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General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Dealing with stupidly high rolls.
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<blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 7383515" data-attributes="member: 7006"><p>The reason why Pass Without Trace doesn't bother me is because all it's doing it removing the bonus 10 points an enemy is getting to their roll from them using Passive Perception. The spell basically is saying that anyone under its influence will almost certainly go unnoticed by enemies just hanging around not actually searching for them.</p><p></p><p>In a lot of ways, PoT is basically just an alternative to "Group checks". The game wants a way for a group of characters to move around without being heard or noticed <em>all</em> the time. But every time they have to roll a check there is a HUGE chance that at least one PC is going to botch them-- rolling 1s, 2s, 3s, etc. And this is especially true of the PCs wearing heavy armor and who have to roll with Disadvantage.</p><p></p><p>Seeing as how this fact means that there will almost always be one or two PCs (or monsters) that will be heard in any group... the game tries to set up various reasons why Surprise and sneaking up on other groups actually can happen. One way is the "group check" in whatever form the DM runs it-- for instance if 50% or more of the PCs roll higher than any potential Passive Perception of the enemies who might hear them, then no one gets heard (regardless of how poorly any one of those individual PCs might have rolled.) Another way was to introduce Pass Without Trace, a spell that basically removed the '10' any enemy "rolled" due to using Passive Perception. This also fairly guarantees most PCs will probably succeed in their Stealth checks more often than not. The only difference being that rather than half the party needing to roll poorly in a "group check" for them to be heard... only a single PC (probably rolling with Disadvantage due to heavy armor) has to roll really poorly (we're talking down in the 1-3s) in order to miss the enemies' Passive Perceptions.</p><p></p><p>The only time where it becomes rather pointless is if the DM uses both PoT and group checks together... because then there is pretty much a 0% chance of the PCs EVER failing a Stealth check and being heard. In cases like this, you pretty much have to assume the DM will put at least a couple monsters "on guard" so that they can try to roll actual Perception checks in hopes of rolling high enough to notice one of them.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="DEFCON 1, post: 7383515, member: 7006"] The reason why Pass Without Trace doesn't bother me is because all it's doing it removing the bonus 10 points an enemy is getting to their roll from them using Passive Perception. The spell basically is saying that anyone under its influence will almost certainly go unnoticed by enemies just hanging around not actually searching for them. In a lot of ways, PoT is basically just an alternative to "Group checks". The game wants a way for a group of characters to move around without being heard or noticed [I]all[/I] the time. But every time they have to roll a check there is a HUGE chance that at least one PC is going to botch them-- rolling 1s, 2s, 3s, etc. And this is especially true of the PCs wearing heavy armor and who have to roll with Disadvantage. Seeing as how this fact means that there will almost always be one or two PCs (or monsters) that will be heard in any group... the game tries to set up various reasons why Surprise and sneaking up on other groups actually can happen. One way is the "group check" in whatever form the DM runs it-- for instance if 50% or more of the PCs roll higher than any potential Passive Perception of the enemies who might hear them, then no one gets heard (regardless of how poorly any one of those individual PCs might have rolled.) Another way was to introduce Pass Without Trace, a spell that basically removed the '10' any enemy "rolled" due to using Passive Perception. This also fairly guarantees most PCs will probably succeed in their Stealth checks more often than not. The only difference being that rather than half the party needing to roll poorly in a "group check" for them to be heard... only a single PC (probably rolling with Disadvantage due to heavy armor) has to roll really poorly (we're talking down in the 1-3s) in order to miss the enemies' Passive Perceptions. The only time where it becomes rather pointless is if the DM uses both PoT and group checks together... because then there is pretty much a 0% chance of the PCs EVER failing a Stealth check and being heard. In cases like this, you pretty much have to assume the DM will put at least a couple monsters "on guard" so that they can try to roll actual Perception checks in hopes of rolling high enough to notice one of them. [/QUOTE]
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