks is reasonable. Which, I guess back in 3.x a knotted rope does drop the DC to 5. Maybe I should have said DC 8 or 10. I wanted some difficulty of climbing up 80 feet. Failure wouldn't mean you fall, it means you don't make progress and have to make another check.

The fat dwarf had Athletics +5. The rogue only had Athletics +1. They ended up trying something else because it seemed too dangerous to climb a knotted rope that high up.

How should I have handled this better?

Climbing a knotted rope with a wall to brace yourself on is an automatic pass surely? Why even ask for a check?

In 3.5, a knotted rope with a wall to brace on is DC 0.

Climb :: d20srd.org

Leaving aside you can just take 10 on that check anyway, it's impossible to fail unless your Strength score is 7 or lower.

 

[Flamestrike]

Because my brother kept bringing it and his insistence on 3.x rules, which was only complicating stuff in my brain. I wanted a CHANCE of falling, that's all.

See above re 3.x. In 3E there was no chance of falling or failing to climb in this circumstance, presuming they were not rushed, and could take 10. Even if they were rushed and had to roll vs the DC 0, an untrained PC with a Strength of 8 (Climb -1) still automatically succeeds, even on a roll of 1 (1-1=0).

Calling for 3 separate checks against a DC of 5 means an average adult human in good health (Commoner, Str 10) fails to climb a knotted rope with a wall to brace on, and falls off the wall more often than he succeeds.

A single check at DC 5, with failure by 5 or more resulting in a fall would have sufficed if you really must call for a check, meaning that only the -1 Athletics Dwarf was a chance of falling, and only if he rolled a 1.

 

[Flamestrike]

The DC is going to be somewhere >15 (free hanging rope with no handholds/footholds)

DC 15 to climb a free hanging rope? This is something children routinely do at high school, and Soldiers routinely do during basic training:

I dont see kids and soldiers falling off ropes 75 percent of the time they try.

An adult human in good physical condition (Str 10) automatically succeeds in climbing a free hanging rope. The DC (if any) should be no higher than 5, with only failure by 5 or more resulting in a fall (meaning that only weak individuals with no training have a chance of falling).

As long as you're not morbidly obese and are capable of pulling your own body weight up, you just do that, and then scissor lock the rope with your feet, and repeat.

 

[DND_Reborn]

Yeah, I should know this by now, but it came up the other day and stumped the group. They wanted to throw a grappling hook on a knotted rope 80 feet up and snag a small window they'd broken. We were trying to figure out how much the knotted rope would help, but the best we could find was that a magic rope of climbing gives you advantage on the climb check. Fine. So I said your grappling hook knotted rope does the same thing. You climb half speed, so to get that far up would be three checks. The tricky part was setting the DC. I said 12, but maybe that was too high with the knotted rope. The fat dwarf cleric wants to climb up too and the player (my brother) wants it easy peasy it's so easy. DC 5 is he thinks is reasonable. Which, I guess back in 3.x a knotted rope does drop the DC to 5. Maybe I should have said DC 8 or 10. I wanted some difficulty of climbing up 80 feet. Failure wouldn't mean you fall, it means you don't make progress and have to make another check.

The fat dwarf had Athletics +5. The rogue only had Athletics +1. They ended up trying something else because it seemed too dangerous to climb a knotted rope that high up.

How should I have handled this better?

So, I am just replying to the OP without reading everything through, apologies if all of this has been covered...

FWIW, we rule climbing a normal rope is DC 8, a knotted rope would grant advantage at our tables.

Using your two PCs (dwarf and rogue) would yield this (with DC 8 and advantage):

Dwarf (assuming speed 25) would make three checks, needing a 3 or higher (99% with advantage), would make the climb without issue (3 successes) 97% of the time. In my book, that is easy peasy.

Rogue (assuming speed 30) would only need two checks due to Cunning Action Dash, needing a 7 or higher (91% with advantage), would make the climb without issue 82.81%. Not easy peasy since the rogue has a decent chance of not making a check (9%) but still pretty darn easy.

Failure would only risk falling if you failed by 5 or more. So the rogue falls only on a 1 or 2 (1%). I would allow a DEX save DC 10 to catch himself.

So, the dwarf can't fall unless you allow it on double 1's, and the rogue will rarely fall and make it 99.5% of the time over all, even if he might need an extra check.

IMO, the hard part would be getting the grappling hook into a small window 80' high!!!

 

[Flamestrike]

FWIW, we rule climbing a normal rope is DC 8, a knotted rope would grant advantage at our tables.

Failure would only risk falling if you failed by 5 or more.

So in your world, 35 percent of healthy adult humans cant climb a rope, and fully ten percent of healthy adults who try, fall off?

Climbing a rope is something we can reliably do as children.

Unless you're morbidly obese or have a bad shoulder, any reasonably fit and healthy adult human (Str 10) can climb a rope with a near 100 percent chance of success.

We're descended from arboreal apes remember, and we still retain our 'grip' reflex as newborn infants on account of this. Our physiologies make us excellent climbers.

As long as you can lift your own body weight up off the ground, you can climb a rope. A Strength 10 Human has a lifting capacity of 300 lbs, so that's not an issue. He just pulls himself up, locks the rope over one foot with the other foot, and repeats.