D&D 5E How Would You Run This? (Multiple Saves)

[jayoungr]

A question for DMs. Say you're running a published adventure, and it contains a situation something like this: the PCs are crossing a precarious rope bridge across a chasm, and something or other shakes it, trying to make them fall off. The adventure text says that each PC has to make a DC 10 dexterity save or fall off the bridge into the chasm. Some of your PCs make the save, and some don't.

"Bob," you say, "you fall off the rope bridge and plunge into the chasm."

One of the other players then says, "My character was right next to Bob on the bridge. I reach out and try to grab him."

If this happened at your table, would you allow the additional save [made by the second player], and either way, what would be your reasoning?

If you did allow the additional save, what difficulty would you set it at?

This actually came up in a game I ran tonight. I allowed the second save and set the DC at 17, but I'm still not sure about the whole thing. I could see an argument that PCs would want to do everything in their power to save their buddies, and also that I shouldn't be shutting down player solutions to problems presented by the story. (The latter was the main reason I went ahead and allowed it.} But I could also see an argument that the PCs are supposed to be too busy keeping their own balance to help anyone else. Or, from a mechanical standpoint, that it tilts the danger factor too far in the PCs' favor--as written, there was supposed to be only one failed save between a PC and falling damage, and now suddenly there are two.

 

[DND_Reborn]

Deleted.

 

[jayoungr]

First, if it is so dangerous, why aren't the PCs tied together? If one falls, the others can try to stop it.

Assume they have a good reason. It's not important for the hypothetical situation.

But actually ... if they were tied together, how would that affect the rolls? Should the difficulty of the first save be raised so that one PC falling doesn't drag others off the bridge?

 

[billd91]

How deep is the chasm? Is this a potentially insta-kill? If so, err on the side of easy safe (DC 10 is already pretty favorable) and second chances.
if they’re tied together and one blows the save, maybe give characters next to him a Strength save to hang on.

 

[Charlaquin]

When the something or other shakes the bridge, I would describe what is happening from the PCs perspective, and then ask for their actions, e.g. “a powerful wind blows past, causing the bridge to sway violently and threatening to knock you off. What do you do?” Based on the actions the players describe, I’d call for checks or saves as appropriate. The DC 10 Dex save is a good suggestion and gives me an idea of the baseline difficulty the adventure writer had in mind, but ultimately I’m going to call for whatever makes sense based on the characters’ described actions.

After the players make their checks, I’d narrate the results. In your example it sounds like one player failed their save. If falling and taking damage is the consequence for failure on that save, the consequence should be part of the narrated result. By narrating "you fall off the rope bridge and plunge into the chasm” and waiting for your players to respond rather than saying, “ "you fall off the rope bridge and plunge into the chasm, taking (roll result) damage from the fall,” you have implicitly invited the players to respond with new actions, so of course one or more players would suggest trying to save Bob from falling by catching him.

Now, assuming I had made this same mistake, I would honor the narrative this action declaration had established and resolve the new action. It seems to me like something that could fail and has a clear consequence for failing. Whether or not it could succeed seems a bit more dubious, but the fact that I even offered an opportunity to respond (even if unintentionally) really seems like it’s establishing the possibility that someone might be able to do something in time to save him. So I would probably call for a Dexterity check to resolve the uncertainty here (I allow my players to determine if one of their proficiencies apply, so no need to specify a skill.) This seems like a hard thing to pull off, so I would give it a Hard difficulty - DC 20. The consequence for failure would of course be that Bob falls beyond the other characters’ reach, taking the appropriate amount of damage for the fall.

 

[iserith]

I feel like the time to mitigate failure here was before they started crossing the bridge, hopefully when the DM was telegraphing that the bridge sways unsteadily in the breeze (or is otherwise precarious in some way). So no, by the time I'm asking everyone to make saving throws, it's too late to try to save Bob, barring some kind of special ability a PC might be able to do to save him. This is why adventurer's packs have ropes.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

At the time Jum was losing his grip and falling over the edge, Jane was holding onto the ropes to save herself from the same fate. I'd rule you can't be saving yourself AND someone else at the same time.

If falling into the chasm was most likely a death sentence and the bridge was questionable enough to require saves to cross, I do think it's unfair that it wasn't brought to the players attention before they began crossing.

 

[Hawk Diesel]

I feel like this is what reactions are for. In battle they are fairly well defined in terms of how they can be used. But outside of combat, such as during the explorations or social pillars, reactions still have a place but lose the definition as to how they are or can be used.

Given the scenario you described, I would ask the players what they may attempt to do to save the player that fell. Creativity is encouraged, and using limited resources such as spell slots or Ki increase the chance of success. But rather than allow the falling player to reroll the save, I put the ball in the court of the reacting player(s) based on the course of action they suggest and wish to attempt. If they want to just try and grab them, I would have the helping player roll an Athletics (Dexterity) check. Failure by a certain amount might cause the helping player to join the other one down in the chasm. If a player wants to use something like the levitate spell, I would probably just allow it to work. Or I might want them to roll an Arcana check to see if they can cast the spell quickly enough.

 

[werecorpse]

I suspect I would not have granted a second save for the reasons you stated but I don’t have a problem with granting one. A more fun approach might be to require the person trying to grab hold of the falling pc to have a risk of going over like if they failed by 5 or more they overbalanced and went with the falling PC. Whatever increases the drama.

 

[Tonguez]

Its a heroic game so let them attempt to make the catch - if it succeeds then great, if it fails badly then two people are now falling.

Whatever makes it FUN