D&D General Has Tiny Hut actually affected your game? Or has it otherwise mattered?

[SkidAce]

They can shoot from inside. Those outside can use tower shields for total cover, terrain features, stealth etc. You don't need to make circle around very brim of the hut. You make one larger so more smoke comes. Or you come to the brink, burrow under the rim, and throw smoke bomb inside ( in 2014 version at least).

Or just build the fire upwind and enjoy the shenanigans.

I did that during a training exercise (smoke, no fire).

"I told you not to use the same route to your LP/OP every time" laughs in instructor...

 

[Blue]

They've had an effect -- they've simplied night resting after many levels were they needed to have watches and all that, so we'd experienced that part of the game just fine, and now it was just "more of the same" that no one around the table really wants to spend more session time on.

It has occasionally caused an aggressor who came across it to change from a nighttime assault to preparing the battleground to ambush them when they come out in the morning. Or just leaving and getting reinforcements. That's changed things, but not to the detriment of the game.

So them doing exactly what others are categorizing as "abuse" has either just been a fork in what's happening or directly positive to the game aspects.

 

[tetrasodium]

PCs tend to be a different breed than just about anything else wandering around. They are typically the SWAT team and special forces which conditions people to act assuming that whatever the GM puts in front of them is a reasonable challenge.

But if I were in the military and spot what I suspect is an enemy encampment while knowing that an enemy has recently been taking out small units left and right? I'd contact the base and call in reinforcements. If I attempt to engage and half the team are casualties? I strategically retreat, aka run back to base as fast as possible which ruins their long rest if using the 2024 rules or my old house rule even if they catch me.

I'm sure someone who is or was in the military can elaborate on this it I'm too far off on any technicalities. An"enemy encampment implies a location ranging from something like:

• a campfire with possible warding and watch of some sort (ie eyeballs actively looking or terrain supplemented with twine/Paracord/fishing like/etc to trip anyone approaching or cause noise through other means. This is on par with an alarm spell survival check and possibly barricaded door
• A fortified structure of some sort that might have walls fences dedicated structures like a lookout tower etc. this is not at all mobile and has no real comparison to a ritual spell that in many ways might be even more defensible.

Tiny hut has the mobility exceeding a tank cargo van Toyota technical and it wasn't that long ago many of us were cheering on Ukrainians who did things like cut the power at the breaker then drive away with a shiny new tank while the tank crew was scouting a building and now trapped in an elevator with no power

 

[AlViking]

I'm sure someone who is or was in the military can elaborate on this it I'm too far off on any technicalities. An"enemy encampment implies a location ranging from something like:

• a campfire with possible warding and watch of some sort (ie eyeballs actively looking or terrain supplemented with twine/Paracord/fishing like/etc to trip anyone approaching or cause noise through other means. This is on par with an alarm spell survival check and possibly barricaded door
• A fortified structure of some sort that might have walls fences dedicated structures like a lookout tower etc. this is not at all mobile and has no real comparison to a ritual spell that in many ways might be even more defensible.

Tiny hut has the mobility exceeding a tank cargo van Toyota technical and it wasn't that long ago many of us were cheering on Ukrainians who did things like cut the power at the breaker then drive away with a shiny new tank while the tank crew was scouting a building and now trapped in an elevator with no power

The whole purpose of patrols is to identify dangerous enemies. Eliminate them if you can, report back if you can't.

But ... there's nothing new here. Sometimes the hut will be useful, other times it won't in my game. If you run it so that works out well for the PCs every time no matter what, I don't think it's an issue caused by the spell. I was attempting to give people ideas of how to deal with it that works for me but apparently people would rather just insist it's broken.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

If you keep running games where every group goes full caster heavy and uses their spells for everything... my guess is that your particular style of DMing makes those choices make the most sense. The players are taking what you are giving them. Now if you are generally cool with all of that, then great! But if these choices of character and their actions of using magic for everything are really starting to get on your nerves and you actually want to stop it... then at this point you should feel free to up the number of Dispels, Counterspells and massive amounts of Anti-Magic areas without guilt. At some point make them wish a least one or two of the players just went Melee. You've put up with this "All magic, all the time" style of game in service of being a "nice DM" this entire time... but if you feel they have been taking advantage of your goodwill and you've grown bored, then feel free to switch things up.

You, could, you know, talk to your playera about your issues?

 

[AlViking]

You, could, you know, talk to your playera about your issues?

Radical concept. I've done this with a few spells - counterspell comes to mind. Had a chat with the group that it was a boring spell and that if the party uses it the NPCs will start doing so as well. We chose not to use it.

 

[jayoungr]

They can simply wait until the next long rest (what 1 day?) and ambush them as the caster is casting tiny hut (it takes 11 minutes, plenty of time for the Abishais) which will likely be just as effective

If they ambushed while the party was asleep, they should catch the PCs prone and without armor, however. That's unlikely to be the case while the spell is being cast.

 

[FrogReaver]

What are the options? Ignore it? Spend hours investigating? Stand around while the characters wipe out the entire patrol?

There are so many variables and different scenarios. The enemy may not find the hut, they may find it 2 minutes before it expires, they may be mindless undead. I'm just answering the same question that repeatedly comes up while the only answer I get is "They notice the hut and take no effective action" or "They're wiped out by the characters and nobody realizes they're missing." That answer may be true some of the time but it will never be the answer all of the time in any game I've ever played in.

You really have 3 options. Make using the spell worse. Make it better. Or make it equal.

Now if you proposed some way to telegraph when it would be better or worse or equal I could get behind that as a meaningful decision point for the players, but when your only reaction is -‘make it worse for the players to have attempted it than not’. That’s a hard pass. I think that’s where 99% of the pushback is coming from.

 

[Seramus]

Radical concept. I've done this with a few spells - counterspell comes to mind. Had a chat with the group that it was a boring spell and that if the party uses it the NPCs will start doing so as well. We chose not to use it.

We ended up doing the same. It was just a non-fun spell, so there was a general agreement to not use it on each other most of the time. It still shows up once in a while to keep things spicy, but nobody prepares it as a regular thing anymore.

 

[FrogReaver]

The whole purpose of patrols is to identify dangerous enemies. Eliminate them if you can, report back if you can't.

But ... there's nothing new here. Sometimes the hut will be useful, other times it won't in my game. If you run it so that works out well for the PCs every time no matter what, I don't think it's an issue caused by the spell. I was attempting to give people ideas of how to deal with it that works for me but apparently people would rather just insist it's broken.

The problem is the fail state for when it is not useful that you are describing is 1) catastrophic failure. All the enemies in the dungeon converge on you at once for using this spell. Whereas without it you might have had your rest interrupted and possibly be ambushed if your watch failed.

It’s also not clear why said patrol wouldn’t go get reinforcements to the same degree if you didn’t have tiny hut up and they found you resting and were themselves unnoticed. The only answer is dm fiat as far as I can tell.